Commentary : America Already Behind Competition in Defending Cup

The prevailing view in Albany, N.Y., last week was that it is just a matter of time--probably four to six weeks--before the state’s highest court sends the America’s Cup back to the besieged San Diego Yacht Club to stage a real, live 1992 multinational Cup defense, which raises an interesting question:

Having pledged to run a regatta for a dozen or more Cup challengers from around the world just 24 months after the rancorous court case concludes, does the United States have a prayer of winning the event?

It doesn’t look good.

“If I had to stand behind George Bush and issue a State of the America’s Cup address after he finished the State of the Union,” said Californian Peter Isler, whose organization is farthest along of any potential U.S. Cup defender, “I’d have to say we’re behind and there’s no more time to wait.”

“We’re way behind the eight ball,” agreed Tom Ehman, executive director of San Diego’s America’s Cup Organizing Committee. “We’re 10 months to a year behind Japan and Italy, but things are beginning to happen.”

Word from afar is that other nations are well along on building the first generation of a new class of 75-foot high-tech yachts chosen to race for sailing’s grand prize.

The French have completed an America’s Cup-class boat and will launch it soon in the Mediterranean; the Italians, with mega-millionaire Raul Gardini backing the campaign, have construction under way; the Danes, Japanese, Spaniards, even the Yugoslavs, have boats in the works.

Meantime, Americans not only have nothing in the shed, they don’t have a shed.

The problem is money. Half a dozen or more U.S. syndicates hope to go racing for the right to defend if San Diego wins in court, but it will cost each $15 million to $25 million. A little more than two years before a 1992 regatta would begin, Isler has a rousing $155,000 in hand, and he’s at the head of the class.

The cost of competing “is more money than ever was raised for an America’s Cup campaign,” said Isler, “and given the fact that the Cup is not as well received today as it was” before the vicious court fight with New Zealand, “it’s hard to raise.”

He said it’s no fun going before corporate executives to seek sponsorship money and facing embarrassing questions like, “When is the race going to be?” or “Where?” He still has to say, “I don’t know.”

That would change with a court decision, and Isler, cup holder Dennis Conner and veteran Cup competitor Buddy Melges, the leading defense contenders, all are banking on a big influx of cash once a time and place are assured.

“All I want is a boat,” said Melges, an Olympic gold medalist who ran the Heart of America challenge in 1987. “Give me a platform and let’s go sailing.”

But Melges said the best he can hope for is to get a Cup class contender afloat by late this year, leaving a little more than a year to test and refine it and build a second-generation sequel before the racing begins.

Isler had hoped to build three boats, racing the first two against each other to narrow down a concept for the race boat. Now, the calendar says he will have to settle for two boats.

Tight?

“You bet,” said Melges, “but I can’t believe the Americans can’t put the pedal down and get the job done.”

Isler, a Yale-educated meteorologist who was on Conner’s winning team the last two Cups, takes comfort in the fact that for the first time since 1958, racing will be in a new class of boat. The America’s Cup Class uses high-tech materials like carbon-fiber hulls and spars, ultralight titanium fittings and new hull shapes devised for San Diego’s light winds.

“With a new boat,” he said, “it’s somewhat an open field. There’s no base line data, so U.S. technological talent will be a big advantage, maybe more than having a boat in the water early,” he said.

“So there’s still a chance,” said Isler, “but I’m cautious because no one, including us, has the money yet even to crank up the technology.”

Potential U.S. defenders recently took an unprecedented step by agreeing to cooperate on gathering base line data. Four syndicates, Melges’, Conner’s, Isler’s and San Diegan Larry Klein’s, joined a “Partnership for America’s Cup Technology,” which is using a $150,000 grant from the defense contractor Science Applications International to begin compiling hull shape, weather, engineering and other technical data.

Conner’s former design coordinator, John Marshall, is spearheading PACT, which most Cup observers say is the first light in the bleak tunnel that has been acting as road to a 1992 defense.

But time is running out.

Ehman has 13 official challenges from 11 nations in hand, with 10 other challenges possible. Some challengers, too, are working together. Italy’s Gardini recently announced formation of a European America’s Cup Class Assn., which will start racing the new boats in the Mediterranean this summer. Meantime, the Americans sit and hope the money starts rolling in.

“I see us coming to the World Championships (in San Diego in May, 1991) in first-generation boats with two to three months sailing experience,” said Marshall. “It’s going to be some rocky road” against the more experienced European competitors, he said.

“But it’s good to be back in a positive mode,” Marshall said, “doing things to make boats go fast instead of making trips to Albany.”