America’s Cup Questionnaire: Topical or Tropical?

The winds of war, America’s Cup style:

John Marshall, a Sail America trustee who headed the Stars & Stripes design team, is circulating an America’s Cup questionnaire. It seems somewhat loaded to make a case for having the 1991 defense somewhere besides San Diego.

Say, Hawaii.

The four-page form, prepared by a Greenwich, Conn. marketing and research firm, poses such questions as, “The America’s Cup should be held in the local waters of the defending yacht club, regardless of the sailing conditions there.” (agree/disagree).

And, “The strong winds and big waves (of Fremantle)” contributed greatly/somewhat/not at all (to the interest generated in the competition).

The questionnaire also asks whether the Cup should be defended in the home waters of the winning yacht club or wherever the defender would have the best chance to defend, overlooking the third option: the best site for a successful event .

Dr. Fred Frye, commodore of the San Diego Yacht Club, said, “I have no comment on that questionnaire.”

Marshall said: “There’s no attempt to steer opinions. On the contrary, we’re trying to get a good sampling of opinions from different perspectives.”

The survey, Marshall added, is aimed more at developing marketing strategies, wherever the defense is held, and, “The high probability is that it’s going to be in San Diego.”

It may be moot, depending on what happens with the challenge filed last weekend by New Zealand’s Michael Fay to race for the Cup next June in new, giant boats.

The questionnaire is timely because Dennis Conner just got clobbered in light air in the 12-meter world championships at Sardinia, Italy, where Stars & Stripes searched in vain for the blustery Fremantle-like winds that carried it to victory in Australia.

And yet Conner said this week, “It takes more sailing skills (and) more skill in tactics to sail in light air . . . more finesse in getting more out of your boat, where in heavy air it takes more experience and seamanship.

“I’m not saying which is more difficult, but if you believe you have the best racing sailors you would have more of an advantage in light wind than strong wind.”

If Conner sounded as if he preferred to defend at home in San Diego, contrary to suspicions, he is still coy on the subject.

“It doesn’t matter what I prefer because they haven’t even asked me,” he said. “I don’t think they intend to ask me if they haven’t asked me by now.”

Whether the choice of site will be influenced by Stars & Stripes’ mediocre performance in light wind at Sardinia is doubtful.

Conner, who had said he anticipated struggling in light air, said, “We knew the results before we went there.”

Skill had little to do with it. The big, blue boat sailed like a dump truck in the Mediterranean zephyrs.

“We were at a disadvantage because we had a boat that was a foot longer on the waterline than everyone else,” Conner said. “The same thing that gave us an advantage (in Fremantle) put us at a disadvantage in 4 knots of wind in Sardinia.”

The finalists were KZ-7 of New Zealand and Bengal, the former Australia III now owned by a Japanese and crewed by Australians.

The crews spent a lot of time in sail redevelopment to be competitive for the worlds, whereas Stars & Stripes was just making an appearance, with a minimum of preparation and expense.

Conner, in his new role as America’s Cup entrepreneur, thought it was important for the champion to be there, flying his sponsors’ spinnakers.

Some minor modifications were made on the boat but, Conner said, “We didn’t buy any new (light air) sails.”

The old ones, particularly the billboard chutes, showed up on last Sunday’s one-hour ABC taped highlights show of the three-week event. The program was packaged by Dennis Conner Sports Marketing Inc. For a boat that went 0-3 after barely reaching the semifinals, viewers saw quite a bit of his boat and precious little racing.

Bill Trenkle, a tailer on Stars & Stripes who now works full time for Conner as boat manager, said, “Most of the other budgets for the worlds were higher than ours.”

But as they realized how much slower they were in light air, they got embarrassed, and they got desperate.

“We decided to take some weight off, strip as much gear, every spare part, every sail that we definitely didn’t need,” Trenkle said. “We carried only one bottle of drinking water, took off all the foul weather gear and jackets . . . just sailed with what we had on our backs.

“Then we decided to get any more weight off we’d have to take some people off.”

Conner left navigator Peter Isler, mainsheet trimmer Jon Wright and two grinders at the dock to sail with a crew of seven, including himself. They had to scramble, but in light air it was manageable.

Stars & Stripes dropped about 1,500 pounds but was still the Fridge of the fleet at about 30 tons. Bengal was about 9,000 pounds lighter by dumping off so much excess ballast that its new waterline measured only 43 1/2 feet, which would have been a half-foot illegally short for the America’s Cup but was still OK by the 12-meter class rules.

New Zealand’s fiberglass KZ-7, with Coronado’s Rod Davis calling tactics for skipper David Barnes, concentrated on cutting new light-air sails.

“They’ve always been better than us as an all-round boat,” Isler said.

“But of all the boats there, far and away the most impressive was Kookaburra II. In 10 to 15 knots, they were much faster than any other boat.”

Sailing Notes

AMERICA’S CUP--Before leaving again to sail Frenchman Jacques Dewailly’s Frers-72 Emeraude on the world maxi circuit in Europe, Dennis Conner said there was little chance that New Zealand’s challenge for next year will be valid. “Not from what I know about the Deed of Gift,” Conner said. “There was an addendum that (former New York Yacht Club Commodore Bob) McCullough put in in ’74 that said you can’t sail for the Cup any more (often) than every three years.” But San Diego YC Commodore Fred Frye was treating the challenge seriously. “Well . . . he’s out of his league,” Conner said. “I can’t imagine the club accepting it under any circumstances.” . . . Stars & Stripes crewman Bill Trenkle says of the proposal to sail the Cup in boats that would be throwbacks to the J-boats of the ‘30s, “No way it’s going to happen. We’re just having fun with it. But we could field a great crew. I think there were 60 guys sailing on the J-boats. You didn’t even know most of the crew. The big problem may be if there’s enough kevlar to build a mainsail for a J-boat. It’s like 10 times the amount of a 12-meter.” . . . Its original Defense Committee dissolved by an arbitrator, the San Diego YC discussed a new list of nominees from Sail America this week. . . . Sail America has hired Tom Ehman as chief operating officer. Ehman was the executive director of the America II campaign and, before that, the executive director of the United States Yacht Racing Union. . . . Amateur Hour: San Francisco has proposed to host the ’91 defense, but it’s difficult to take seriously. The first paragraph of a press release misspells “Connor” and “Freemantle.” . . . America’s Cup Report says that New Zealander Bruce Farr, a U.S. resident who helped design the fiberglass KZ-7, has had overtures from Conner and others for a ’91 boat.

12-METER WORLDS--A straw vote of competitors was split on San Diego and Hawaii as the next America’s Cup site. Australia’s Warren Jones, who ran Alan Bond’s campaigns, said, “If you’re going to beat Dennis, beat him in his own ground. I think it would be a lot more pressure for him to (defend) in San Diego.” . . . New Zealand’s winning skipper, David Barnes, who replaced Chris Dickson after the America’s Cup, was the world 470 dinghy champion in 1983 and ’84 but failed to qualify for the Olympics. . . . The five-man class technical committee that included Stars & Stripes’ John Marshall and Kookaburra’s Iain Murray recommended that fiberglass be banned, but the membership overruled them.

OLYMPICS--A year from the Games, prospects are dim for the U.S. approaching its spectacular ’84 performance of three gold medals and four silvers in the seven classes. In recent world championships at Kiel, West Germany, John Kostecki of Alameda, Calif. was a close second in the Solings to West Germany’s Helmar Nauck; Pease Herndon, Springfield, Ill. was runner-up in the new women’s 470 class, and Brian Ledbetter, San Diego, was third in Finns. But top-rated Americans Morgan Reeser, Miami, and J.B. Braun, Marblehead, Mass., were 11th in men’s 470 and sixth in Flying Dutchman, respectively. Huntington Beach’s Randy Smyth, the ’84 silver medalist, didn’t compete in Tornados, where Pete Melvin, Long Beach, was 15th. Star is still America’s strongest class. San Diego’s world champion, Vince Brun, won the European championships with three firsts, followed by Mark Reynolds in second and John MacCausland fifth.

MATCH RACING--New Zealand’s Chris Dickson, fired by his country’s America’s Cup syndicate after Fremantle, missed the 12-meter worlds but won the King Edward VII Gold Cup at Bermuda last week. Sailed in 33-foot International One-Design 33s, with crews of four plus the skipper, it’s one of eight events on the World Cup circuit. Dickson defeated John Shadden of Long Beach, 2-0, in the finals, but more interesting was the performance of Yasuyuki Hakomori, who probably will be one of Japan’s rookie America’s Cup skippers in ’91. In a field diluted by the concurrent 12-meter worlds, Hakomori reached the semifinals before losing two straight to Dickson. Shadden defeated Dave Perry in the semifinals, 2-0. In round-robin sailing, the scores were Dickson, 8-1; Perry and Shadden, 7-2; Dave Dellenbaugh and Hakomori, 5-4; Rich DuMoulin and Bermuda’s Peter Bromby, 4-5; Mark Eagan, 3-6, and defending champion Gordon Lucas of Australia and Tim Patton, Bermuda, 2-7. Winds were 12-18 knots until the day of the semifinals when a storm blew through at 60, damaging several boats.

NOTEWORTHY--Major events within the next week include the J-24 North American championships at San Francisco, the Snipe nationals at Lawrence, Kan. and the Lido 14 nationals at Buckeye Lake, Ohio . . . The South Shore YC’s 11th annual Crew of Two Around Catalina Race is scheduled Saturday and Sunday, starting at 11 a.m. 200 yards south of the Balboa Pier . . . Shoreline Village Marina in Long Beach has its American Boating Jubilee ’87 starting today through Aug. 2. The show features more than 350 sail and power boats, 100 of which will be in the water. Free sailing demonstrations and lessons will be offered. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children, under 6 free. Free tickets valid next Monday through Thursday are available from boat dealers and marine hardwares that belong to the Southern California Marine Assn. . . . Rob Hallawell of the U.S. Naval Academy is the U.S. Yacht Racing Union’s intercollegiate sailor of the year.