Regatta Takes Toll on Boats : Sailing: Several craft sustain equipment damage on the first day of the Pre-Worlds.

Damage report from the first day of racing at the Pre-Worlds Regatta, sailed Wednesday off Point Loma:

One broken boom and one broken spinnaker pole (Spain ’92 Quinto Centenario), one cracked boom (America-3), one broken boom vang (New Zealand), one broken mainsheet block (Ville de Paris) and one torn spinnaker (Stars & Stripes).

Of the nine syndicates that set sail, only six finished the second of two races and only four emerged unscathed by day’s end.

Are these new International America’s Cup Class boats, being raced formally for the first time, too fragile, as designers, sailors, skippers and their syndicates have indicated?

Not necessarily. For most of the crews, who either withdrew or limped across the finish line in the the second of two races, they simply raced with caution.

Gary Jobson skippered USA-9, the newer of the two boats America-3 has entered in the regatta and World Championships, which begins Saturday. Skipper Bill Koch was on USA-2, the boat that made it to the finish line twice--finishing eighth in the first race and sixth in the second.

Jobson said the decision to pull the boat for the second race came about the same time the boom broke on Quinto Centenario.

“We saw a small crack in the boom after the first race was over, and we saw the Spainard’s boom break and we thought, ‘Oh no,’ ” Jobson said.

At which point, America-3 called it a day for USA-9, which Jobson said would be back on the water today in full working order.

Spain’s syndicate had its boom taken to Costa Mesa for repairs and expected to have it back by Friday morning. It will use a second, heavier boom today.

“It was a compression failure,” said Gerado Seeliger, a spokesman for Spain. That failure was aided by several wind changes Wednesday and by the lighter boom, which is 40 pounds lighter than the 190-pound one they will use today.

Dennis Conner didn’t let Stars & Stripes’ spinnaker, torn toward the end of the first race, ruin his day. In fact, he sailed to consecutive third-place finishes.

According to Bruce Nelson, a designer for Team Dennis Conner, data for the new boats is scarce and until more is known, breakdowns are bound to happen.

“It’s the first time racing these yachts, and when you’re pushing them to the edge in these conditions, it’s not atypical to see a lot of breakdowns,” Nelson said.

Although tested and retested, little is known about the boats and their equipment through actual sailing, and Nelson said you can’t rule out human error.

“It has a lot to do with the crew,” said Nelson, who estimated that more than 50% of breakdowns involve human error. “It looks bad, but it happens.”

Booms and poles, Nelson explained, might be victims of failure more frequently because they are engineered to be as light as possible.

“What we’re trying to do is minimize the weight while we try to maintain a margin of safety,” he said.

Ville de Paris was towed to its compound on Mission Bay after skipper Marc Pajot won the first race.

With so little time on the water--three syndicates have been on the water less than two weeks--and so much time left, Nelson said racing to the limits on the first day isn’t wise.

“It would be highly detrimental to the program,” he said. “You don’t want to put yourself out of racing for the next two weeks.”

Winds were as high as 19 knots Wednesday. Nelson described the winds as “a nice fresh breeze,” but not enough to cause breakdowns. Today’s winds are expected to reach 20-25 knots.