America’s Cup Runneth Over With Enthusiasm : * You don’t have to be a millionaire to get involved in the world’s most prestigious yacht race.

It may not be the World Series, but to boaters the America’s Cup is major league.

It is the world’s most prestigious yacht race--and at $20 to $40 million a campaign, the most expensive.

But you don’t have to be a millionaire to participate.

Orange County boaters and non-boaters alike can become involved, insists Ralph Rodheim, a Balboa Island resident who describes himself as cheerleader and volunteer for the America 3 Syndicate, one of only two American teams vying for the honor of defending the cup in 1992. The other American defender is Team Dennis Conner, headed by the skipper who won the cup back from Australia in 1987 and brought it to San Diego--which is as close as the races have ever gotten to Orange County.

Although defender selection trials do not begin until Jan. 14 and cup races don’t start until May, local interest is mounting, according to David Rosow, an executive vice president with the America 3 Foundation.

Rosow points out that in the 1987 campaign, local interest was so strong that the Newport Harbor Yacht Club put together the Eagle Challenge and went to Australia to try to bring the cup to Orange County. Although the campaign failed, Rosow says cup fever, especially among area sailors, is still running high.

The mystique of the cup dates back to 1851 when the New York Yacht Club first won the trophy in England and brought it home, where it stayed for 132 years while the United States enjoyed its longest winning streak in sports history.

During that time, races, sailed by such millionaires as Harold S. Vanderbilt, were held on the East Coast. Then in 1983, the United States, represented by Dennis Conner, lost the cup to Australia. But it did not stay in Australia long. In 1987, Conner went to Fremantle, beat the Australians, and brought the trophy to its new home on the West Coast.

“For all the years of the America’s Cup, we on the West Coast always watched and wished it would some day be in close proximity,” says Rodheim, co-chairman of the Orange County Advisory Committee for America 3. “Now it is in our own back yard, about an hour’s drive away and to think that we have this incredible opportunity for sailors and non-sailors alike to participate in this world event.”

How can you be part of the America’s Cup?

You can always go hang around the compounds in San Diego. Just don’t try to go inside. Neither is open to the public.

But both Team Dennis Conner and America 3 have public gift shops that are filled with America’s Cup souvenirs, including sweat shirts, shorts, hats, sports bags, jewelry and other items. Since the gift shops are located near the compounds, visitors can see the 110-foot masts of the spectacular racing yachts towering in the background.

But don’t expect to sneak a peek at the keels. The boats are under wraps and under guard, 24 hours a day.

The America 3 compound is located at 4960 Harbor Drive (near Point Loma) and the Team Dennis Conner compound is at 505 W. Harbor Drive (near the Coronado Bay Bridge).

Barbara Schwartz at Team Dennis Conner says: “We try to be visitor-friendly. We have groups of schoolchildren come through and Dennis is active with youth sailing programs in various parts of the country.” One recent group from Newport Harbor Yacht Club toured the San Diego compound, Schwartz says, and one of the children even got to interview Conner for the yacht club newsletter.

Schwartz points out that when Conner made a recent appearance at Bullock’s in South Coast Plaza, hundreds of fans turned out to shake his hand and get his autograph.

Even though Conner has no plans for future Orange County appearances, you can drive to San Diego later this month and see him racing around the harbor in the Formula One America’s Cup Syndicate Championship Nov. 23 and 24.

Competitors will not be sailing their 1992 America’s Cup boats, but they will be racing some high-speed 52-foot yachts on tight courses between Coronado Island and downtown so that fans can view them from shore.

“With this event we are bringing sailing to spectators,” says founder Noel Robins who skippered Australia’s 1977 challenger for the cup. The same yachts will be sailed by their regular crews in the U.S. World Yachting Grand Prix during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Also in November closer to home, America 3 will hold a fund-raising dinner, designed to draw Orange County supporters, according to David Rosow. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 22 at the Long Beach Yacht Club.

“From everything we hear people in Orange County are growing more and more enthusiastic about the cup,” he says. “If the enthusiasm is as great as we expect, we may plan other events aimed at Orange County.”

One of America 3’s most enthusiastic supporters is Rodheim, a longtime boater who believes that it is important to root for one of the home teams--instead of one of the challengers from Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Croatia or the Soviet Union.

“It’s more important to support the American effort than to support a particular syndicate,” says Rodheim, adding that he chose America 3 because he believes it is a more accessible campaign. “They are saying, ‘We are the people,’ and they are reaching out to the community,” he says. “It really is the syndicate of the people.”

Rodheim and co-Chairman Brian Mock, owner of the 12-meter yacht Defender, which campaigned for the cup in 1983, are helping plan the Nov. 22 fund-raiser. Rodheim says the event will be “up close and personal” and will include an appearance by America 3 skipper and Chairman Bill Koch, the 51-year-old millionaire who is putting up $25 million of his own money to fund the $40-million campaign. The remaining $15 million will come from contributions.

Tickets for the event are $100 a couple and include dinner and a video program showing America 3’s boats under sail.

Ticket-holders will also get to rub elbows with the crew. “A number of our sailors will be there to mix with the crowd and tell them what it is like to be involved in the America’s Cup,” Rosow says. For ticket information, call (714) 557-5100.

RACING IN JAPAN--Bob Sherwood, collegiate member of the Dana Point Yacht Club, has been selected by Orange Coast College to compete in the third annual Japan United States Intercollegiate Goodwill Regatta on Nov. 23 in Tokyo Bay, Japan. Sherwood is one of 50 college sailors from all over the United States competing in the event. The trip is being paid for by the All-Japan Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Assn. Sherwood is a graduate of Dana Hills High School.

SHIP TOURS--The brig Pilgrim holds free tours and an open house each Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. aboard the ship, a replica of a 19th-Century square rigger. The ship is moored in Dana Point Harbor, near the Orange County Marine Institute. Further information is available by calling the institute at (714) 496-2274.