America’s Cup : Kiwis Throw In With the Australian Defenders

New Zealand has thrown in with the Australians, and there was a boxing kangaroo flag flying over the Sail America compound today.

The “Sail America Foundation for International Understanding,” that is.

That’s the fund-raising arm of Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes program that finds itself standing alone against the world--at least the bottom half--in its quest for the America’s Cup.

The flag, a symbol of Australia II’s victory at Newport, R.I., in 1983, is a replica of the one Alan Bond declined to let Kookaburra carry into battle against Conner Jan. 31, arousing Kevin Parry’s rage this week.

Once again Thursday, rival syndicate heads were placed at odds when the Kiwis, one of the most formidable challengers in this competition, went over to the enemy. New Zealand’s fiberglass KZ7--the one whose virtues were questioned severely by Stars & Stripes--started trial sailing today to help the defending Kookaburras tune their boat for the showdown with Conner.

So much for international understanding.

“It was a difficult decision,” Kiwi syndicate head Michael Fay said, admitting that he had received “a large number” of calls and messages urging him not to help the Americans remove the cup from Down Under.

Sail America chief Malin Burnham, realizing that Fay was “caught in a very difficult position,” said he proposed the same thing, with an additional request: Don’t help the Australians, either.

If Fay was in a tight spot, Burnham helped put him there. Burnham said he had called on “people in high political places” in the U.S. to have their New Zealand counterparts appeal to Fay.

There also were reports that Burnham alternately offered Fay the opportunity to be challenger of record in 1990, should Stars & Stripes win the cup, and also suggested that if the Kiwis helped the Aussies, they would be as welcome in San Diego as an American nuclear warship is in Auckland.

Burnham denied both points. What bothered him most, Burnham said, was that the original 13 challengers had agreed to help their survivor “unanimously” at a meeting in June 1985, which neither he nor Fay attended.

Fay said: “Stars & Stripes (Burnham) indicated that we should be bound to a precedent established in Newport, where challengers sometimes assisted each other. When the America’s Cup came to Perth, the event changed and we are all in the process of setting new precedents. We are under no obligation.”

New Zealand sailing with the Australians “is no big deal,” Burnham said. “It’s just disappointing on a human scale of loyalty, commitment, honor and such attributes . . . when someone says they’ll do one thing and they do something else.”

According to Burnham, there was no problem with the Kiwi crew, which had the Stars & Stripes crew over for a barbecue and swim the day after the last race.

“It became clear that the Kiwi crew would like to support us,” Burnham said.

That raises an interesting point: How hard will the Kiwis really try to help the Kookaburras?

Even if they do give it their best, it’s also questionable how much difference it will make in the outcome.

Conner said: “From straight-line speed, they’re going to learn they’re either faster, slower or the same, and there’s not a heck of a lot you can do about that. It will just give them an idea of where they stand.”

And since Stars & Stripes knows exactly where it stands against KZ7, all it has to do is watch the trials over the next few days.

“It goes both ways,” Conner said. “We’re not going to have our head in the sand if they’re out there sailing against each other, I can promise you that.”

There are ways.

“The helicopter is not the most effective,” Conner said. “A small rubber boat is the easiest way to monitor.”

Ken Court, a director of the Kookaburra syndicate, said, smiling: “We have a fleet of helicopters and several rubber boats, as well as some underwater vehicles we haven’t used yet.”

One of Parry’s enterprises is the production of Remotely Operated Vehicles, some of which were used to locate the wreck of the Titanic and the Challenger space shuttle debris.

Are they down there checking out Conner’s keel?

While Stars & Stripes ’87 was in the work shed, Conner and his crew took S&S; ’85 out for sail testing today, with Kookaburra III and KZ7 nearby.

Burnham said: “We might sail S&S; ’85 over there to play.”

Court was glad for New Zealand’s support and contradicted Burnham’s opinion about the importance of it.

“We’re talking very fine differences between winning and losing,” he said. “KZ7 will be a very good benchmark for us to have the boat tweaked up properly.”

America’s Cup Notes

New Zealand’s assistance to Kookaburra will be limited to sailing trials, Michael Fay said. No technical information will be turned over. . . . Stars & Stripes chief Malin Burnham, noting that Kookaburra has the option of sailing Kookaburra II in the finals, said: “We’d love to see ‘em do that. They won’t know enough about that boat by (Monday night).” That’s the deadline for a decision. . . . Ben Lexcen, designer of Australia II, III and IV, indicated he is retiring from the 12-meter game. “I’m not in the best of health,” Lexcen said, “but I’m healthier than that jerk we watched on TV the other night.” Undoubtedly, he referred to Kookaburra boss Kevin Parry, who attacked Alan Bond. . . . In current polls, Channel 7 viewers in West Australia were asked if they still supported Parry’s Kukaburra campaign, after his outburst against Bond. The “yesses” had it, 11,386 to 7,859. However, the newspaper West Australian said letters were running 3 to 1 against Parry.