Congressional Cup : Aussie Gilmour Takes Shot at Slowing Unbeaten Bertrand

As in the America’s Cup, there is no second place in the Congressional Cup, so Peter Gilmour will find himself supported by an unusual array of allies today.

The Australian will be the other contenders’ immediate hope to head off unbeaten John Bertrand’s rush toward the title.

Gilmour, 4-1, has Bertrand, 5-0, lined up in his sights for the first match of the sixth round of races, which will start with Britain’s Eddie Owen, Canada’s Greg Tawaststjerna and Americans Peter Isler and Bill Lynn tied for third at 3-2.

“We’re treating it with a fair degree of importance,” Gilmour assured the contenders.

Otherwise, if Gilmour fell overboard they wouldn’t throw a line to the guy who has won the first three of the eight events that qualify for the World Cup of Match Race Sailing at Long Beach in August.

Four rounds remain--two each today and Saturday.

With winds increasing to 18 knots from Thursday’s moderate breeze, Bertrand and Gilmour pulled away from the rest of the field by winning both of their races.

Bertrand, the America II tactician in the America’s Cup regatta, beat his America II skipper, John Kolius, by 18 seconds and hometown entry Mike Elias, 1-4, by 1:08. Gilmour dropped Japan’s outclassed Kazunori Komatsu, 0-5, by 1:33 and San Diego’s Isler by 1:36.

And on St. Patrick’s Day, Murphy’s Law was at work, especially for Owen and Komatsu.

Owen, the defending champion, trailed Kolius early in that race but took the lead when Kolius fouled him by tacking too close and had to execute the 270-degree turn penalty in force for the on-the-water judging system.

But because of unexpected current, Owen misjudged the maneuver.

“I saw him take one look over his shoulder to see if he could tack and just say, ‘Oh, no,’ ” Kolius said.

Owen hit the weather mark and had to re-round it as Kolius sailed away to win by 1:19.

Owen said, “Hitting the weather mark is a hell of a lot worse than doing a 270.”

In his previous race against Bertrand, however, Kolius had tangled his spinnaker so badly that he finally had to drop it and rehoist, killing his chances.

Earlier, a start-finish line committee boat dragged its anchor in the strong winds, couldn’t raise it and drifted down past the leeward mark before retiring from duty.

Also, the press boat lost one of its two engines with an overheating problem, but Komatsu had the worst luck.

Against two-time winner Dennis Durgan, 1-4, of Newport Beach, Japan’s longshot future America’s Cup hope had to do a 270 because of a pre-start foul, then needed two minutes to retrieve his spinnaker after dragging it like a fishing net.

“Komatsu’s going to treat us to a little sushi tonight,” Kolius said.

Worse luck, for today Komatsu drew the only winless boat in the fleet, Oil Slick, which Durgan and Elias have had the first two days.