The America’s Cup : SCRIPT PREDICTABLE : Kiwis Rip Conner for Not Going All Out to Hold Down Margin of Victory

Little Griffa Rivers, a grade schooler from Whitianga, New Zealand, sent Michael Fay and the boys a good luck card.

Griffa, as you will see, is no dummy.

Dear Michael Fay: I wish that you would win but you will probably lose. I have sent you a card to make you feel better .

Griffa could have added another accurate remark, in the form of a post-script.:

And remember, after you lose, let everyone know that big bad Dennis Conner should have beaten you by a larger margin.

Given the statements leading up to Wednesday’s first race of America’s Cup XXVII, and given that the 60-foot catamaran Stars & Stripes beat the 133-foot monohull New Zealand by a paltry 18 minutes, 15 seconds, few could have been surprised at the Kiwis’ remarks afterward.

Only one impromptu remark can be offered. Fay, upon returning to the New Zealand compound, mentioned to a fellow Kiwi team-member that “that was a real character builder.”

Then Fay and Alan Bond, the Australian syndicate chairman in 1983, repaired to a trailer for an hour. At least part of that time, Fay met with his cockpit--skipper David Barnes, tactician Peter Lester and designer Bruce Farr.

When the four men faced the press, their remarks were so similar as to be interchangeable.

Said Fay, the syndicate chairman: “We went as fast as we know how. I don’t think that other boat was raced at all out there today. It was very disappointing for us to see a competitor ahead of us parked. I think we would have enjoyed the regatta more if our competitor would have sailed the boat as fast as he could.

“We would have rather been beaten by a greater margin than see a competitor sail like that.”

How big of a margin would the Kiwis have ‘liked’?

“They should have gone out there and beaten us by 1 1/2, 2 hours,” said Farr.

And if they had?

“We would have said ‘you guys sailed a good race’--barring the fact that we all know a catamaran and a monohull is a mismatch,” Barnes said.

The tenor of Fay’s remarks were expected. But Barnes, who had been firm but diplomatic in his pre-Cup remarks, seemed to be irritated.

“I consider what they did to be disgraceful,” he said. “You don’t sit there and wait for the other boat to catch up. This was kind of hard for us as yachtsmen to take. The cat didn’t sail to it’s potential. . . . It’s a disgrace for the America’s Cup to be raced in such a fashion.”

The Kiwis’ major specific contention was that the catamaran had both hulls in the water while sailing with a 9-knot wind at its back. During training, the catamaran always had its hull slightly in the air, an indication of greater boat speed, Barnes said.

Fay had said that Conner would respond to the Kiwi charges with his ‘match’ race explanation.

And Conner did. First however, in reference to Barnes’ relative inexperience, Conner suggested that the upstart had no business questioning the tactics of a skipper who has won four Cups.

Conner and tactician Tom Whidden then offered that it would have been foolhardly to push the catamaran when the lead was comfortable (the Americans led by about 9 minutes at the halfway mark).

How is anyone but the sailor to say?

“Even a non-yachtsmen could see, if he were watching from a blimp, that the catamaran was not being sailed to its potential,” Barnes, said. “Their (boat speed) was 9 knots (with a downwind breeze) of 8-9 knots. That boat should be going 14 knots.”

Barnes, who began sailing competitively at the age of 9, said he had never leveled sandbagging charges at an opponent before.

Fay, on the other hand, had leveled such charges at Conner repeatedly. Conner had predicted Fay would do so again. Fay had predicted Conner’s response.

“Absolutely, we will protest to the court,” Fay reiterated, in reference to his contention that the American response with a catamaran makes for an almost certain victory but also a mismatch.

“That has been our contention for a year now.

“But I think most of the guys felt in a funny way that they would rather have been on our boat than the other boat today.”