SAILING PRE-WORLDS REGATTA : It Seems as Dramatic as the America’s Cup

A Kiwi at the top of a mast, a missing Dennis Conner, a secret fin under the Japanese boat, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda--is it too soon for America’s Cup drama and intrigue?

That was all part of the scene Thursday when seven boats wound up two days of practice racing before the first International America’s Cup Class Championship, starting Saturday.

Rod Davis sailed New Zealand to a 45-second victory over Paul Cayard’s new Il Moro di Venezia boat in Thursday’s 21.2-mile race around the new eight-legged America’s Cup course.

After his billowing gennaker headsail blew apart, Davis had to hold off Cayard while rounding the second mark with bowman Nick Heron at the top of the mast--106 feet 7 1/2 inches above the deck--retrieving the halyard.

Chris Dickson skippered the Nippon Challenge to third place and the overall, if unofficial, victory in the three-race non-event, following two seconds Wednesday.

Dickson and his Japanese crew finished more than seven minutes behind Cayard but did well to regain third.

The Japanese were pushed over the starting line prematurely by France’s Ville de Paris and had to restart. Then their spinnaker pole broke, and they sailed the latter part of the race without one, their chute flying free but effectively.

But the underside of the Nippon boat was of more interest. When the white hull bounced off a swell and the forward section lifted out of the water, a thin, vertical fin became visible.

It is similar to the forward rudder featured on Tom Blackaller’s USA 12-meter in 1986-87 but is set farther aft, slightly forward of the keel.

Is it a second rudder? A kelp cutter to prevent the proliferation of seaweed off Point Loma from collecting on the keel?

No one is saying.

Conner decided not to sail Thursday after hearing the forecast for 20-to-25 knots of wind and hearing tactician Tom Whidden’s report after a drive out to the end of Point Loma in the morning.

“It looked like the Gulf Stream out there,” Whidden said. “We’ve got one mast and one boat. It’d be silly to break something and not be ready for Saturday.”

The sea settled, though, and the wind never got above 12 knots--and, if the truth be told, Conner and company did not seem terribly depressed about not going out. They learned Wednesday with two third-place finishes that their new Stars & Stripes is competitive and see no point in risking it, considering the breakdowns other boats have suffered and the larger stakes ahead.

Conner also will be sailing in the World Championship day-to-day. The worlds will have five days of fleet racing, then two days of match racing among the four semifinalists May 10-11.

Turner rode the race aboard Bill Koch’s older America-2 boat, the one he bought from the French for crew training. Buddy Melges, with Gary Jobson as tactician, steered it to last place after a premature start and a questionable gamble sailing far away from the fleet to the left side of the course.

Koch decided to keep his new boat, nicknamed “Jayhawk” for his native Kansas, in port after cracking the boom Wednesday.

Fonda, Turner’s fiancee, watched from America-3’s VIP boat. Jobson was Turner’s tactician when he defended the America’s Cup with Courageous in ’77.