Eastern Events Offer More Challenges for Top Catamaran Sailor

Randy Smyth maintains that, in sailing, it’s harder to win a world championship than it is the Olympics, and last month America’s top catamaran sailor won two other events that seemed like the toughest of all: a ProSail 40 event at Charlotte, N.C., and the World 1000 (miles) up the coast of the southeast United States.

At Charlotte, he lost a crew member overboard in one of the 10 races and draped rival Tom Blackaller with his spinnaker in the last race before almost capsizing seconds prior to reaching the finish line. With Blackaller flying from behind, Smyth won by 30 feet to beat Blackaller by a quarter-point in the standings, 19 to 19 1/4.

Then, with only a day between events, Smyth capsized on the first two legs of the World 1000 for 20-foot cats, later almost sank when he hit a shark and, finally, had his mast fall down.

“It was so action-packed you couldn’t find time to breathe,” said Smyth, 34, when he returned to his Huntington Beach home.

The two-time defending champion was Roy Seaman of Malibu, who had even worse luck.

“Roy had tipped over and his crew (Gary Miller) went flying off the rack right through the mainsail, like falling off a two-story building,” Smyth said. “They righted the boat, but some battens were broken and they started tearing the sail. He had a death ship sort of look to him.

“Then his rudder fell off and broke. A boat ahead of him had broken down on the beach, so Roy went in and took his rudder and continued on. Roy is a tough, tough competitor. When he tips over he gets mad and really goes, and he was mad that day.

“So he was blasting up the coast, real windy, when his forestay chainplate up in the bow ripped right through the hull and the whole rig came down. At that time it was blowing hard offshore, pretty dangerous. You could get swept out to sea where nobody would find you. So he had to call the Coast Guard. He tried real hard, but that was the end of his hopes.”

Sailing Notes

COLLEGE--Coach Craig Wilson’s UC Irvine team is defending its national collegiate title this week on Lake Michigan at Chicago. The team, again led by Jon Pinckney and Nick Scandone, recently won the Pacific Coast title and is ranked No. 1 nationally.

AMERICA’S CUP--The Appellate Court of the New York Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday on the San Diego Yacht Club’s appeal of the awarding of the Cup to New Zealand’s Mercury Bay Boating Club. The five-judge panel is expected to render a decision within 30 to 60 days. If it’s 3-2, the loser has an automatic right to go on to the New York Court of Appeals for a final judgment. A 4-1 or 5-0 vote would require a petition to the appeals court, but in that case San Diego seems unlikely to pursue the matter. This action alone will cost up to $200,000 in legal fees, money which the America’s Cup Organizing Committee doesn’t have.

NOTEWORTHY--A dozen ultra light displacement boats (a.k.a. “sleds”) will compete out of the Long Beach Yacht Club Sunday in the first American Cancer Society Cup. Proceeds from paid crew or spectator boat positions ($35 each) go to charity. Entries include Pyewacket, Cheetah, Blondie and Citius. . . . The fifth edition of Southern California’s most competitive fleet event, Audi/Sobstad Race Week, will be Audi/North Sails Race Week this year because of a change in sponsorship, promoter Bruce Golison says. The June 22-25 event is for PHRF racers with handicap ratings from 36 to 174, plus J-35s and Schock 35s, and, new this year, a Swan class. . . . The Soviets seem serious about going for the America’s Cup. To gain some match-racing experience, skipper Oleg Georgievitch Stashkevitch will bring a crew to the Liberty Cup at New York June 29-July 2. . . . The Ziploc Ultimate Yacht Race series opened at Corpus Christ, Tex., this week, offering $500,000 in prize money. . . . Quarterfinals of the Adams Trophy--the national women’s championship--will be run by South Bay Yacht Club this weekend, along with the Catalina 22 Southwest Regionals and the Bachman Cup for Westsail 28s to 43s at Long Beach. The latter won’t be a speed event. A Westsail, an organizer notes, “has the basic hull shape of an iceberg.” . . . The Coast Guard has a toll-free number (1-800-424-8802) to report oil and chemical spills. . . . Sunday starts the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary’s 32nd National Safe Boating Week, by presidential proclamation.