Not Much Class

We were overwhelmed, while watching Stars & Stripes glide to victory over New Zealand off San Diego, at the history of missed opportunities that have marked the America’s Cup. As the wind filled the catamaran’s great reacher, and the full logo of Diet Pepsi came into breathtaking view, we imagined what might have been. We could picture Sir Thomas Lipton, in his five challenges from 1899 to 1930, ordering aloft on his splendid Shamrocks even larger headsails extolling the virtues of a bracing cup of tea. And we could see the Vanderbilts, Harold and Cornelius, converting the spinnakers of Resolute, Enterprise, Rainbow and Ranger to remind the spectator fleet that there was no faster way to get to Chicago than aboard their New York Central Railroad’s 20th Century Limited.

But they suffered other limitations in those days. There was no television through which the Pepsi commercials could conveniently merge with the race itself, with a distinction not always clear as cameras caught the skipper sipping soda and ordering his crew.

Even on Wednesday there was a missed opportunity. Dennis Conner could have joined the race in the spirit of all who have defended and challenged before, and let us see what his ludicrous vessel could do in maximum performance. Instead he stalled, stirring the suspicion that he wanted to narrow the distance between victor and vanquished to improve his defense against the court challenge to his boat’s design. That may have been appropriate to the nasty humor inspired by New Zealand’s bizarre challenge, but it denied the world of yachting the one useful purpose that the race might have served: a true test of two diverse designs. Perhaps he will think better of the strategy today.