Congressional Cup : On-Water Judging Works, but Penalties Seem Too Severe

On-the-water judging for sailboat racing seems a good idea, but there was one hitch in the first day of Congressional Cup competition at Long Beach Wednesday.

Although it eliminated long, tedious protest hearings afterward, it also eliminated some close, competitive racing.

Four skippers--John Kolius, Mike Elias, Canada’s Greg Tawaststjerna and defending champion Eddie Owen of Great Britain--who had to perform the 270-degree turn-around penalties, never were able to get back in those races.

Meanwhile, John Bertrand of Anaheim Hills, representing the St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco, stayed out of everybody’s way by sailing away from them and emerged as the unbeaten leader with three wins. Six races remain through Saturday.

The wind blew from 10 to 15 knots, with a moderate chop.

What was to have been the race of the day was wiped out when Owen drifted into Peter Gilmour’s boat before the start of their second-round match. They got off the line evenly, but Owen then had to do a 270, and by the time he came out on the opposite tack his Australian opponent was gone, ultimately winning by 43 seconds.

Coincidentally, it was one of Owen’s countrymen who did him in. British sailing reporter Bob Fisher, working the event as a judge, was one of the two officials tracking that match.

In the first round, Kolius, who steered America II for the New York Yacht Club in the America’s Cup, was off well ahead of young Bill Lynn of Rowayton, Conn., but was five boat lengths behind after his penalty.

Lynn held on to win by 19 seconds and finished the day at 2-1 after losing to Bertrand.

Kolius and Owen took their setbacks in stride, but Elias, the host Long Beach Yacht Club entry, was upset. He complained to Chief Judge Tom Ehman on the water after his loss to Owen and to reporters on the dock at the end of the day.

“The call was bad,” Elias said. “We couldn’t have hit him in 10 years. I think we would have hammered the Englishman if he hadn’t got the call.”

Gilmour, who knows something about rough sailing, agreed.

“Elias didn’t deserve to get disqualified,” Gilmour said. “But all the other decisions I saw were pretty good.”

The penalty for a rules infraction was increased Tuesday night because most skippers and judges agreed that a jib drop was too light. Now, in the less-than-nimble Catalina 38s, a 270 may be too severe.

“In light air, the 270s kill you in these boats,” Elias said.

The only close finish of the day was Lynn’s 1-second win over Peter Isler, the Stars & Stripes navigator from San Diego.

Isler led throughout but let Lynn slip away after slam-dunking him 300 yards from the finish. Lynn sailed back alone to the left, tacked outside the left end of the line, regained speed and turned his bow upwind to shoot the line in a photo finish.

Two-time winner Dennis Durgan of Newport Beach and Japan’s Kazunori Komatsu are winless, but his rivals agreed that Durgan’s problem seemed to be his boat, Oil Slick.

Somebody else will draw it in the rotation the next three days.

“I don’t wish it to anybody,” Durgan said. “They were going by us right and left.”

Bertrand said, “You know, I had that boat in the practice races three weeks ago and it was real fast, but it had its own sails on then.”

Bertrand, the Olympic Finn silver medalist who was Kolius’ tactician at Fremantle, and Lynn were alternate entries when other invitees dropped out a month earlier.

“I’d like to do some more of these,” Bertrand said. “Once you get established, they call you, you don’t have to call them. There are a lot of hungry guys out there. I love match racing.”