Italy’s Trial Horse Kolius Not Rolling Over

It’s supposed to be understood that the job has its limitations.

If you are a batting-practice pitcher, you are not supposed to try and strike out Tony Gwynn. If you are on the San Francisco 49ers scout team you are not expected to go after Joe Montana. Ed McMahon doesn’t upstage Johnny Carson.

That’s the deal. And so if you’re John Kolius, skipper of ITA-1, your assignment as sparring partner for Paul Cayard’s ITA-15, is to go dead in the water in Friday’s International America’s Cup Classic semifinal competition.

“We’ve proven out here all week that if a really good boat makes a really big mistake they’re going to get passed,” Kolius said. “All things being even, if we were sailing seven races Il Moro-3 (ITA-15) would definitely win four of those races.

“But we’re not sailing seven races, we’re sailing one, and if somebody makes a blunder, they’re going to lose no matter what boat they’re on.”

John Kolius, it seems, is no Ed McMahon.

“As far as my participation with the Il Moro campaign we had originally said that Paul and I would sail together through the worlds and see how it went,” Kolius said. “I’m happy to say we had a couple of meetings this week and I’m going to be with the Il Moro campaign throughout the rest of the America’s Cup.

“The reason I’m making that public now is because I wanted to do it before Friday’s race.”

May the best man win, and who might that be?

“I don’t think Cayard will switch boats with me,” Kolius said, “If that answers your question . . . ITA-15 definitely has more speed.”

So Cayard should win?

“We’ve practiced enough together and sailed a lot of match races amongst ourselves,” Kolius said with a grin, “so I don’t think you’ll see any mercy.

“I don’t have to have an alcohol curfew for the crew; they’re doing it themselves. They’ve been excited all week. They are excited about their performance and they’re proud of themselves.”

And with good reason. They didn’t have the speed of ITA-15, but ITA-1 advanced into the semifinals over the likes of Japan, France, Spain and a pair of America-3 entries.

“I felt if it was windy the crew could out-perform most of the other crews,” Kolius said. “And if we were able keep the boat from breaking down, kind of slug our way along and be conservative, we could get in. That was our goal: To get into the final four.

“This crew has really put their heart and soul into this. And they have just sailed a great regatta. We’ve had only one problem and that was a spinnaker blowout today and it was my fault. What they’ve done so far can’t be taken away from them, and they’re not done yet.”

The racing, however, for Kolius stops right here. He’s no novice to America’s Cup competition, having skippered Courageous in the 1983 defender trials and America II in 1987, but he’s already been relegated to spectator status for the 1992 competition.

Kolius makes his home in Houston, unlike the American-born Cayard, who will have two years of residency to his credit in Italy, to fulfill requirements to race for Il Moro. If Kolius wanted to compete in the upcoming America’s Cup, he would have to race for either Stars & Stripes or America-3.

“I really wanted to go with the Il Moro campaign because I feel I can contribute,” Kolius said. “If I was sailing with one of the two U.S. teams, they have so many guys at the back of the bus I don’t think I’d really be adding anything to either campaign.”

Kolius will work as coach for Il Moro down in the next year leading up to the America’s Cup challenger trials, and at the same time, he will be trying to best and better Cayard on the sea.

“My job will be to sail the second boat and try to tune Paul up for match racing,” Kolius said. “You get somebody out there pushing as hard as they can push, it’s gotta help the whole program.”

Pushing’s one thing; shoving them out of the world championships is something else.

“We’re going to have a good race,” Kolius said. “Paul and I might have our egos bruised, but that’s about the extent of it. The bottom line is the crew and shore crew for the Il Moro campaign can’t lose.”