This New Zealand Yacht Is an Eye-Catcher, Too

A futuristic sailboat from New Zealand with wings sticking out from the deck has been skipping around L.A. Harbor, getting some second glances.

But it’s not Michael Fay’s massive America’s Cup entry. At 30 feet long, it’s about one-fourth the size and considerably less expensive, but still not cheap.

Trevor Rogers, an Auckland city councilman, built the boat for the Ultimate Yacht Race series that will start Friday at Corpus Christi, Tex., and offer prize money to competitors. Later stops are scheduled at San Francisco and New London, Conn. Rogers figures he has about $600,000 tied up in the project--”a fortune,” he said.

“I think I’m spending a lot of money, but (Fay) is spending megabucks--and I have a chance to get some of mine back. He has zilch.”

The boat, christened “Pro 30,” has been undergoing shakedown sails off San Pedro with helmsman John Weston and crewmen Brett Steel and Mark Orams. UYR rules require a maximum length of 30 feet and a minimum weight of 2,000 pounds, and Rogers’ designer, Harold Evans, brought the boat in at 2,040.

The carbon fiber-Kevlar hull weighs only 350 pounds. The rest is ballast provided by a fin keel with a secret configuration at the tip, and the crew’s combined weight of 490 will be hiked out on the platforms aft.

There also are two winglets at the bow, like spoilers on an Indy car, to keep the bow above the waves.

Weston said the boat has been “better behaved than we expected.”

He estimated it will plane at 12 knots and exceed the wind speed slightly off the wind.

Rogers says he knows Fay well but apparently, it’s just coincidence that two boats with similar concepts--lightweight hulls with thin, bulbed keels and wide hiking wings--came out of New Zealand the same year.

As a prelude to the Corpus Christi competition, Rogers’ monohull will race an entry from the Hobie-21 catamaran class, just to see if a monohull can beat a multihull.

It’s a shame, Rogers said, that the America’s Cup won’t be contested in San Pedro Bay, as Sail America had intended.

“I’d love to see it sailed right here,” Rogers said. “It’s beautiful wind. San Diego doesn’t compare.”

But unlike Fay, who may sail in his own 40-man crew, Rogers intends to leave the sailing to the sailors.

“I’d no more contemplate getting on my boat than I’d fly to the moon,” Rogers said.

Dennis Conner has said he will sail the Stars & Stripes catamaran with a crew of 5 or 6, not the 10 or 11 initially indicated.

Unlike a 12-meter, the boat does not require a lot of muscle, and more crewmen would be dead weight.

Conner, who will steer, hasn’t yet selected the final crew, but indications are it will be his afterguard from Stars & Stripes ‘87--tactician Tom Whidden and navigator Peter Isler--along with S&S; port tailer Bill Trenkle, now the operations chief; Carl Buchan and Cam Lewis.

Buchan won an Olympic gold medal as Jonathan McKee’s Flying Dutchman crewman in ’84. Lewis would be the multihull expert on board.

America’s top multihull sailor, Randy Smyth of Huntington Beach, also has been working with the crew but may have an Olympic conflict, if he qualifies at the U.S. trials in July. Other catamaran experts involved have included Gary Knapp and France’s Pierre LaMaout.

Sail America has been stalking its New Zealand rival in a program of open espionage to determine the light-air speed potential of Fay’s creation.

“We had some people in New Zealand, with an instrumented power boat and with some nice gear, to get every bit of information we can,” design chief John Marshall said. “That will give me a comfort zone about where their strengths and weaknesses are . . . (so) we can tune ours so it will be better than his. But it’s hard to do.”

Two Texas engineers--Mike Zuteck, 42, and Ned Snead, 58--were staked out in an Auckland hotel room overlooking Michael Fay’s base and followed the big boat in a small launch every time it went out to practice, shooting videotape all the way.

Zuteck told the Auckland Star: “The reason the (Sail America) syndicate has become nervous is that . . . big boats with very tall masts are able to take advantage of very light airs . . . (in which) it certainly wouldn’t be impossible for a mono to beat a multi.”

Especially in light air, Zuteck said, the Kiwis could find a stronger wind near the top of their 160-foot mast than Stars & Stripes can reach with its 90-foot airfoil. Now, it’s heard, the new boat has been performing so well in trials that New Zealand is considering raising the mast to 180 feet.

Sailing Notes

BOOKS--Two different kinds of America’s Cup books are coming out. One will be in bookstores this summer. The other may never be. The latter is available only by phoning Eric Raoul-Duval in Philadelphia at (215) 925-9628. He represents the French authors of “America’s Cup Yacht Designs, 1851-1986.” Raoul-Duval told a reporter, “It is 18 pounds.” The reporter replied, “That seems like a fair price.” “No, that’s how much it weighs ,” Raoul-Duval said. “The price is $395.”

The book is two inches thick and 12 x 17. It tells the story of every Cup defense--in French and English--with results and times of every race and line drawings of the 200 boats built for the Cup through ’86.

The other book, “Confessions of a Grinder” (Contemporary Books, $16.95), is a “Semi-Tough”-type treatment of the ‘86-87 events at Fremantle, Western Australia, as seen through the eyes of Brad Lewis of Newport Beach.

Lewis was a novice sailor hired aboard the Golden Gate Challenge’s 12-meter, USA, as the starboard winch grinder after winning an Olympic gold medal rowing a double scull. USA was a strange boat--it had the rudder in front--with a volatile skipper, Tom Blackaller, and Lewis, a talented off-beat storyteller, captured most of the drama and emotion of the grueling Cup campaign.

MATCH RACING--The Citizens Cup in New Zealand was a bitter re-run of the Congressional Cup for John Bertrand of Anaheim Hills. Again, he posted a 7-2 record but lost to John Kolius on the head-to-head tiebreaker. Australia’s Peter Gilmour, who had edged Bertrand in the Congressional to continue his domination of the World Cup series, finished fourth at 5-4 behind New Zealand’s Chris Dickson. Kolius overtook Bertrand in the last race of the last round to win. Next event is the Grundig Cup at Sainte-Maxime on the French Riviera May 4-12.

NOTEWORTHY--Three teams representing West Coast schools are listed among the top 20 intercollegiate sailing teams by Sailing World magazine. They are UC Irvine, 6th; Stanford, 11th, and Cal Berkeley, 16th. . . . The Pacific Coast Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is into its 21st season with a new secretary. Bobbie Novodvorsky replaces Peggy Gregory, who handled the task for 20 years. PHRF also has a new office at 5855 Naples Plaza, Suite 224, Long Beach 90803. . . . The United States Yacht Racing Union’s board has initiated a proposal to change the name to United States Sailing Assn.--a move that died three years ago but probably will carry this time. The point is to get the elitist word yacht out of the name in a bid for broader appeal.