SAILING : Italian Tradition Takes a Beating in Their Win

The Italians aren’t any fun anymore.

Time was when they showed up for the America’s Cup with the best food, the best parties, the best sailing clothes, by Gucci--and the slowest boats.

Now they are taking it way too seriously.

Syndicate owner Raul Gardini was on board, smiling all the way, as Paul Cayard steered Il Moro di Venezia III (ITA-15) to a 1-minute 7.9-second victory over New Zealand Saturday to win the first International America’s Cup Class World Championship, a prelude to the 1992 America’s Cup.

A hired Texan, John Kolius, drove Il Moro di Venezia I (ITA-1)--supposedly the slow, backup boat--to a consolation, third-place victory over Chris Dickson’s Nippon Challenge by 5:10.2.

In winds ranging from 10 to 14 knots, Kolius sailed the 22.6-mile course 30 seconds faster than New Zealand in the other race. With a billionaire to sponsor their program and an American to run it, the Italians are making up for all those years of embarrassing themselves. They want to win it.

“We’re in the race,” Cayard said.

Gardini, with Cayard translating, said it even stronger: “The cards are stacked against the defenders now.”

Clearly, the Italians are bent on breaking America’s Cup traditions--their own and the one that says a red boat has never won the Victorian silver ewer.

New Zealand also has red boats and won the fleet-racing phase. The top two will be tough to overtake, perhaps even for the defenders--Dennis Conner and Bill Koch’s America-3 team. The Kiwis are well-funded and have been up and running longer, except for Nippon, which learned how much it has yet to learn.

And the New Zealanders certainly aren’t inclined to help the defenders catch up with cooperative test sailing over the next few months.

Rod Davis, an American who sailed New Zealand’s boat again Saturday, said: “It’s not the job of the challengers to help the defenders of the America’s Cup.”

Davis, the world’s No. 2-ranked match racer behind Dickson, was forced into a bad start by Cayard and never recovered. Davis initiated tacking duels on the first two windward legs--22 tacks on the first, 30 on the second--but managed to close only on the first downwind leg when he reduced Cayard’s lead to 25.8 seconds.

Nobody could make a grudge out of this. Cayard and Davis are pals going back to their days on Defender in the ’83 Cup trials, and Davis will coach Italy’s Admiral’s Cup team--the world championship of ocean racing--this year.

Unlike Cayard, Davis speaks little Italian, saying,: “I can sail in Italian. I just can’t order a meal in Italian.”

Kolius maintained a comfortable lead over Dickson and was home free after Dickson wrapped his spinnaker around the bow when the crew dropped it at the fifth mark, causing a considerable delay.

The event was a test of men, as well as boats.

Cayard said, “Winning is a confidence builder,” and the Italians may have needed some of that after their past Cup performances.

Cayard said half of his crew experienced those letdowns, and there are so many other major sailing opportunities in Italy that he had to sell his program hard.

“Maybe the lack of past success has precluded some of them from committing to it,” he said. “But I think right now our team is pretty formidable. Next year we’ll find out just how formidable it is.”