Port Ponders Penurious Path in Cup Chaos
It was made clearer than ever Tuesday that the Port District, caught in the chaos surrounding the America’s Cup, will spend as little money as possible on a waterfront site for the yacht-racing syndicates until it is certain San Diego will be host to a 1991 regatta.
The commissioners’ quandary is such that they may hire a New York lawyer familiar with the arcane intricacies of America’s Cup rules and regulations.
‘Like Throwing Dice’
“It’s like taking dice and throwing them on the table in Las Vegas,” said Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer, explaining the predicament facing him and his colleagues as they try to plan for a 1991 race while confronting the possibility that the Cup could be lost to New Zealander Michael Fay in a maverick race this September.
“I think we should be as cautious as we can and still root for the home team” of Dennis Conner, the San Diego Yacht Club and the Sail America Foundation, Wolfsheimer said.
Three weeks ago, a consultant to the San Diego Unified Port District gave commissioners a list of possible sites that could accommodate the syndicates expected for the 1991 regatta. The consultant and Sail America, the group organizing the defense of the Cup for the yacht club, strongly urged commissioners to continue planning for the race three years from now.
To have facilities open for the 12-meter World Championships in 1990--a tune-up contest held a year before the Cup race--the Port District would have to spend as much as $800,000 before the outcome of Conner’s race with Fay in September. There is no guarantee, despite optimism from Sail America and the yacht club, that Conner will win.
So far, the port has agreed to spend about $180,000 on planning, $75,000 of which has been paid to the consultant--Hallenbeck, Chamorro & Associates--to study and recommend potential syndicate sites, and $105,000 the firm will be paid for identifying the location of the media center and for meeting with state and environmental agencies to gauge their concerns over waterfront construction of docks and piers to be used by the Cup yachts.
Reluctant to Meet
But state and federal environmental agencies have been reluctant to hold such meetings until a specific Cup site has been selected, according to Patrick Crowley, the consultant’s America’s Cup project coordinator.
It is becoming increasingly apparent, however, that such a decision won’t occur soon, maybe not until after September. Though the consultant has studied eight potential sites, with development costs ranging from $10.8 million to $36.6 million, it has recommended a plan involving construction of a new, 10-acre peninsula in conjunction with covering Convair Lagoon--which is tainted with PCB contamination--with another 10 acres of dirt. This plan would eventually cost about $30 million to fully develop.
“We’re the only player in the game that doesn’t know where we are . . . and we’re the only player spending public money . . . maybe as much as $800,000 by September,” said Wolfsheimer, who, like other board members, emphasized that he supports the San Diego Yacht Club and Sail America.
What commissioners need, he said, is America’s Cup legal advice, a notion formally endorsed by a majority vote of the board. This is particularly critical, he said, because since last year, the fate of the Cup has been consumed in a court fight. “What we need to know is who is liable to win what,” Wolfsheimer explained.
Technically, it will be up to Port District attorney Joe Patello to investigate the law as it pertains to the Cup and to hire a New York lawyer--as the City of San Diego did--familiar with Cup legal matters if more advice is necessary.
Only Commissioner Dan Larsen voted against the recommendation. He said he has no argument against retaining a New York lawyer, but he feels the situation is not at a crisis point.
What everyone should realize, Larsen said, is that even if the San Diego Yacht Club keeps the Cup with a win over Fay in September, planning and construction of Cup facilities will have been delayed by a year. What the Port District should do, he said, is acknowledge the lost year and plan to have the facilities ready for the 1991 regatta rather than for the 12-meter World Championships a year earlier, thus letting private boatyards handle the syndicates’ needs in 1990.
“It’s just a fact of life we can’t do it” by 1990, Larsen said.