Yacht Racing May Bring Millions to Southland City : Long Beach Ponders Possible Role as ‘America’s Host’

For more than half a century, the picturesque New England coastal city of Newport, R.I., was probably best known as the site of sailing’s top event, the America’s Cup regatta. The city basked in publicity and received millions in tourism dollars.

When the Australians defended the cup for the first time last year, the city of Fremantle was transformed from just another wind-swept western outpost into a world-class party spot. Free-spending race watchers followed the regatta by day and jammed bars and restaurants by night.

Long Beach wants to be next.

With the announcement that a special America’s Cup defense will be staged this summer in San Pedro Bay against an unusual challenge by a New Zealand sailing syndicate, Long Beach officials are hustling to have the city designated as the official host.

“We feel we would be the ideal host city for the America’s Cup challenge,” said Mayor Ernie Kell. “We feel it should and will be held in the City of Long Beach.”

The deal is still far from cinched, however. Leaders of the New Zealand group criticized the decision last week to hold the race in San Pedro Bay. They said they plan to race in San Diego, where the cup now resides with the yacht club which won it from the Australians last year.

No Decision Yet

And even if the New Zealanders knuckle under to the demand for San Pedro Bay, the organizers of the race are yet to name Long Beach as the host city.

“We have not talked to other cities but other sites are being considered--all the way from Seal Beach to San Pedro,” said Tom Mitchell, spokesman for the organizing group, Sail America in San Diego.

Long Beach officials estimate that the major sporting event could generate anywhere up to $100 million in business for local merchants. The event would start gearing up when the crews arrive for practice in early June and would last through the races tentatively scheduled to begin Sept. 4.

Officials also are enthusiastic over the prospect of 2,500 to 5,000 journalists from around the globe who will not only come to Long Beach to cover the race, but will write and broadcast about the city as well.

“There’s no question this kind of event would put Long Beach on the map and keep it there a very long time,” said Joseph Prevratil, chairman of the board of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and president of Wrather Port Properties, which operates the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose.

All in all, it is pretty heady stuff for a city that had abandoned all hope of being the host for the famed regatta until about four weeks ago. If it had not been for an unprecedented challenge of the America’s Cup rules by the New Zealand group, Long Beach would still be on the sidelines.

Plans for Defense

When Dennis Conner won back the America’s Cup from the Australians last winter, the San Diego Yacht Club had planned to defend its newly won trophy against an international fleet of 12-meter yacht competitors in its home waters in 1991.

But New Zealand merchant banker Michael Fay, leader of the group that sponsored the island nation’s first and surprisingly competitive entry in the regatta last year, won a ruling from the New York Supreme Court that upheld his right to make a challenge for the cup this September under a strict interpretation of the 100-year-old Deed of Gift.

Forced to hold a race this year, Sail America has limited the challenge to Fay’s entry. The group intends to try to beat Fay, then hold the 12-meter competition as scheduled in 1991.

Fay announced that he will compete in September in a boat with a 90-foot waterline, the largest allowed under the deed. In response, Sail America is building two multihull boats--catamarans or trimarans--that, in theory, should easily top Fay’s single-hull entry.

But multihulls come with a hitch: They cannot maintain their heavy advantage over single-hull boats in light winds such as those that usually prevail in San Diego in September.

Although the two cities are only about 100 miles apart, the winds in Long Beach normally blow substantially stronger that time of year.

When Sail America announced on Jan. 22 that the race site would be off Long Beach or in Hawaii, Long Beach officials were caught by surprise. The America’s Cup Committee appointed last year by Mayor Ernie Kell had all but disbanded after trying to coax Sail America into staging the 1991 races off Long Beach.

Mapped Strategy

Hastily recalled, the committee met two weeks ago to map strategy under the leadership of James Ackerman, a Long Beach attorney who was involved in the Eagle 12-meter syndicate that competed in Fremantle. Ackerman said he has since met several times with Sail America officials.

Other committee members are working in their own areas of expertise. Harbor Commissioner C. Robert Langslet said he has been scouting the harbor for possible sites for boat storage areas and a large press center.

Dick Sargent, president and chief executive officer of the International City Celebration that is organizing the city’s yearlong 100th birthday events, said he hopes to shoulder local costs of the America’s Cup through the existing fund-raising organization for the city’s centennial.

The Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Council and Chamber of Commerce are being consulted about whether they could meet the demands laid down by Sail America.

Ackerman said that although Sail America has yet to deliver a formal “laundry list,” the foundation has asked Long Beach to provide a base for each of the two sailing teams. The San Diegans alone are planning to bring six boats and have asked for use of a boat yard.

Sail America has also asked for headquarters offices for the teams, a tourism center, referees’ and officials’ stations on the water, an America’s Cup/Long Beach center, 200 reserved hotel rooms, luxury condominiums and houses and the toughest request of all: a 20,000- to 40,000-square-foot press center for television broadcast equipment.

With such a tall order, “that’s why they haven’t chiseled Long Beach in stone,” Ackerman said. But he is quick to add: “No request has been made that we don’t think we can deliver.”

Conner Acting

While Sail America negotiates on behalf of the defending San Diego Yacht Club, Skipper Conner is reportedly taking matters into his own hands.

The Times has reported that Conner intends to base his operation at the Marina Shipyard in Alamitos Bay and house his crew and support workers at the Hyatt Edgewater at Pacific Coast Highway and 2nd Street.

Sargent said that the city’s cost of being host to the America’s Cup could be funded with relative ease through donations to and corporate sponsorship of the existing centennial organization. The outlay would mostly involve promotion and staffing costs, he said.

Long Beach is certainly big enough to handle the crush of tourists that would accompany the event, Sargent said. With more than 2,000 first-class hotel rooms plus other accommodations in surrounding areas, “There would be plenty of places for tourists who want to come in.”

Ackerman said he has toured possible sites for the various America’s Cup offices and facilities in the harbor with Tom Ehman, executive vice president with Sail America.

Although Mayor Kell requested a media center for up to 2,700 journalists, Ackerman said he thinks that he can find room for only 1,500.

Prevratil said he would be happy to have the Spruce Goose dome considered. “It certainly is a big enough facility to handle it,” he said. But Ackerman said he wants to use the dome for social functions, not as a press center.

Langslet, eager to bring the races here to “highlight the renaissance Long Beach is going through,” said he has scouted warehouses as possible press centers and will have port staffers explore how to shuffle ship traffic to accommodate racing and officials’ boats.

The Catalina Landing and Long Beach Marina are also possible sites, Ackerman said. The Navy has offered to consider allowing its docks to be used for a racing team.