Smyth Has a Month of Breaks--Good and Bad

As the world’s most successful catamaran sailor over the last several years, Randy Smyth knows all about the fortunes of sailing, but the past month has been ridiculous.

On Monday, Smyth, 32, a Huntington Beach sailmaker, had to drop out on only the second day of the Worrell 1000, a 14-day, 1,000-mile race up the Atlantic Coast from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to Virginia Beach, Va.

Smyth, with crew Jay Glaser, won the ’85 event in record time. He was sailing this one on an experimental, 20-foot craft with planing hulls, with Greg Richardson as crew. But the boat, late from the builder, wasn’t launched until Saturday, the day before the event, and on the first test sail, the mast step (a support at the base) cracked, and Smyth was up until 5 a.m. repairing it.

Barely under way the next day, the custom-built mast snapped in two. Smyth found another mast to sail the first 98.2-mile leg and rerigged the boat with still another mast right up until race time Monday.

He had worked his way up from last place to fourth in the fleet of 17 when a hull broke.

“We just sailed it up on the beach, put it on the trailer and came home,” Smyth said.

Earlier, Smyth and Glaser, Olympic silver medalists in ‘84, went to Hyeres on the south coast of France to compete in the 19th annual Tornado Olympic Week. Smyth knew he would have to leave after four of the six races to go to the Worrell but thought it would be worth the effort.

He and Glaser placed 2-3-2-2 to grab a big lead in the series but didn’t think it would stand up when they missed the last two.

However, as Glaser stayed on to watch, the wind died and the last two races were never sailed. Smyth won the event while 7,500 miles away.

“I walked back into the office and saw a gold medal on my desk,” Smyth said. “Jay had brought it back. I said, ‘Wow, we must have won.’ ”

Smyth’s next campaign will be to return to Europe as defending champion in the professional Formula 40 series in June.

A 17-man French crew is working seven days a week to finish the new boat he’ll sail.

“I hope it’s ready,” said Smyth, who is eager for a routine event.

At least one other potential American syndicate is stirring to challenge Dennis Conner for the right to defend the America’s Cup.

The key people at the moment are Dennis Durgan of Irvine and Bill Packer, the Philadelphia oilman who headed the America II campaign for the New York Yacht Club.

Durgan was Conner’s tactician aboard the victorious Freedom in 1980 and worked briefly with America II as a sparring partner helmsman for John Kolius at Fremantle. Packer won a lot of respect for running a first-class operation and losing so graciously.

“I’m looking into it,” Durgan said. “We’re doing a feasibility study. I’d direct the sailing side of the thing. . . . and try out as the skipper.”

One factor may discourage other American efforts. Under the current arrangement, the club that wins the cup retains custody until it is lost to a challenger from another country. Any defender, if successful, must continue to defend for the club that holds the cup.

San Diego got a chance to win it only because New York lost it in ’83. All of the other American syndicates went to Fremantle in ‘86-87 with the hope of bringing the cup home to San Francisco, Newport Beach, the Great Lakes or back to Newport, R.I., in ’91.

“Should you successfully defend the cup for the San Diego Yacht Club,” Durgan said, “you would like to be able to determine the site for the next defense.”

After Fremantle, Golden Gate’s Tom Blackaller and Heart of America’s Buddy Melges said the same thing about trying for the cup again: “If I won, why would I want to go defend it for San Diego?”

Durgan hopes the policy will be changed to encourage wider participation. It’s up to the San Diego Yacht Club.

Durgan said Packer “is not coming in until they settle on the rules.”

Sailing Notes COLLEGE--UC Irvine sailors, led by Jon Pinckney of Balboa Island, will compete in the national collegiate championships at Kings Point, N.Y., starting May 20. The Anteaters qualified by winning the recent Pacific Coast regatta at Berkeley with 65 points, followed by California with 85, Stanford 95, Orange Coast 97 and USC and Hawaii, both with 111. Sailing Flying Juniors, Pinckney won the “A” division by alternating crews of Jackie Landsman, Connie McKivett and Bryant Sih, matching weight for wind strength in 11 races over two days. Nick Scandone of Huntington Beach won the “B” group, alternating Mark Newell and Mark Barnard as crew. Pinckney and Mike Sturman of Northridge, in separate boats, also won the team racing to qualify for the nationals in that category.

SPEED SAILING--The second United States Speedsailing Grand Prix at Long Beach has been moved back a week to June 20, to accommodate Prime Ticket cable TV. “Moving the dates is a small inconvenience to pay for the opportunity to be the only sailing race outside of the America’s Cup to get this kind of coverage in the U.S.,” said George Kolesnikovs, general race chairman. Prime Ticket has scheduled a two-hour showing for June 28, at 7:30 p.m.

AMERICA’S CUP--Hawaii is campaigning hard to host the next defense, although it faces a difficult fight to win over the San Diego-stacked defense committee. A story in the Honolulu Advertiser said the state house passed a resolution approving $30 million “or as much as is necessary” to stage the event. State senators also offered to build a new 50-acre island in Keehi Lagoon, if Hawaii gets the bid, to accommodate the necessary facilities. . . . In the dispute between the SDYC and Sail America over the makeup of the defense committee that will run the next event, Warren Jones offers some relevant thoughts. Jones, the highly respected director of Alan Bond’s Australia IV effort, was interviewed for a British-produced cup review shown on cable TV here. “I’m personally very concerned about the whole 12-meter thing,” Jones said. “I think it is far too big for yacht clubs. See, yacht clubs are amateur concerns with men that join yacht clubs to sail their boats. The 12-meter business is a business of incredible size. It’s a 200- to 300-million-dollar business every three years. I think it’s too big for amateur yacht clubs to be involved in, and I believe that the 12-meter association will ultimately finish up with some form of superior ruling body of their own to control this monster. All of a sudden, countries around the world recognize that with innovation and drive and motivation, somebody could take on what was considered previously to be invincible and win. I think the event can be bigger than what it is.”

SHOWTIME--The Southern California Marine Assn. spring boat show runs today through May 17 at the Fairplex on the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds at Pomona. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children 6-12, free for under 6. Hours are 2-10 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays.

OLYMPICS--Two early favorites to represent the United States in ’88 are John Kostecki of Pt. Richmond, Calif. and Vince Brun of San Diego. Both are current world champions, Kostecki in Soling and Brun in Star. Most recently, Kostecki won the Soling nationals at Forney, Tex., and Brun, with Hugo Schreiner, his fifth Bacardi Cup at Miami, Fla. Kostecki, 23, has waged a relentless campaign since placing eighth as a latecomer in the ’84 trials. Brun may be even more determined. A former citizen of Brazil, he couldn’t compete in the ’84 U.S. trials because of a U.S. Olympic Committee technicality but has been the world’s dominant Star sailor since.

NOTEWORTHY--Talk about tough rules. In the recent Bacardi Cup for Stars at Miami, King Constantine of Greece and crew Paul Elvstrom, the four-time Olympic gold-medal winner, were among several boats disqualified on the “black flag rule” for crossing the starting line prematurely after a series of general recalls. No restarts were permitted.

FOR THE RECORD--Peter Isler, the navigator on Stars & Stripes at Fremantle, is competing in the Royal Lymington Cup match-racing series in England this week, not the Grundig Cup in France, as reported last week. The Grundig starts May 25. The standings after the first day of the Lymington: Chris Dickson, New Zealand, 5-0; Peter Gilmour, Australia, and Chris Law, England, 4-1; Isler, Eddie Owen, Wales, and Phil Crebbin, England, 3-2; Christian With, Norway, 2-3; Nick Ryley, England, 1-4, and Tim Law, England, and Alex Hagen, West Germany, 0-5.