AMERICA’S CUP ’92 : Spys, Decoys Make Waves in Cup Waters : Sailing: All eyes are on every other syndicate, searching for one item that will give the boats an edge.

Ivor Shier returned to his office at Corporate Helicopters of San Diego one day recently to find on his desk a fax from New Zealand’s America’s Cup syndicate.

“It’s got a picture of their compound and a helicopter above with a face and a camera hanging out,” Shier said. “The caption is, ‘Ivor, flyer of the spies.’ ”

Guilty.

“I had been flying another group over their (compound),” Shier said. “The Kiwis have a good sense of humor.”

Senses of humor were wearing thin in the Cup community until a recent meeting of the Syndicate Relations Committee developed guidelines for rival syndicates approaching one another’s boats by helicopter and boat--in effect, rules for spying.

It was agreed their spy boats would respect a 200-meter “moving circle” around rival Cup boats and their helicopters would stay 500 feet above the tops of the masts and 1,500 feet away.

Said Stan Reid, chairman of the Challenger of Record Committee, “I just leaned on my experience in Fremantle (in 1986-87) and suggested it would be a good idea if we drew up some guidelines for spying on boats.”

The SRC, which includes customs and immigration officials, the Navy, Coast Guard and representatives of all syndicates, meets about once a month to discuss Cup matters. Spying had become so aggressive that it was starting to interfere with testing.

“Helicopters become a bit of a nuisance,” said Eddie Warden-Owen, the Welsh coach of New Zealand’s team. “You have to stop sailing.”

Rivals want to inspect sail design and sail trim up close or chart a rival’s sailing angles. From a helicopter directly above, it’s possible to see the keel of a boat heeled over. Cup sailors would rather show their baby pictures than their keels.

Until the agreement, Italy’s Il Moro di Venezia team and Bill Koch’s America 3generally were accused of being the most aggressive, especially by air. Shier has flown for both, as well as all of the other major players, including Team Dennis Conner, Nippon Challenge and France.

“I do admit that we have been the primary (presence),” Shier said. “It’s nearly always been one of our machines out there, or several at the same time.”

He also runs a tourist operation called “Sky Tours.”

“Some of the syndicates call us ‘Spy Tours.’ They call up and say, ‘We want to book a spy tour today.’ ”

“It’s a game, isn’t it?” Warden-Owen said. “Actually, a very interesting game. In Fremantle, people had spies that would come along every now and then. When I was with (Britain’s) White Crusader we’d check on the New Zealanders or the Kookaburras, but not to the extent that we’ve had here.”

New Zealand manager Peter Blake said, “There’s a reasonable and fair approach to how much time you spend looking at the opposition. Others may think it’s all-out war and reason doesn’t come into it.

“But I think to have an opposition chase boat or inflatable dinghy sit in the middle of your start line when you’re trying to do things, and they won’t go away because, they say, they’ve come to fish . . . or they’ll park themselves on the course where the boats come out and have to sail right past them, and they have underwater cameras . . . “

Underwater cameras? Blake suspects Il Moro of that.

“That’s funny,” Il Moro executive Stefano Roberti said. “Maybe somebody has a submarine . . . maybe the Americans if the Navy is helping them. Maybe the Navy’s dolphins.

“Everybody’s doing this. I don’t think we are using helicopters more than anyone else. We have done what the other syndicates have done to use for three years. Since we were one of the first to have a boat in the water we have been spied on. Now the counterspies are much more skilled than before.”

Often, when a helicopter approaches, a team’s chase boats will rush alongside to create a wash and obliterate any view of the keel. Some have painted their keels in contrasting colors to confuse the appearance. New Zealand and Il Moro have painted large, zig-zag graphics on their hulls to reflect in the water over the image of their keels.

Last month New Zealand caught an intruder in its Coronado compound, although it hasn’t been established that he was a spy.

Blake said, “Probably it is paranoia a little bit, but if you think you’ve got something that you want to protect--or maybe you want people to think you’ve got something--it’s worth protecting.”

Shier said, “Right now it’s important to understand that it’s a critical time for the boats. They’re all testing the new boats that they will be racing with. The crews have been working hard for a long time, so they’re a little edgy. They’ve put millions of dollars into their programs and they have some rights to get uninterrupted sailing practice in. If you have three or four helicopters hovering around a boat when they’re trying to practice, that’s not too fair.”

“Ask Bill Koch about that,” Blake said. “He’s the one that likes to shove the helicopters up in the air.”

Koch has his helicopter--blue and silver--but also hires Shier.

“There are a lot of blue and silver helicopters,” said David Rosow, Koch’s spokesman.

And Shier said that because of the agreement, “the only syndicate that does not go in close has been America. 3They’ve been very fair about playing it right.”

On the other hand, a cynic might say, because this is the America’s Cup, what does fair have to do with it?

“It should still be a sport,” Blake said. “An hour or so a day and a reasonable distance away, that’s fine, but seven days a week, 12 hours a day, so as soon as you actually leave the dock here their people are following you, and they stay out with you all day. I’ve threatened one particular camp with a few nasties, so they’re staying away a reasonable distance.”

Shier, Irish by birth, is in an odd position.

“One day you’re flying the Italians and they want to get in close on the Kiwis, or we’re flying the French and they want a tight look at the Italians,” he said.

“Ireland was neutral in World War II. We’re continuing that (position) here.”

Dennis Conner’s rivals don’t believe it when he says he’s not going to build a second boat.

“He is very smart in this game,” Il Moro’s Roberti said. “It would be very difficult for him to be competitive with the old boat. He’s not the kind of man to accept that situation. He will find a way.”

New Zealand’s Blake: “Maybe he doesn’t need a second boat. (But) I’ll be very surprised if he didn’t.”

America 3 ‘s Rosow: “He could build a boat in three months, and if he started Dec. 1 he could have it by March 1 and have 30 days to get it ready for the (defender) semifinals and finals.”

Rivals suspect that Conner is just waiting to see their final generation boats before he orders his.

“The reason we wanted that early (Dec. 20) measurement date (for the challengers) was obviously to see what their final boats looked like,” Rosow said.

Stan Reid, the Australian dentist who is chairman of the Challenger of Record Committee, also suspects that Conner has something up his sleeve.

“Dennis is the master of intrigue,” Reid said.

But if Conner plans to build a second boat, he apparently doesn’t plan to build it at Eric Goetz’s yard in Bristol, R.I., where the first Stars & Stripes was built. He surrendered the space he had reserved.

Cup Notes

STARS & STRIPES--In Dennis Conner’s latest fund-raising project, his artwork will be presented Thursday night, 6:30, aboard the 115-foot RegentSea(cq) at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. For $2,500, a supporter will get four limited-edition serigraphs, or silkscreens, entitled “Touch the Wind” and an invitation to an exclusive pre-Cup party. Five grand gets all that plus a ride on Stars & Stripes . . . Conner may not get a second boat, but a spare mast is being built at Sparcraft in Costa Mesa. Four boats--including America-3’s older Jayhawk last week, have lost masts so far . . . On the door of the office shared by Conner’s tactician, Tom Whidden, and executive Jerry La Dow: “Tom & Jerry.”

EVENTS--Italy, Spain, France, Japan and New Zealand, with two boats, will sail in the Espana Exhibition Cup Thursday in San Diego Bay. The event was organized by the challengers to soothe the Spaniards’ feelings over being pressured to back out of last month’s Cadillac Cup against Conner, a defender. How much of a race it will be remains to be seen, bit it should be a pretty sight. The race will start at noon off the B Street Pier and finish off the Marriott Marina . . . Cup skippers Conner, Nippon’s Chris Dickson, Italy’s Paul Cayard and France’s Marc Pajot will race 52-foot Formula One boats on the bay Saturday and Sunday. The course will be laid between downtown and Coronado Island. The boats’ regulars crews from the World Yachting Grand Prix circuit will compete Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

NOTEWORTHY--The top six skippers in the world match-racing rankings are involved in the Cup, but only three will steer boats--Chris Dickson (1) and Peter Gilmour (2) for Nippon and Spirit of Australia, respectively, and either Russell Coutts (3) or Rod Davis (4) for New Zealand. Eddie Warden-Owen (5) of Wales is the New Zealand coach and Peter Isler (6) of La Jolla is an ESPN commentator . . . Alan Sefton of the New Zealand Challenge took mild offense to a note here implying that the Kiwis’ sponsoring entity, the Mercury Bay Boating Club, was a yacht club of convenience for the Cup. Sefton points out that the club has about 100 members and stages its own races, although it holds meetings at the Mercury Bay Golf Club. Its clubhouse remains a ’56 Zephyr.