Spaniard Has Right Lineage For the Job

Should experience be a determining factor in the 1992 America’s Cup racing, and most experts concede that it will, then you can pack the old mug in a crate, strap it into its usual first class seat and ship it to Bayona, Spain.

What, no Dennis Conner?

Not even Sir Michael Fay?

Nope.

Address it to the Monte Real Club de Yates, a yacht club built inside a fortress on the northwestern coast of Spain.

Monte Real Club de Yates? Spain?

Hey, the Spaniards were sailing before yachts were invented. They were sailing when sailing was a way of life and death, not weekend revelry. They were sailing when that was the way to expand horizons.

With this sort of heritage, a few runs up and down the coast off Point Loma should be a piece of cake. They won’t even have to post a midnight watch.

Spain might be a little behind in arriving in San Diego, but the Espana 92-Quinto Centenario syndicate has one yacht in the water off Mallorca and another under construction.

Appropriately, one Diego Colon was in town earlier this week to explore the New World. He is the technical director for the campaign, meaning he is responsible for design, engineering, research, construction, repair and maintenance. Other than that, there isn’t much other than that.

The name Colon might well ring a bell with historical aficionados who have delved a little deeper than what they learned in their fourth-grade textbooks.

You want legacy?

Colon, 40, is the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson of a sailor named Cristobal Colon, give or take a great or two.

Cristobal Colon and Christopher Columbus were one and the same.

Students can be excused for being a little bit confused, because tracking Columbus’ name is probably harder than tracking his family tree.

Columbus was born Cristoforo Colombo in Italy, but wayfaring seafarers tend to get around. Contemporary examples would be New Zealand’s Chris Dickson sailing for the Japanese, American Rod Davis sailing for New Zealand and American Paul Cayard sailing for the Italians. Columbus did his most famous sailing for the king and queen of Spain.

Whereas names are Americanized in modern times, Colombo’s name was adjusted to a Spanish spelling . . . hence, Cristobal Colon.

Where tell, then, does Christopher Columbus emerge from this tangle?

Diego Colon, as might be expected, has studied this subject. His theory is that the Italians are the culprits, claiming they Americanized the name to Christopher Columbus.

“The Italians made a big show of the fourth centennial of the discovery of America,” he said. “Christopher Columbus Day is an Italian event, especially in New York. It is as if there was no Spanish involvement.”

He laughed.

“Imagine,” he said, “if, 400 years from now, the German people celebrate that they were the first to arrive on the moon because von Braun was German.”

Point well taken. Wernher von Braun, the original rocket scientist, did not actually get to the moon, but he had just a little bit to do with the U.S. getting there.

Columbus, of course, was the first to land in the Americas, at least the first to land and establish settlements and exploration.

It is this event that the Spanish syndicate will be honoring with its presence here in 1992. You see, this will be the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery.

Translated, the syndicate’s name means “Spain ‘92-Fifth Centennial.”

It probably would not be startling to reveal that Spain’s entry in the America’s Cup will be like a rocket ship, in terms of instrumentation, when compared with the three ships Columbus sailed across the ocean.

“The only equipment they had at that time,” Colon said, “was a compass and something like a sextant. But they were very exact in their measurements. They knew exactly where they were. They returned to the Caribbean four times and always arrived at the same place.”

Colon’s grandfather knew the ocean and knew the Caribbean, and his name and title have been passed from generation to generation since.

“The oldest sons and their oldest sons have all gotten the title of Admiral of the Ocean Seas,” Colon said.

Colon, alas, has an older brother . . . named Christopher, who’s in the Spanish navy. Christopher inherited the title.

However, Diego Colon’s title is quite significant as well. The technical director of Espana 92-Quinto Centenario is a very big part of Spain’s newest quest in the New World.

Christopher Columbus would not dare have returned with nothing more than an old mug with no bottom.

“Leave it,” he would have commanded. “What’s the queen gonna do with that?”

His grandson knows better. It might be ugly, but it’s worth more than all the Santa Maria, Nina and Pinta combined could have carried . . . inflated to today’s dollars.