Sailing : Kiwis Are Still Awaiting Answer to Challenge
Six weeks after New Zealand banker Michael Fay challenged the San Diego Yacht Club to defend the America’s Cup next June in new, big boats, he is still waiting for a reply.
Fay’s aide, Peter Debreceny, said by phone from Auckland this week: “The way we see it, they are deliberately trying to avoid saying no, but they’re also clearly not trying to say yes, either.”
The problem is that the club doesn’t know what to say. According to the terms of the Deed of Gift that governs the Cup, Fay’s stunning challenge seems perfectly in order, although it defies recent tradition of conducting defenses every three or four years.
Defending the Cup next June in superboats is the last thing the club wants to do, so, yes, it is out of the question. But SDYC Commodore Fred Frye conceded, “We have not formally denied their challenge.”
Turning Fay down flat would no doubt send him rushing to the New York State Supreme Court, which looks after the deed.
So, instead, the club has stalled, while Fay builds his boat, listens for the phone and watches the mailbox.
Fay hasn’t said much about his boat, except that it will conform to the Cup maximum of a 90-foot waterline and is being designed by Bruce Farr, the Annapolis, Md.,-based Kiwi who created the fast fiberglass 12-meters that shook up the 12-meter fraternity off Fremantle, Australia, last winter.
He also has said that it will measure 120 feet overall--nearly twice the length of a 12-meter, a size that invites comparisons to the J-boats of the 30s--and will have a 150-foot mast to support five times the sail area of a 12.
Farr’s associate, Talbot Wilson, estimates that the boat will be half again as fast as a 12, so fast that it will outrun the wind on a broad reach (sailing diagonally downwind).
Even Gerry Driscoll, a San Diego boat builder who is chairman of the club’s defense committee, concedes that by any definition it will be “one hell of a boat.”
Construction has been scheduled to start next week. Wilson estimates that the boat will cost between $3 million and $5 million. Driscoll would have guessed as much.
“I know in round numbers what it costs to build racing boats by the pound,” Driscoll said. “Right around 10 bucks a pound for just the boat. And then you have to outfit it with sails and electronics.”
Fay isn’t saying how much his boat will weigh.
“I can tell you what a J-boat weighed--what Ranger weighed: 163 tons,” Driscoll said.
That would compute to $3.26 million, stripped. But Fay has said his won’t be a J-boat.
“It’ll be lighter than that,” Debreceny said.
At any weight, a $5-million boat, plus an equal amount to run the program, could be expected to chase the financial lightweights out of the America’s Cup.
Debreceny, however, disagreed. “The difference is one of time,” he said. “If you have a multi-boat, four-year-long 12-meter program, with all the computer time and tank testing and wind tunnel testing, the cost is horrendous. We think maybe $50 million U.S. dollars if you’re looking at 1991. The overall cost of this program is probably only 20% (of that figure).”
It seems a huge gamble to build such a boat before anyone knows there will be a race in ‘88, but Debreceny said that Alan Bond, who won the Cup for Australia in ‘83, also will start building one next month, as will Britain’s Peter de Savary.
And, Debreceny said, “I can’t conceive of an American organization not being prepared to accept a challenge. This must be giving them some concern.”
Fay said in a press release this week: “I expect a formal response Thursday from the San Diego Yacht Club.”
What he meant was he hoped that the club’s board of directors would deliver a firm yes or no after its regular monthly board meeting Thursday night, but he wasn’t counting on it.
Frye indicated that more attention was to be given Sail America’s new chief operating officer, Tom Ehman, to present a table of organization for a ’91 defense, leaving Fay to twist impatiently Down Under.
“Clearly, we would prefer not to be involved in litigation which we would initiate,” Debreceny said. “We’d rather go sailing than go to court.”
Frye said: “They may well (go to court.) If the court decides in their favor, we’ll have a regatta in 1988.”
Just as frustrated as Fay are the other American cities seeking to lure the Cup defense away from San Diego. In turning away overtures from places such as Hawaii, Oxnard, Miami, Newport, R.I.; Texas and New Orleans in a meeting last Sunday, Driscoll’s defense committee made it clear that none would have a chance even to compete with San Diego.
Driscoll said, “What we’re trying to do is the same thing you’d do with any of your friends: ‘Look, don’t spend any money. We’ll give you time if it comes to that.’ ”
If San Diego blows it? “Then we would give (the others) time and opportunity to make presentations,” Driscoll said.
Fred Smales, who has been leading Hawaii’s strong bid, left San Diego after a meeting with Driscoll last week resigned that the defense site was “95% San Diego.”
Dennis Conner, who won the Cup for SDYC last February, had gotten the message a week earlier. After months of skating all around the issue, he called a press conference and announced that San Diego would be fine with him, too.
If all seems in order, it could become official as early as next Wednesday, when the defense committee meets again.
“If we could come to a conclusion, we’ll announce it as quickly as possible,” Driscoll said.
MATCH RACING--The sixth in a series of eight World Match Racing Conference events is the Liberty Cup regatta scheduled Sept. 16-20 in New York Harbor. Gary Jobson, better known as the America’s Cup TV commentator recently, is the two-time defending champion. While busy with a post-Cup lecture tour, he didn’t participate in the first five events, which produced these winners: Britain’s Eddie Owen in the Congressional Cup, Long Beach; Coronado’s Rod Davis in the Squadron Challenge Cup, New Zealand; Australia’s Peter Gilmour in the Westerly Royal Lymington, England; Australia’s Iain Murray in the Grundig World Cup, France, and New Zealand’s Chris Dickson in the King Edward VII Gold Cup, Bermuda. The Liberty field will include Dickson, Gilmour, Owen, Japan’s Yasuyuki Hakomori, Canada’s Terry Neilson, France’s Marc Pajot and Sweden’s Pelle Petterson. All but Hakomori were involved in the America’s Cup at Fremantle.
OLYMPICS--Considering recent concern about lack of wind off San Diego for an America’s Cup, it was no surprise that the Olympic pretrials regatta for Stars and Solings this month was sailed in light air. Star world champion Vince Brun was out of town, competing in the Pan-Am Games, and Ed Adams of Newport, R.I won the title, followed by Mark Reynolds, San Diego, and Iain Woolward, England. Brun is defending his world title at Chicago this week. Favored John Kostecki of Alameda, won in Soling, followed by Harry Melges III, Buddy’s eldest son, of Lake Geneva, Wis., and Australia’s Robert Wilmot. Adams’ victory qualified him for the U.S. team that will compete in the Olympic Practice Regatta at Pusan, South Korea, Sept. 15-28. Brun, Kostecki and Soling sailor Dave Curtis of Marblehead, Mass., had already qualified.
NEWSWORTHY--The Balboa Yacht Club will hold a new event, the Commodores’ Cup, Saturday and Sunday for area yacht club teams. Its five-boat team will be headed by Dave Ullman on Roller. . . . The Catalina 27 nationals will be sailed Sept. 4-6 at Long Beach. . . . Los Angeles YC’s Wrigley Trophy Race for International Offshore Rule boats and Robert J. McNeil Trophy Race for Performance Handicap Racing Fleet entries is scheduled Sunday, Sept. 6, with a 1 p.m. start off Howland’s Landing on Catalina Island. . . . The Shoreline and Capistrano Bay clubs will hold their Long Beach-to-Dana Point race Sept. 5-6, with three fleets for PHRF, ocean racers and non-spinnaker boats. . . . The 10th annual Lido in-the-water boat show is scheduled Sept. 10-13 and Sept. 16-20 at Lido Marina Village, Newport Beach. The first phase is for used boats, the second for new ones. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for kids. Youngsters under 6 are free.