French Crew Ahead of Its Boat in Preparation : Sailing: Veteran crew eager to get on the water, compete in World Championships.

Oakwood Apartments in Pacific Beach might serve the best French food in San Diego. Problem is, they don’t take reservations. In fact, they’re not even open to the public.

In addition to its entourage of 80, France America--the syndicate preparing for next month’s America’s Cup Class World Championships and ultimately to challenge for the 1992 America’s Cup--hired a local French chef and an American cook.

“I think it’s the best restaurant in San Diego, yes?” operations manager Rene Marqueze said at a press conference this week.

Why let a little American fast food spoil the conditioning of the 16 men who will maneuver the French boat, “Ville de Paris,” in the upcoming world championships?

According to sailing director and skipper Marc Pajot, the crew is in prime physical condition. It’s the boat that must play catch up.

Ville de Paris was flown into San Diego April 10, then assembled, but has yet to be tested on the water. Pajot says he hopes crew and boat can begin sailing together today.

“The boat arriving by plane, that is not the best preparation,” he said through Rachel Audige, public relations consultant and interpreter. “But we will do our best. The team is very well prepared.”

Because of the late start, Pajot has lofty but realistic goals for world championships.

“Our goal first is to win the America’s Cup, and World Championships is part of the way to get there. (A victory) is part of our goal, but not the main part.”

France America thinks it has the manpower to meet the challenge. The core of the crew has been intact since 1987, when French Kiss was fourth in the challengers’ trials in Perth, Australia. The current team was solidified in 1990 and has been sailing periodically ever since.

“The main sail trimmers and tailors are the same,” Pajot said. “More importantly, we have the same tactician (Marc Bouet) and the same navigator (Bertrand Pace).”

Additional assets in the syndicate’s favor are experience and technical know-how.

“For starters, they have a lot of experience in match racing experience, provided by French Kiss,” Audige said. “Second, along the lines of materials used, French technology has dealt with that a lot.”

French team members traveled from France to America and back again for the first three months of the year to prepare for the coming races, but the syndicate wasn’t whole until early April. Since January, they have trained with America-3, the syndicate that bought F-1 from French America.

Pajot said the arrival of Ville de Paris doesn’t end the joint maneuvers.

“We will stay on a continuous training program until the end of July,” he said, at which time some crew members will return home to compete in European races the rest of the summer.

France America expects six months of intense computer and tank testing on first F-1 and then Ville de Paris will enhance its chances for success.

“It’s amazing all the different types of testing they did to simulate sailing conditions,” said Audige, adding that a third boat is scheduled for delivery in November.

Said Pajot: “(Ville de Paris) should be the fastest boat, but we’ll know better after world championships. Computer studies show (Ville de Paris’s) performance is much better (than F-1), but there are no comparative tests. Until it’s on the water, we won’t know.”

France has an affection for sailing--evidenced by major sponsorship by the city of Paris--that should increase as the America’s Cup nears.

“There is a large following,” Pajot said, “but they’re waiting. By the time worlds is here, everyone will be talking about the America’s Cup.”