Sailing / Rich Roberts : America’s Cup Appeal Decision Still Pending

All of the America’s Cup principals have agreed that the next defense will be conducted in the new 75-foot boats in the spring of 1992, after a World Championship regatta for the class in ’91.

They won’t know where until a decision is handed down by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, which has become, in effect, the site selection committee.

If the five judges uphold Justice Carmen Ciparick’s decision to forfeit the Cup to New Zealand because San Diego used a catamaran in last year’s bizarre event, Auckland is in. It’s questionable whether San Diego has the will or the resources to continue the fight in a higher court.

“If you lose at the lower court and the appellate court, I would doubt we would appeal,” said Tom Ehman, executive vice president of San Diego’s America’s Cup Organizing Committee.

But the judges have had the case since a hearing June 8. In Ehman’s mind, two months is an awfully long time just to decide they agree with Ciparick.

“If they’re going to uphold (Ciparick’s ruling with) a clear-cut decision, that doesn’t take very long,” Ehman said. “(And) if we win outright, that could be the end of it.”

However, Ehman is careful not to underestimate Michael Fay, the Auckland merchant banker whose resolve and resources seem endless.

The decision will be announced on a Thursday at noon, PDT. Nobody knows which Thursday, only that when it’s in summer recess, the Appellate Division hears no cases but spends its time deliberating only and announces decisions on Thursdays.

Sailors everywhere will rejoice. They are universally sick of the affair.

“Obviously, we’re hoping to have it over with,” Ehman said. “I didn’t move to California to run a one-on-one match between a 130-foot yacht and a 60-foot catamaran.”

But Ehman doesn’t apologize for San Diego’s dragging out the issue in the courts, where Fay originally took it.

“I wouldn’t do a thing differently that we’ve done, given the circumstances at the time,” he said.

Trying to sound positive, Ehman added, “More people know about the America’s Cup because of the renegade challenge and the catamaran defense.”

On the other hand, is what they know good?

“The longer it goes on, yes, the more it tarnishes the image of the Cup,” Ehman said.

AMERICA’S CUP--John Marshall has resigned as president of Team Dennis Conner for the next America’s Cup campaign. Marshall, a leading advocate of the catamaran defense, has been associated with skipper Dennis Conner in two campaigns as crewman and two more as chief designer. . . . Peter Isler, another of Conner’s former crewmen and an employee at Dennis Conner Sports Inc., is the first American to lodge a formal challenge to New Zealand, contingent on the Kiwis winding up with the Cup. Isler would represent the Waikiki Yacht Club. Otherwise, he’ll seek to defend for the San Diego YC.

MATCH RACING--Isler will be among 10 sailors competing for $102,000 in prize money ($25,500 to win) in the World Championships at the Royal Lymington YC in England Sept. 6-10. Invitations are automatic--the top 10 in the current World Yachting (point) Rankings of the International Match Racing Sailors Assn.--but several have turned down the invitations.

Conner is tied for ninth with New Zealand’s David Barnes, chiefly because of his America’s Cup activities the last three years, but he won’t compete. Organizers refused his usual post-Fremantle request for an appearance fee--reportedly $35,000, up from the $25,000 he was asking for the Congressional Cup at Long Beach last March.

Hal Lane of Long Beach, chairman of the World Match Racing Conference, said of Conner: “He doesn’t want to put anything back into the sport.”

Otherwise, the top 10, in order, are Chris Dickson, New Zealand; Peter Gilmour, Australia; Rod Davis, New Zealand; Eddie Owen, United Kingdom; Isler, U.S.; Russell Coutts, New Zealand; John Kolius, U.S.; Paul Cayard, U.S.; Barnes and Conner. Kolius and Cayard won’t sail, and Barnes will sail with Davis.

Two lower-ranked Americans, John Bertrand of Newport Beach, 11th, and John Shadden of Long Beach, 14th, have indicated they won’t accept bids. One reason is that although room and board are paid, competitors must pay their own travel expenses. Shadden has settled down to stocks and bonds and will marry Patricia Wilmer Sept. 16. That would leave Isler against the Kiwis and the cream of the U.K.

Isler also will be Ted Turner’s tactician against Gary Jobson in a resurrection race of the giant 1930s America’s Cup J-boats Shamrock and Endeavour at Newport, R.I. Aug. 26. . . . Catalina Yachts President Frank Butler has agreed to lend the Long Beach Yacht Club 11 of the new Catalina-37 racers for the next five Congressional Cup regattas, succeeding the cruiser-racer C-38s. Finally, a real racing boat for this prestigious event.

A dozen entries, including one from New Zealand, are competing in the 23rd Governor’s Cup junior championship at Balboa YC through Sunday. Jason Fain of Richmond YC on San Francisco Bay is defending champion. Crews of three sail Santana 20s around a course set off the Newport Pier. . . . The IYRU is expected to approve match racing for Solings in the ’92 Olympics at Barcelona. At 26 feet 9 inches, they are the largest of the Olympic boats.

The move away from less-captivating fleet racing was initiated by International Yacht Racing Union judges and delegates Tom Ehman and Gerardo Seeliger after their informal discussions during the Congressional Cup at Long Beach last year, when on-the-water judging proved the format practical for small keelboats. Ehman also is executive vice president of San Diego’s America’s Cup Organizing Committee. Seeliger is a Spanish businessman based in Los Angeles.

LITTLE AMERICA’S CUP--Lee Griswold, the driving force behind the Cabrillo Beach YC’s challenge at Melbourne last January, died suddenly July 14 after abdominal surgery. As project manager, Griswold, of Ventura, had been trying to raise $250,000 for another challenge in 1991. The recent one ended before it started when Cabrillo’s revolutionary C-class catamaran with the teeter-totter sail was blown over by a TV helicopter and destroyed.

NOTEWORTHY--Seal Beach YC will conduct the eighth annual all-Catalina race Saturday, Aug. 12. It’s for Catalina-brand boats from 22 to 38 feet. . . . The Dana Point and Silver Gate YCs will run the 134-mile San Clemente Island race for PHRF, IOR and SDHF handicap fleets Sept. 2-4. Start is at Dana Point, finish at San Diego. The record is 22 hours 2 minutes by Ragtime in 1978.

It’s not exactly sailing, but California YC’s eighth Inflatable Dinghy Race is scheduled Thursday, Aug. 24, at 6 p.m. in the harbor at Marina Del Rey. Only hands and arms--no sails, motors or paddles--may be used. . . . A collection of Scott Kennedy’s America’s Cup art from the last two events will be on display at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro Aug. 8-Oct. 31. Admission is free.

The third charity regatta of the Yacht Clubs of Long Beach is scheduled Sunday, Oct. 8, and will benefit the Children’s Clinic of Long Beach. For details, call (213) 473-4004 or (714) 840-2902. . . . The 21 members of the Ultra Light Displacement (ULDB) Assn. for the big, breezy sleds have voted to drop all handicaps and go to level racing--first boat to finish wins--for their six-event championship schedule in 1990. The events include buoy races and the long-distance Mexican contests.