Bay Boaters Treading Near Italian Cup Challengers Hear Harsh Words

Bumper boats on the high seas? Or: My America’s Cup emotion runneth over.

What do you get when you mix national pride, corporate zeal and lots of money, ego and competitiveness (and those ever-intrusive hounds of the press)?

The America’s Cup, of course. Also, a good bet for stick-it-in-your-jib confrontations.

So far, the entrants in next year’s competition off San Diego have been on their best behavior. But there are signs that rougher waters may lie ahead.

Take some recent flaps involving the Il Moro di Venezia syndicate, the Italian challenger now encamped at Shelter Island.

The Italians were sailing off Point Loma when they spotted a boat containing the prying eyes of several members of Dennis Conner’s crew.

Conner-man Bill Trinkle says the Italians sent someone in a rubber dinghy to tell them to get lost, bumping their boat in the process.

“It was very rude,” said Trinkle. “We were at least 75 yards away, in American territorial waters. “

He complained to the Coast Guard.

Later, Il Moro issued a statement asking all “marine traffic” to stay behind and at least five boat lengths away (about 125 yards) from the Italian boat.

In another incident, a news photographer taking pictures from his own boat was upbraided and splashed by a man in the now-famous dinghy: the words were English, the gestures were Italian.

Last week, another news photographer was chased away while using a ladder to try to get a closer look at the Il Moro boat at Driscoll Boatworks.

Cherie Tripp, who handles press relations for Il Moro, says the Italians want only good relations with everyone. She warns about indulging in stereotypes about ethnic volatility.

“These are northern Italians, not Sicilians,” she says. “They don’t carry guns. They’re just like people you’d see in New York City.”

Why does that not reassure me?

Reporters Given Cleanup Duty

No ifs, ands or butts.

* Reporters and photographers sent to Camp Pendleton on Monday to cover the arrival of two former prisoners of war got an unexpected dose of Marine decorum.

After getting their interviews and pictures, the media-ites were not allowed to return to the outside world until they picked up all the cigarette butts, gum wrappers, etc., that they had dropped on the airstrip Tarmac.

Only then did the buses roll. The Marines call it preventing FOD, Foreign Object Damage.

Lots of heavy grumbling among the journalists.

* The McDonald’s in downtown San Diego accepts fax orders. With every $8 fax order, you get free french fries.

* Even Union-Tribune publisher Helen Copley (10,203 gallons) is a piker compared to Padres infielder Garry Templeton.

Templeton used 12,579 gallons of water a day on his 4-acre spread in Poway last year, according to the Escondido Times Advocate. A big lawn and 100 trees.

* Only in sunny San Diego. Sign on Bargain Bookstore downtown: “Rainy Day Schedule. Open by Noon or Not at All.”

Pigskin Spoils

Big Island, Big Game.

* Is there money in pro football or what?

The super-lush Hyatt Regency Waikoloa, where National Football League owners met to decide between San Diego and Pasadena for Super Bowl XXVII, has been called “the world’s most expensive resort” by Time magazine.

Rooms go for $265 to $2,500 a night.

* Greg Akili, head of San Diego’s African-American Organizing Project, couldn’t afford to stay at the hotel.

He stayed with friends. He talked to several owners but was refused a meeting with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to make his case about racism in San Diego.

* Akili’s were not the only discouraging words being heard.

Greenpeace used the occasion to protest the presence of captive dolphins in the hotel’s lagoons. A daily lottery decides which guests can swim with the bottlenoses.