SAILING / CAL CUP : Others May Triumph by Losing to Evolution

After Brack Duker’s Evolution won Sunday’s final race and the Cal Cup for ULDB 70 sailboats, runner-up Roy Disney heaved a sigh of relief and Duker’s friends weren’t sure whether to offer congratulations or condolences.

It’s the Cal Cup curse.

In odd-numbered years the Cal Cup, run by the California Yacht Club at Marina del Rey, is a prelude to the West Coast’s Transpac race to Honolulu. During the seven years it has been staged strictly for the big, fast, half-million-dollar boats, a winner has never parlayed his success into a Transpac victory.

Worse, the previous six winners subsequently sold their boats, experienced business reversals, died--or suffered various combinations of those fates.

Duker, 52, owns an aluminum smelting company in Montana and a medical device business in Costa Mesa. Does he believe in such things?

“In about six weeks I’ll know the answer to that,” he said.

The Transpac starts June 29.

Disney, whose new Pyewacket had dominated the boats’ season until the Cal Cup, liked the omens.

“Not only are we going to win Transpac, but (the) Disney (corporation) isn’t gonna go broke,” he said.

Robbie Haines, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, was at the helm as Disney’s new Santa Cruz 70 ran a solid series of finishes of 2-1-2-5-2. But Evolution, steered by 27-year-old Dan Schiff, was even better with a 3-2-1-1-1 performance, including Sunday’s victory over Pyewacket by 1 minute 12 seconds in light winds of 7-9 knots.

It was a testimony to the speed of those two boats that they ran 1-2 while Evolution sailed a tactical race with the primary purpose of covering its only threat for the title--Pyewacket--while the other nine boats sailed for fleet position.

Evolution also won the Cal Cup last year when it was owned by Bob Doughty, who then sold it to Duker when his furniture business struck a recessional reef.

Duker retained most of Doughty’s crew, whom he credited with the Cal Cup victory--especially Schiff, tacticians Tom Leweck and Bill Herrshaft, headsail trimmer Scotty Haisman and mainsail trimmer Steve Flam.

“No big names,” Duker said, “but no substantial egos, either. I’m a believer in having a lot of personalities that work together.”