It Hasn’t Been Smooth Sailing for Soviet Yachting Venture

First, an American cola company dropped its sponsorship of their yacht because of protests about abetting communism. Then, the crewmen of the Soviet yacht, Fazisi, learned that their skipper, Alexei Grishencko, had committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. And with the fourth leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race, 7,190 miles from Auckland, New Zealand, to Punta Del Este starting today, the Soviet crew spent the week trying to raise money.

“We need new sails for the voyage around Cape Horn,” said the new skipper, Skip Novak, a professional sailor from Chicago who had volunteered as a consultant for the 37,950-mile race that has two legs to Uruguay.

New Zealanders have taken the Soviet crew’s plight to heart. One company donated a BMW; it was hoped a raffle for the car would raise $200,000.

New Zealand yachtsmen organized a party for 1,000 in a boatyard and raised $7,200. A local radio station threw a $60-a plate dinner and a fashion show Thursday night.

Also helping raise funds are sales of red T-shirts with the hammer-and-sickle emblem of the Soviet Union emblazoned above the yacht’s name.

Novak said he expects the money raised in New Zealand to get the Fazisi to Uruguay.

“We don’t know what we do when we get there,” he said. “We are hoping that we can pick up some American sponsorship for the leg to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., so we can finish the race. We need another $400,000, but we are philosophical and keen to finish.”

Trivia time: If the New York Knicks had held on to the Eastern Conference’s best record for one more week, Stu Jackson would have become the fourth rookie coach in NBA All-Star game history. Name the others.

Perfectly streamlined: Joe Gergen of Newsday paid this tribute to the Lakers’ Magic Johnson: “Whereas a host of Magic imitators have succeeded mostly in making the easy look difficult, Johnson has refined his own game to the point where he appears not even to be laboring.

“Instead of emphasizing flamboyance, he is doing the simple things better than they have ever been done. It is as if he had conducted tests in a wind tunnel and discarded all the excess baggage that has hampered him and his team from the swiftest possible trip to the basket.”

Fire still burns: Jack Nicklaus, on competing at 50: “When I tee it up, I play it as a game. It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s for 10 cents or a million dollars. You go out, pull the club back and see if you can do it better than anyone else. But I just can’t do it as well as I used to. I want to be competitive. I don’t want to go out there and embarrass myself.

“Now that I’m 50, there is nothing I can do about it. And I’m happy to be there, incidentally.”

Rink of pain: Defenseman Tom Kurvers of the Toronto Maple Leafs, on why there are so many goals scored in Maple Leaf Gardens: “We’ve got a rink suited for a high-scoring game. The ice is real hard, and there are a lot of strange bounces. The boards are very lively. That creates a lot of mistakes. We get a few goals early, and teams hang their heads. We’ve had so many games like that, we’re better suited to an 8-6 game than the teams we’re playing.”

Trivia answer: Ed Macauley, St. Louis Hawks, 1959; Billy Cunningham, Philadelphia 76ers, 1978; Pat Riley, Lakers, 1982.

Quotebook: Richie Adubato, coach of the Dallas Mavericks, on the resurgence of the Phoenix Suns: “They won 57 games last year, and they’re better this year. (Tom) Chambers, Mark West and (Kurt) Rambis . . . get 35 rebounds every night.”