San Diego Running Hard for America’s Cup

Everything seems to be falling into place for Sail America.

At about the same time that the Hawaii state legislature was committing $60 million to develop America’s Cup facilities for 1990-91, the San Diego Unified Port District was promising “to do whatever it takes” to hold the defense in San Diego.

“We are prepared to spend whatever Hawaii spends and more,” said Dan Larsen, vice president for facilities.

Meanwhile, the San Diego Yacht Club was so suspicious of the motives of Sail America (Dennis Conner, Malin Burnham and company) that it stacked the defense committee with local loyalists to ensure that the event would be held at home, at the expense of all other considerations.

Commodore Fred Frye told reporters: “It’s ludicrous to think about having it anywhere else.”

Sandy Purdon, the former executive director of Sail America, said: “I think it’s gotten to be a little silly.”

Silly, perhaps. Emotional, for sure. Unhappy with a proposed compromise committee, Sail America has said it will take its case to an arbiter.

Purdon resigned his Sail America position out of implied conflict of interest. He is now on the city’s America’s Cup Task Force. He also will become the club’s commodore in 1991 at the time of the next defense.

“I think we ought to pick the venue, pick it as San Diego, and then we can bring in all these other guys to give (the committee) that global look that Sail America wants,” Purdon says. “The only thing the (yacht club) board is concerned about is that there’s some hidden agenda (by Sail America) about not having the venue in San Diego.

“It’s our responsibility to our membership and to the city to do our best to ensure that the venue is here. Then Sail America can go and do the job of managing the event, which we want them to do, with the club as sort of a watchdog. We don’t want to be involved in the management of the event.”

But did Purdon really have a conflict? Have Conner or Burnham ever come right out and said they wanted to take the races to Hawaii?

No, but neither did they say they wouldn’t, if they could. Purdon and others feel that Conner and Burnham have left them somewhat in the dark, and their stance has created an element of distrust.

“I’m at a loss to know what they’re seeking,” Purdon says. “We’re a little nervous about the signals that we’re getting.”

But perhaps instead of trying to maneuver the cup defense to Hawaii, Sail America has just been maneuvering San Diego into an all-out commitment.

Flash back to January, when Burnham said in Fremantle that if Stars & Stripes won the cup, the defense wouldn’t necessarily be in San Diego. At the time, the city was dragging its feet on supporting a possible defense, and Burnham’s comment put it on sharp notice to shape up--which, obviously, it has.

Last week, the task force took visiting media on a tour of proposed facilities by bus, boat and helicopter.

They flew low over the proposed race courses off Pt. Loma to show that the dreaded kelp was only a problem within a mile or so of shore.

They brought in veteran sailboat racer Dan Brown from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography to testify for a “10- to 11-knot sea breeze that we can bank on nearly every day (and) has made for excellent racing for 100 years around here.”

Those presentations were meant to dismiss concerns voiced in Fremantle by Burnham, who knew better because he has sailed around San Diego all his life.

What does the owner of a baseball or football franchise do when he wants a better stadium? He threatens to move his team.

Whether by accident or design, Sail America merely applied the proven ploy to another sport. Hawaii cooperated beautifully, and the desired results were achieved.

Sail America’s move toward arbitration may not seem to fit the scenario, or it could only suggest that it wants even greater control than the club is willing to grant, and at least wants other sites to be considered.

But the day it’s announced that the cup will be defended in San Diego, Conner and Burnham, the hometown heroes, will say they couldn’t be more pleased.

Sailing Notes

AHMANSON CUP SERIES--Twenty boats are entered in the Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s 30th Ahmanson Cup International Offshore Rule handicap event over the next two weekends, under the sponsorship of Home Savings. The courses will run from 18 to 32 miles, depending on wind, passing Pt. Fermin and Catalina Island. Winners of the last four events are back: Michael Wathen’s Defiance, Balboa YC, in ‘86; Greg Joy’s Tinderbox, Little Ships Fleet of Long Beach, skippered by Bob Burkhardt in ‘84-85, and Dick Ettinger’s Free Enterprise, Newport Harbor YC, ’83. Other leading entries include Bill Twist’s Blade Runner from St. Francis YC, Don Hughes’ Quintessence from Santa Barbara YC and John Arens’ Tomahawk, Balboa. Some other historic names decorate the cup. Dick Steele’s Odyssey was the first winner in ‘57, followed by Howard Ahmanson’s Sirius in ‘58, Don Haskell’s Chubasco in ‘71, Bill Ficker’s Yellow Brick Road in ’74 and Dennis Choate’s Bingo in ’77. The ’64 winner was Gene Trepte.