America’s Cup : San Diego YC Agrees to Venue Change

The next America’s Cup defense apparently will be a two-boat shootout off San Diego in September--New Zealand’s massive monohull with the 90-foot waterline against a catamaran skippered by Dennis Conner.

Some philosophical distance remains between the two adversaries, but they closed a hundred miles of ocean Saturday when the San Diego Yacht Club and Sail America Foundation agreed to defend the Cup in home waters instead of on San Pedro Bay.

Earlier, the New Zealanders vowed to show up off San Diego for the first race, no matter where Sail America planned to sail.

“Seeing they’ve rejected our proposal, we will be on the start line in San Diego on Sept. 19,” Peter Debreceny, spokesman for merchant banker Michael Fay, said by phone from Auckland Saturday.

San Diego says it will probably start Sept. 3 on Labor Day weekend to avoid a conflict with the Olympic Games, which start Sept. 17 in South Korea.

“We’re prepared to talk about it,” Debreceny said. “We understand and can appreciate the practical problems.”

New Zealand still isn’t happy about sailing against a catamaran, but Saturday’s announcement by the yacht club conceding the venue met one major point of Fay’s proposal to resolve the dispute.

Asked if the Kiwis will pursue the catamaran issue, Debreceny said, “We didn’t say that.”

Asked if they planned to drop it, he said, “Didn’t say that, either.”

Vice President John Marshall of Sail America, informed of Fay’s response, said: “I can’t tell you for sure (what it means), but I see a little glimmer of light. He’s prepared to sit down and talk about the regatta conditions.”

The exclusion of other potential challengers isn’t a big problem. Conscious of their international images as sportsmen, the two sides blame each other for that circumstance, although more competition would not be to either side’s benefit.

San Diego is under court order to defend against Fay in September or forfeit the Cup. In his proposal last week, Fay offered to postpone the event until the spring of 1989 if San Diego would move it back to San Diego as an all-comers’ event, without catamarans.

When San Diego offered to talk about the offer Friday, Fay demanded he get a yes or no response first. Instead, he was told San Diego in September.

Sail America, which is managing the defense for the yacht club, said a month ago it would hold the event on windier San Pedro Bay, where its catamaran would be more effective against Fay’s new boat.

“We realize we’re giving up a little bit,” Alford said, “but we’re willing to do it under the circumstances.”

John Marshall, coordinator of the design team, said, “We’re happy to meet New Zealand anywhere. A design has to be optimized for local conditions. We’ve got plenty of time to make some adjustments. Had (New Zealand) raced in Long Beach, they could have made some adjustments to their boat.”

Even if time allowed, Sail America strongly resisted scrapping its catamaran project, which has already cost more than $1 million, according to Ehman.

“And to stop the program would still cost several million dollars for obligations already incurred,” Ehman said.

Work on two identical carbon-fiber catamarans--one to be equipped with a futuristic wing-type airfoil instead of a conventional soft sail--is continuing at RD Boatworks in Capistrano Beach.