SAILING CONGRESSIONAL CUP : Coutts Takes Lead With a 6-1 Record

New Zealand’s Russell Coutts is in first place with a 6-1 record after two days of the 26th Congressional Cup at Long Beach, but he isn’t smiling.

It’s the same water and same wind as when he won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics, but somehow it’s not the same.

“Actually, I’ve been feeling a little disoriented out there,” he said after defeating four rivals Thursday.

Two basic differences come to mind. The last time Coutts, 28, was by himself sailing a Finn class dinghy against a relatively faceless fleet. This time, with a crew of six, he’s up against some of the world’s best match-racing sailors--guys he’d love to hate.

Mano a mano, a little killer instinct wouldn’t hurt.

“I feel I have to build a bit of hatred up when we’re racing, which I find rather difficult to do,” Coutts said. “I think I sail better when one of them does a dirty trick.”

They will probably get their chances before the event winds up Saturday. Certainly, Chris Dickson (4-3), who lost his first three races Thursday, would relish another shot at the man some might still regard as the other Kiwi--at least until he matches Dickson’s achievements.

And so would Costa Mesa’s Robbie Haines (5-2), who lost Thursday’s final-race showdown to Coutts by seven seconds.

The idea is to get through today’s two races and into the semifinals among the top four skippers. This year the Congressional aligned itself with the world’s other major match-racing series by instituting best-of-three sailoffs after the usual round-robin.

Following a change from the format initially planned, the first-place skipper will select his semifinal opponent from the next three in the standings.

Let’s see, who would Coutts really love to beat?

One rival comes to mind.

In January, Coutts seemed to have a grip on the Hong Kong Cup when Dickson fought back desperately to gain the semifinals, won that, spotted Coutts the first race in the finals and then won two in a row to claim one of his six consecutive titles.

The addition of as many as six more races has caused anxiety in the race committee to complete all the racing in only four days. That’s why Thursday’s four races were all shortened from twice to once around the one-mile, windward-leeward course despite good wind building from 5 to 14 knots.

Most of the skippers didn’t like sailing what amounted to drag races.

“It puts a lot of pressure on the starts,” said Dickson, who lost to Mike Elias (2-5)--after performing a 270-degree-penalty turn for a prestart foul--Coutts and Peter Isler (4-3) before beating John Kolius (2-5) to stay alive.

In a one-lap race, Dickson said, “There’s not as much opportunity to pass--which is fine if you’re ahead.”

Coutts has hardly been behind in two days. His only loss--to Bill Lynn (3-4)--was the only race in which he failed to win the start, and the start was critical in his match against Haines.

Haines was 5-0 and his crew was loose with laughter awaiting their next match against Kolius. But they lost to Kolius by 11 seconds.

That left them tied with Coutts at 5-1, and after a frantic 10 minutes of spinning and weaving their quick, agile new Catalina 37s through the spectator fleet before the gun, Coutts led Haines across the starting line by three seconds. More important, Coutts was on the right side of the course, commanding the right-of-way when they met on opposite tacks.

Haines missed his best chance for a comeback the first time they met. Instead of ducking behind Coutts from port tack, he tacked to starboard under Coutts’ lee bow and soon fell into Coutts’ wind shadow and dropped another boat length or two.

“We should have ducked him,” Haines said. “We could have gotten to the right.”

Afterward, Coutts differed with most of the skippers, saying he liked the one-lap races.

“We did against Robbie Haines, because he was gaining on us,” Coutts said.