New Zealand Wins One After a Hard Grind

Probably nobody on earth can name the offensive linemen of the New York Giants and Denver Broncos and the winch grinders on Stars & Stripes and New Zealand’s KZ7, but they have a lot in common. You can’t go to a Super Bowl without blockers or to an America’s Cup without grinders.

When the battle turns from wits to the pits, “they’re the heroes,” says Peter Isler, the navigator on the San Diego boat, of the men who operate the winches used for trimming sails. They are busiest when the boats are tacking.

The rival grinders went beyond the call Friday with 131 tacks--believed to be the most ever in America’s Cup competition--after a faulty $50 halyard shackle let Dennis Conner’s spinnaker fall into the sea and turned another apparent runaway into a 38-second victory for New Zealand. That cut Stars & Stripes’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven challenger finals.

Was the mishap caused by the Haka war dances by 14 painted Maori warriors at the dock?

Or the Tangaroa (god of the sea) posters and T-shirts suddenly springing up all over town?

Or the hundreds of thousands of messages from New Zealand?

Perhaps all of those imported forces combined to produce the Kiwi magic that opened the shackle and created a memorable race. There also was irony involved.

“That’s what we get for using a spinnaker from the New York Yacht Club,” said Mort Bloom, Stars & Stripes’ rules adviser.

The white chute with the red and blue stripes across the belly indeed was borrowed from the America II boat that was eliminated in the trial rounds. Bowman Scott Vogel attached the shackle to it as Stars & Stripes approached the first windward mark, buffeted by 18-knot winds building to 22.

“It didn’t feel right, so I took it apart and put it back on again,” Vogel said. “By the time I did that, we were at the mark. We got the jib about halfway down, and then the spinnaker came down. I had a pretty good idea what it might have been.”

When Vogel went up the mast to retrieve the halyard, he found the shackle open.

“Maybe a piece of the yarn we use for spinnaker stops got in there, so it couldn’t close,” Vogel said.

Whatever it was, the shackle will be removed and, as tactician Tom Whidden said, “put to sleep.”

“We’ll throw it as far out in the harbor as we can,” Isler said.

A fitting and honorable resting place. One of the grinders should get the honor.

The grinders’ tool is like a set of reversed bicycle pedals. Every time a 12-meter tacks, the grinders--two on each side in heavy winds--whirl the handles frantically to trim in the headsail on the new side, while the tailer pulls the sheet around the winch.

They did it only 10 times on the first windward leg but then, with Conner persistently tacking and attacking, trying to force the Kiwis into an error, they did it 35, 31 and a muscle-bursting 55 times on the other three drives to weather.

But the Kiwis never faltered while Stars & Stripes, fighting KZ7’s wake and windage, yielded inches grudgingly.

“It was death,” Stars & Stripes grinder Henry Childers said. “An all-time gruel.”

It wasn’t Conner against Dickson anymore, but grinders against grinders.

“We knew this would come up sooner or later,” Stars & Stripes’ Jim Kavle said. “We didn’t want to let them get to us. I think we showed them we could hold our own.”

Kavle added: “I’ve got a lot of buddies back in Philadelphia who were watching on TV until 4 a.m. They’re going to be as tired as I am tomorrow.”

That kind of race, of course, is what the Kiwis trained for, too. They often do 100 tacks on their way home from practice sails.

“They’ve done 157 consecutive tacks in practice,” spokesman Peter Debreceny said.

New Zealand also held the upper hand at the start. Dickson, deftly maneuvering his fiberglass 12-meter, had Conner stuffed in his wind shadow and six seconds behind, but the San Diego sailor soon escaped and forced Dickson to tack away. Then, on his fourth attempt, Conner achieved a port tack crossing to take the lead and round the first mark 21 seconds ahead.

Then the spinnaker fell. Less than two minutes later, Conner’s crew had it rehoisted on another halyard, but the Kiwis were already on top of him.

Meanwhile, Conner developed another problem when the block and tackle that pulls his mast forward for downwind efficiency broke, giving Dickson a slight edge in speed.

Picking the moment to make his move near the end of the run, Dickson slid across Conner’s wind, claimed the inside position by a mere six feet and rounded the mark six seconds in front.

Conner tried to fight him off by sailing lower off the wind than normal, and Dickson quickly flew his protest flag, claiming that Conner was sailing “below a proper course for the mark.”

Because Dickson won, the protest was never filed, but even Conner’s camp conceded that the Kiwis had a good case.

That wasn’t the end of the race, though. There were 21 miles to go, but instead of a battle of boat speed, it became a test of the grinders’ muscle and resolve.

Conner said: “A lot of people ask why I like this so much. Today’s race was as enjoyable as it could be, being on the short end.

“It’s good to get a little blood on the deck so our guys could find out what it’s gonna be like in two weeks (against the Australian defender).”