SAILING / CONGRESSIONAL CUP : World’s Best Unmatched in Openers

What Chris Dickson calls the “commercialization” of sailboat racing has come to the Congressional Cup, bringing problems with progress.

Along with sponsorship is seeding, as in tennis, except tennis matches would have been called off in Wednesday’s opening-day weather conditions featuring rain and radical wind shifts.

Four of the world’s top six ranked match racers are competing: Dickson, No. 1; Rod Davis, No. 2; Russell Coutts, No. 5, and Peter Isler, No. 6. But in the new seeded format they won’t race one another any sooner than necessary.

Dickson, the defending champion and Nippon Challenge America’s Cup skipper, and another New Zealander, Coutts, shared the lead after sweeping three races each.

Davis and Isler are in a four-way tie at 2-1 after a day of the big four beating up on the non-seeded sailors--including Jim Brady of Annapolis, no less than the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year but admittedly one with “not a whole lot” of match-racing experience.

Brady shares last place with Ross MacDonald of Canada and Steve Steiner of Long Beach.

Steiner faced Dickson, Davis and Isler on Wednesday.

The sailors’ strongest complaints were about: (a) the weather, (b) the new compact course inside the breakwater and (c) and the near-two-hour delay between the second and third rounds waiting for a replacement for a $4 broken clam cleat on Davis’ boat.

Davis sent his crew below decks to keep warm while steering the boat in circles. When the part arrived, it was the wrong part.

Round-robin racing continues through Friday, with sailoffs among the top four Saturday.