Is the Message on Sail a Backhand Swipe at Key Conner Sponsor? : Kiwi Smoke Signal Stirs Tempest in Cup

In a seemingly perpetual quest to annoy each other, the contenders on both sides of the America’s Cup challenge have found something new to quibble about: Will it be smoking or nonsmoking?

The New Zealand sailors touched off the latest tempest in a teapot by displaying a special sail emblazoned with: “Surgeon General’s Warning: Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.”

The Kiwis hoisted the 8,000-square-foot gennaker for a test sail around San Diego Bay on Wednesday and announced their intention to use it in a regatta this weekend, the Sunkist American Cancer Society Cup.

If it proves seaworthy, the Kiwis might even use it in the long-awaited America’s Cup Challenge off San Diego on Sept. 7.

Benefit Regatta for Cancer Society

The message seemed appropriate enough, considering that Sunday’s regatta will benefit the American Cancer Society.

However, America’s Cup rival Stars & Stripes has Marlboro cigarettes as one of its sponsors, and the irony did not go unnoticed.

“I suspected that it might be some type of comment,” said John Burnham, chairman of this weekend’s race--and son of Sail America director Malin Burnham.

To complicate matters, Dennis Conner, skipper of the Stars & Stripes, will be the race commodore at the American Cancer Society event.

Neither Conner nor the Stars & Stripes catamaran will sail this weekend, a race spokesman said, but the skipper will be on shore to hand out prizes and, presumably, to watch his rivals glide by displaying a 15-story-high, anti-smoking message.

Phone Call Between Syndicates

The younger Burnham’s reaction to the perceived insult was swift. Neither he nor New Zealand spokesman Peter Debreceny would disclose what was said during a Wednesday afternoon phone call, but a Thursday morning item in a gossip column said the Kiwis were unwelcome at the regatta.

“It did seem unusual to us,” Kiwi Graeme Colman said. “We weren’t sure if we were banned or not.”

By Thursday afternoon, Burnham had backed off.

“I was the one that made the decision to scratch them,” he said, “and I didn’t have the authority to do that.”

Burnham stressed that the upcoming race is not related to the America’s Cup and relayed the official word from the American Cancer Society that anyone who comes up with the $5,000 corporate entry fee and turns in an application by 6 p.m. today is welcome, regardless of what their boat’s gennaker says.

Howard Robin, spokesman for the American Cancer Society, confirmed its stance: “This is to raise money for cancer research, and if Michael Fay fills out that entry form, it absolutely doesn’t matter what he has on his sail.”

According to Robin, when the Cancer Society asked Conner, a nonsmoker, to serve as its regatta’s honorary chairman, they had no idea a major tobacco firm would be sponsoring the America’s Cup race. “We are aware of it now, but it’s a fait accompli, “ Robin said.

Conner himself was on the water and unavailable for comment, but his spokeswomen were quick to praise their corporate sponsors. Conner, they said, had signed on as commodore of the regatta before the Marlboro sponsorship was confirmed. But Marlboro’s $2.5 million, along with similar donations from Merrill Lynch and Pepsi, are “what made America’s Cup possible,” said Sail America’s Barbara Schwartz.

As of Thursday evening, the Kiwis were undecided on whether to participate in Sunday’s race. “Now that we’ve been invited, we’ve got to change our plans again to see if we can make it,” Colman said. “We have to see if people on our crew have made other personal commitments.”

Asked whether the message on the sail was directed at Conner, Colman said only: “I think it’s up to people to draw their own conclusions.”

Whether or not they sail Sunday, the New Zealanders will be displaying the controversial sail at Seaport Village today and Saturday and offering people the chance to pay $2 to sign it--with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society.