SAILING / RICH ROBERTS : It’s His Boat, So Ward Takes the Wheel

The wind was only four knots, and Cheval needed a delicate touch on the helm to keep her speed up . . . the touch, someone noted, of an eye surgeon, which is what the skipper happens to be.

Hal Ward, responding to his own senses and input from the crew, steered his big boat around the course to victory.

Afterward, as the crew came aft to congratulate him, the significance of the moment was clear: Ward, a paraplegic, had never steered his own boat in a race until that weekend.

That’s not unusual among the Ultralight Displacement Boat 70 Assn. owners, several of whom enlist the skills of world-class sailors. But the recent Watts Trophy event at the Los Angeles Yacht Club required owners to be their own helmsmen.

Some thought that Ward, unable to stand at the helm, would be at a severe disadvantage.

“I told Hal we would make special allowances for him,” said Tom Leweck, the association’s director. “But he wouldn’t have it.”

Instead, Ward spent the weekend perched on a pedestal seat behind the big wheel, wearing one of his hot-pink crew shirts and having a wonderful time.

Cheval placed third in the regatta to retain its lead in the season championship standings going into the final points event--the L.A.-to-Cabo San Lucas race via Guadalupe Island starting this weekend.

“I was amazed how well he sailed the boat,” said Roy Cundiff, one of the tacticians. “He’s a fierce competitor--and he’s also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.”

This is all too embarrassing for Ward, who regards his infirmity as a mere inconvenience.

In his Arcadia office, there are not only trophies for sailing victories but “fish-rubbings”--framed impression tapestries--of king salmon caught in British Columbia and color blowups of Hawaiian tropical fish. Look closely and you will find Ward swimming among them, in SCUBA gear.

“I grew up in the boondocks west of Seattle,” he said. “I liked the water. I liked boats. When my children were growing up many years ago, I took them out sailing and they all got seasick. The family were not amenable to sailing.”

Besides, Ward was busy with his growing practice, and racehorses occupied his interest for a while.

Earlier, he played golf until struck by polio in his second year of medical school at USC. After a year of therapy, he returned to school and tried to play golf again but found: “Some things you just can’t do.”

But sailing was always in the back of his mind.

He was 54 when he bought his first boat, a Newport 30, nine years ago.

“It’s not that difficult to learn how to sail,” he said.

But he got bored unless he was racing and was frustrated going slow.

Then along came the ULDB 70s, or sleds, the fastest fleet of big boats on the West Coast, and Ward knew what he wanted: the Nelson-Marek 67 that became Cheval.

Ward won’t drive much in the Cabo race. He prefers to navigate and take his turn grinding winches to trim the sails.

The Watts, he said, “was fun, but it’s fun to see the real pros drive your boat, too.”

Ward has an all-star crew for Cabo. Robbie Haines won an Olympic gold medal in Solings in 1984. Skip Allan took the Congressional Cup in ’68. Scott Vogel was Dennis Conner’s bowman on Stars & Stripes off Fremantle, Australia, in ’87. Kimo Worthington has sailed on everything afloat, including the wild Ultimate 30s and America’s Cup boats.

Ward would no more think of steering his own boat to Cabo than allowing Haines to perform eye surgery.

“It’s like owning an Indy car and driving it yourself,” Ward said. “You’re not going to look very good out on the track. We’re not in the same league.”

Ward, who gets around with a pair of aluminum canes, will handle the electronic navigation below decks, “and then I’ll come up and grind for four or five hours at a time to get a little exercise.”

Ward did all the navigation when Cheval won the Oakland-to-Catalina race in July, and most of it when Cheval set the record of 5 days 7 hours 54 minutes in a frantic finish to the San Diego-to-Manzanillo race in February.

Ward takes his racing more seriously than he cares to admit. He has two rules on his boat--no beer, no smoking.

“You lose focus when you mellow out a little,” Ward said. “We like to have a good time. Winning is a good time.”

Sailing Notes

WEEKEND EVENTS--The Los Angeles Yacht Club lists 29 entries, including eight ULDB 70s, in its L.A.-to-Cabo San Lucas via Guadalupe Island race. The IMS and smaller PHRF fleets will start today at noon, 24 hours ahead of the 70s and PHRF-A boats. The sleds are Hal Ward’s Cheval, the ULDB 70 Assn. season points leader; Peter Tong’s Blondie; Cheetah, under charter to Sandy Martin, Tony Delfino and Gil Jones; Brack Duker’s Evolution; Ed McDowell’s Grand Illusion; Davis Pillsbury’s Holua; Antonio Elias’ Ole, and Mitchell Rouse’s Taxi Dancer. . . . The Cabrillo Beach YC will host the Cal 40 Assn.’s silver anniversary national championship Saturday and Sunday in the Los Angeles outer harbor, with 25 entries. The boats, used for many years in the Congressional Cup, were last built in the 1960s and are regarded as forerunners of the modern ultralights. Designer C. William Lapworth will attend a dinner Saturday night at the club.

MATCH RACING--Russell Coutts of New Zealand won the Omega Gold Cup match racing event off Bermuda this week by sweeping Australia’s Peter Gilmour, 3-0, in the finals. Gilmour defaulted the second race when he ran into the committee boat. In a couple of surprises, Jorg Diesach of Germany was third and Olle Johansson of Sweden fourth. San Diego’s J.J. Isler, the only woman competitor, was eliminated by San Diego’s Larry Klein in the round of 16. Long Beach’s Steve Flam lost to New Zealand’s Rod Davis in the same round, before Davis was upset by Johansson in the quarterfinals.

AMERICA’S CUP--Bill Koch’s defense syndicate plans to build three boats and is leaning toward a two-boat campaign, but it hasn’t been determined who will steer: Buddy Melges, the veteran wizard of Zenda (Wis.); Larry Klein, whose Triumph America effort was absorbed in the merger with Koch’s America 3 group; Gary Jobson, or Koch himself. Jobson is organizing a crew roster of 32--exactly enough to man two of the new America’s Cup class boats. Koch’s first boat has been under construction for six weeks at (Eric) Goetz Custom Boats in Bristol, R.I. The same yard is building Dennis Conner’s boat at another facility three miles away. . . . The Soviet Union’s Red Star Syndicate has announced a corporate sponsor: Stolichnaya Vodka.