Sail America, San Diego Club Will Consider Fay’s New Offer

The San Diego Yacht Club and the Sail America Foundation will spend the next several days considering New Zealand’s offer to postpone the America’s Cup competition from September on San Pedro Bay and move it to the waters off San Diego in the spring of 1989.

Auckland banker Michael Fay said the rest of the world can come, too--but no catamarans. Everyone else, including San Diego, must sail a monohull within the dimensions of his 90-foot-waterline boat.

Tom Mitchell, a spokesman for Sail America, was quoted Wednesday by United Press International as saying: “It makes no sense at all. We’re perplexed by their 180-degree change in attitude.”

But Vice President John Marshall of Sail America told The Times: “We’re not going to reject it out of hand. We’re going to work real hard through the next week or so (to) see if there’s some merit in it, or see if we can work toward something that’s satisfactory. It’s far too big and complex an issue to give an answer overnight.”

Fay posted a deadline of next Tuesday for a response.

“I think we can meet that,” Marshall said.

Fay’s lawyer, George Tompkins, said that the New Zealanders are considering further legal action if the proposal is rejected.

The Sail America Foundation, which is managing the defense for the yacht club, has been planning to sail a catamaran against Fay’s boat on San Pedro Bay in the fall. However, Sail America canceled a press conference it had scheduled for Friday to announce Long Beach as the official host city of the event.