ANALYSIS : America’s Cup Bid by Soviets Falters : Sailing: Internal bickering between two Russian syndicates seems to have doomed effort.

The Soviet Union’s dream of competing in the America’s Cup apparently has been torpedoed by ongoing internal acrimony.

When skipper Guram Biganishvili and chief of protocol/marketing director Sergei Savchenko resigned from the Age of Russia Syndicate this week, Doug Smith, the group’s American representative, also threw up his hands in despair.

“I’m through,” Smith said.

Two years ago Smith, a San Diego marine insurance broker and member of the San Diego Yacht Club, raised his hand when volunteers were requested to assist the Soviets as their American representative--a crucial position for a group new to the game. Smith was the only volunteer.

Smith secured some sponsors, fought to gain the Soviets access to San Diego Bay against strict port security regulations and still was negotiating for the best deal on a compound site when the bottom fell out.

The original Red Star Syndicate built an aluminum boat at the Energia space plant near Moscow. Although aluminum is not an approved material for the new International America’s Cup Class, the Russians wanted it only for training while they built a state-of-the-art carbon-fiber boat. The aluminum boat was moved to the port of Tallinn on the Baltic Sea--site of the 1980 Olympic sailing--and then things started to fall apart.

Estonia became a breakaway republic, and Oleg Larionov, the boat’s designer, fell out with coach Ernst Grakovsky, was fired and left to form the Red Star ’92 Challenge in Estonia, taking co-skipper Sergei Borodinov with him.

Larionov said his new syndicate is sponsored by the “Crazy Offshore Racing Club,” but the club has not filed a formal entry, and Larionov has had trouble starting construction of his own boat because of the lack of carbon-fiber material and technology in Estonia.

This week Larionov announced that the project had been put on a four-week hold, making it virtually impossible that he could have a boat in San Diego before the challenger trials start Jan. 25, considering that it takes a minimum of 20 weeks to build an IACC boat.

He also distributed a fax disclaiming an attachment to Estonia, claiming that Red Star ‘92--not Age of Russia--is sponsored by the Ocean Racing Club of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

Larionov stated in a fax circulated Friday: “Red Star ’92 Challenge, founded on Sept. 9, 1988, by the Ocean Racing Club of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and the Crazy Offshore Racing Club of Tallinn and headed by Oleg Larionov, is still the only valid challenge.”

Meanwhile, the Age of Russia’s boat at Energia was said to be only 70% complete in mid-October. Smith said the syndicate lacks hardware for the boat and the hard currency to buy it.

Also this week, Stan Reid, chairman of the Challenger of Record Committee that oversees the foreign entries, said he would not accept separate entries from Russia and Estonia because only one syndicate initially entered a boat under sponsorship of the Leningrad club, which both syndicates now claim to represent.

CORC’s executive director, Ernie Taylor, said Friday, “One moment the Tallinn group is Estonian and the next they’re back to being Russian. I’m just going to sit here quietly saying it’s up to the ACOC to sort out which one is legitimate.”

But the America’s Cup Organizing Committee is just as confused. The ACOC’s executive director, Tom Ehman, had planned to go to Russia after the current International Yacht Racing Union meetings in Spain but sent word that he had changed his mind. Maybe he’s given up, too.

In Friday’s fax, Larionov also accused Smith of forging a letter of support for Age of Russia from Russian Vice President Alexander Rutskoi. Smith denied the charge.

Smith on Friday met in his Point Loma office with Estonian TV commentator Kaleb Vapper and an unnamed American woman of Estonian descent. They represented Larionov’s group, which Smith says owes him considerable expense money.

“I gave them a statement of what has been spent and what has been collected and what they owe me,” Smith said. “The only money I’ve received and spent has been money from sponsors.”

However, Smith, in cooperation with the Challenger of Record Committee, also packaged a $10 million insurance policy for the challengers to cover liability, injury and boat damage during the trials next year.

And speaking of money, there is the question of the $175,000 bond posted by the original Leningrad challenge. All but $25,000 is refundable when a challenger shows up and competes.

Should Age of Russia and Red Star ’92 both show up, which gets the $150,000 refund?

The answer, probably, is neither.

“There’s money that’s owed in the U.S.,” Smith pointed out. “I’m sure there’d be a lien placed on that $150,000.”