WAR OF WORDS : Talk of Sandbagging, Mismatch Dominates Pre-Race Cup Tactics

The strange hype of the strangest America’s Cup continues.

New Zealand portrays itself as one of its 20 million sheep being led to a slaughter, but the Americans say Michael Fay is just pulling the wool over their eyes.

“He’s trying to lull us into thinking we’re fantastic and there’s no way we can lose,” Stars & Stripes tactician Tom Whidden said Saturday. “(But) he’s faster than he would like us to believe.

“The word sandbagging gets bandied around a lot, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t going their full speed on any day when we were out there watching them.”

Sandbagging?

“Absolutely not,” Fay said later.

The point of all this reverse posturing is that the best-of-three series, starting Wednesday, must appear to be a mismatch or Fay won’t have a case against the catamaran to take back to the New York Supreme Court when the racing is done.

“Dennis Conner is in a position of having to go slow,” Fay said. “(But) Dennis Conner blazes around the course.”

Whidden, who has been Conner’s tactician in the last three Cup competitions, also says that Fay’s 30-ton, 133-foot monohull is more agile than Stars & Stripes’ 3-ton, 60-foot catamaran.

“Probably we have a less maneuverable boat than the New Zealanders have,” Whidden said. “I think they’ll have the advantage there, clearly. A monohull tacks better than a catamaran.

“We had a little bit the same problem in Australia (in 12-meter boats), but we expect this to be much more an acute problem, and you can expect us to be even more conservative than we were in Fremantle in our starting tactics.

“You’re making an assumption that we have greater speed. We think we’re gonna be faster downwind, and it’s gonna be a close race upwind, but that remains to be seen.”

Gee, Fay has said, if they feel that uncertain, he’ll be glad to swap boats.

“You tell Tom, why doesn’t he pick up on the offer I put up a week ago?” Fay said. “You tell Tom and Dennis I’ll bet 10 bucks that he’ll cross behind us at some point to make it look like a race.”

Whidden is suspicious. The offer to trade boats was not serious--or legal--but it is possible that the prototype KZ-1 really is a dog.

“Either he’s got a boat that somehow didn’t quite go right on the design board, or he’s insulting your intelligence,” Whidden said. “(Maybe) something is wrong with the boat.”

Reports, based on more yard time than sailing time for the big boat lately, persist that the Kiwis are experiencing breakdowns. Saturday they cut short a practice sail because of high winds, but Fay said there was no damage.

He was more concerned with his legal people pursuing his objection to the event’s “720” rule with the race jury in an afternoon meeting.

That rule will permit a boat guilty of a right-of-way infraction to absolve itself by turning two full circles (720 degrees). The way Fay sees it, it would be an easy penalty for the much faster catamaran to overcome and would strip New Zealand of its best chance to win--by Stars & Stripes fouling out.

“It’s consistent with their approach of not putting the Cup up to risk,” Fay said.

Whidden disagreed.

“(A 720) is plenty painful, don’t worry,” he said. “It would probably screw you up in the race by a minute to two minutes.

“The New Zealanders’ discontent may be based on the fact that they seem a little psyched out about their speed, and maybe they felt the only chance they had was to lure us into something that would get us out of the race.

“We’re only assuming that a catamaran had the potential to beat that boat, but by and large, big boats beat small boats day in and day out.”

Not this time, insiders say.

The real two sides of the story, they say, are that the airfoil-fitted catamaran--faster, more nimble and even able to point higher into the wind--may sail circles around the big boat, which has crew that is disillusioned and depressed at the prospect.

Mismatch? It looks like a shear thing.

America’s Cup Notes

The Stars & Stripes publicity department thoughtfully passed along the result of a poll conducted by the New Zealand tabloid Sunday News indicating that the Kiwis had turned against one of their own: Michael Fay. The syndicate boss “should stick to business” and “is not a real sportsman,” according to the poll. Fay was not crushed. “I found I was in great company,” he said, noting that world squash champion Susan Devoi, rugby star John Kirwan and former world mile record-holder John Walker also were ripped. “I’m honored,” Fay said.