Congressional Cup : Unbeaten at 7-0, Davis Wins for a Record Third Time

Rod Davis sailed his Catalina 38 into a slip at the Long Beach Yacht Club and checked his watch late Friday afternoon.

“It’s just coming up about noon,” he said. “Supposed to be coming home from the hospital about now.”

Davis’ thoughts were on New Zealand time. He’ll remember this as the week his head and his heart were oceans apart.

Last Monday, his wife Liz gave birth to their second daughter in Auckland, and Friday Davis won the 25th Congressional Cup by outsailing Anaheim’s John Bertrand and San Diego’s Peter Isler to post an unbeatable 7-0 record.

Even if Davis should lose both of his remaining races today and runner-up Peter Gilmour of Australia (5-2) win his two, Davis will receive the traditional crimson blazer by virtue of Thursday’s win over Gilmour, the ’88 champion.

Several other sailors--Gerry Driscoll, Argyle Campbell, Dennis Conner, Dick Deaver, Dennis Durgan and Dave Perry--had won two Congressionals, but Davis is the first to break through with three victories--in 1981, ’85 and ’89.

His record of winning the Congressional for three different yacht clubs--Newport Harbor, Long Beach and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron--and two different countries may never be challenged.

And in case anyone is wondering, Davis affirmed that, legally, he intends to remain an American.

“Definitely,” he said. “To get New Zealand citizenship, you must be prepared to lose your U.S. citizenship--and I’m not prepared to take the risk.”

Funny, but for a nation of fun-loving sportsmen, the Kiwis were remarkably reserved in victory. After beating Bertrand by 47 seconds, Davis wasn’t sure he had clinched the title when he crossed the finish line one minute in front of Isler.

There were no high fives, no cheering, no celebrating of any kind.

“We were recounting whether Perry had lost three races,” Davis said. “We hadn’t got it all figured out yet.

“But that’s been our style from Day 1. We don’t jump up and down and slap each other on the back. We don’t do anything.”

The crew didn’t even give Davis the traditional dunking at the dock.

But, oh, how they can sail. Davis and his all-Kiwi crew placed third in the Nippon Cup last November, second in the World Cup of Match Racing at Fremantle in December and won the Chinatel Cup at Hong Kong in January to start the ’89 series of 10 match-racing events.

Their starts all week have not been sharp--first across the line only once in seven races--but afterward they made few mistakes.

Against Bertrand (4-3) they got off 15 seconds behind but passed the St. Francis Yacht Club entry near the first downwind mark and held on.

Isler (4-3) was upset by Japan’s Makoto Namba (2-5) in that same round, which took the punch out of a potential showdown match.

Worse, Isler appeared to have a slight edge at the gun but had to perform a 270-degree penalty turn ordered by the on-the-water judges for a port-starboard foul three minutes earlier.

Davis said, “I think what might have happened to Peter, he was so psyched up for us that he just let up a little, got behind the Japanese and guess what--they can tack, they can jibe and they can sail a boat, thank you very much.”

Davis said he doesn’t intend to let up today with the chance of going 9-0, as he did in ’81 and Perry did in ’84.

“Sure, we want to do that. We’re going to have a nice race against Perry, and I saw the Japanese beat Isler today. Whoo! I had never seen such a depressed crew when they crossed the finish line.”