Don’t Go Overboard Over This

No Italian jokes, please.

All you Randazzos, Caridis, Matereses, DeLucas, Corleones, Carusos and DiMaggios, this Chianti was for you. So what if you guys didn’t really invent pizza and you have a little trouble building towers that don’t lean.

Let’s hear it for the Italian navy.

No, not that one. Let’s hear it for the one Raul Gardini brought to San Diego to conquer the world, at least the world of America’s Cup Class yacht racing. This navy can fly.

When the America’s Cup Class World Championship reached the semifinals Friday, it was supposed to be a private party with a table set for four. Dennis Conner, citing a shortage of linen, stayed home. Maybe he was smart. When it was all over Saturday, Italians were toasting Italians and no one else was in sight . . . literally.

Il Moro de Venezia (ITA-15) won the championship by 1 minutes 7.9 seconds over New Zealand. Il Moro de Venezia (ITA-1) won the consolation race by 5:10.2 over Japan.

Over here, Signor Gardini, it is called sweeping a doubleheader.

About the only thing that might have kept the Italians from facing themselves in the finals was that the rules would not allow it. The rules dictate that if two boats from the same syndicate make the final four, they must meet in the semifinals.

So the Italians had their intramural exercise Friday and then went out and beat up on the world Saturday. These guys came to town with a lion for a symbol and ate up this World Championship.

Folks had to be dancing in the canals of Venice, where Gardini’s Compagnia della Vela Yacht Club is located. I’m not actually sure if Compagnia della Vela is a yacht club or a canal, because I assume they are almost the same thing in Venice. In fact, I think yacht clubs and car pools are the same thing.

Regardless, there was cause for celebration thereabouts.

A lot of people have come after America’s Cup with rather massive campaigns, but Signor Gardini seems particularly committed.

To start with, he is chairman of something called Montedison. This is one of those high-tech companies with 50,000 employees spread over five continents. Signor Gardini apparently has roughly the resources of Illinois.

The man has spared no lire on this invasion. The Italian compound, about the size of Sicily, is the largest of them all. They have a skipper, American Paul Cayard, rumored to be making $1 million to guide their campaign. They have a total budget estimated at between $40 million and $120 million, but who’s counting?

“It’s $40 million,” Cayard said. “Everybody exaggerates everything when it comes to money.”

Of course, it all comes down to boats, and Il Moro di Venezia has three. Two of them won Saturday, and the third is so superfluous they don’t even have it in the water. They probably use it as a coffee table. In contrast, Dennis Conner has one boat, one boom, one mast and apparently not enough sails to get to Point Loma.

Obviously, the Italians are ahead of the pack when it comes to America’s Cup ’92.

But that one word is the working word.

Ahead .

While labeled “World Championship,” this event was essentially like a quarterly report card in school. All these “students” entered this period with varying degrees of preparedness. The French and Conner sailed boats almost before the paint on the carbon-fiber was dry, and the Spanish sailed a borrowed boat. If the Soviets were even represented, it had to be by submarine, which probably wasn’t out of the question.

If anyone should be nervous, it should be New Zealand, America-3 and Nippon. These guys have to be antsy that the Italians might well have two boats better than any of theirs. After all, they have had adequate, at least, time to prepare.

To their credit, Il Moro knows these are not laurels upon which to rest.

Through Cayard’s interpretation, Gardini said: “The World Championships have an inconvenience in that as soon as you win them they are over.”

And, now that they are over, an even longer grind begins.

“It was a great step toward the Cup,” Cayard said, “but another nine months of work is ahead.”

These World Championships are not really seen as a steppingstone to America’s Cup any more than a Cactus League title is a steppingstone to a World Series.

What they tell us is where everyone was on May 11, 1991 . . . behind Il Moro.

And to keep it that way?

“Our plan is to develop more, faster boats,” Cayard said.

More? Faster? How many?

“That,” Cayard smiled, “it the part of the plan I can’t tell you.”

No, no Italian jokes. This time, indeed, the joke may be on everyone else.