AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Course Shortened by 2 1/2 Miles

Television rules, even in the America’s Cup.

The new course has been eight legs over 22.6 nautical miles, but the first half-dozen defender trials races in generally light winds proved that a bit too long to place a race in a neat three-hour package.

So the America’s Cup Organizing Committee and the Challenger of Record Committee agreed Wednesday to shorten the course to 20 miles--actually 20.03--by drawing in the turning marks 11.5%.

CORC Chairman Stan Reid said, “Shortening the course has been under consideration since October to accommodate requests from television producers for an average race, including the 10-minute pre-start (sequence), of under three hours.”

ACOC executive vice president/general manager Tom Ehman said, “After six races in the defender selection series, the average time over the 22.6-mile course has been about 3 hours, 20 minutes. This shorter course, coupled with the anticipated increase in average wind strength over the next three months, should provide for a majority of races under three hours.”

Live TV of the races isn’t scheduled until March 28.

The new course will be used starting with the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials Saturday.

The defenders will race on their own course in their final, first-round race--Defiant vs. Jayhawk--the same day, then convert to the new course in their second round starting Feb. 8.

Bill Koch’s America 3 (say “America Cubed”) team has become known around San Diego as the Cubens , so they’ve taken it one step further.

After Wednesday’s victory against Dennis Conner, skipper Buddy Melges sailed Defiant back to port flying a strange new burgee with the initials BPYC and a pig on it:

Explanation: Bay of Pigs Yacht Club.

The eight challengers won’t know their first-round pairings until they draw for slots Friday at the Southwestern Yacht Club.

The schedule was set up for 10 boats with nine days of round-robin racing in each round. With only eight boats, the last two scheduled race days in each round will become reserve days, in case earlier race days are lost because of weather conditions--no wind or too much wind.

If all goes according to schedule, there will be four matches each day through Feb. 2, with Mondays and Fridays off.

Iain Murray’s Spirit of Australia effort has been called the “people’s boat” challenge, which leads one to wonder what segment of Australian society Syd Fischer’s Challenge Australia represents.

“It’s a way of conning people--lots of PR, lots of exposure,” Fischer says.

To Fischer, Murray is more rival than pal right now, but that might change if one reaches the Louis Vuitton semifinals and the other doesn’t.

“I think we’d cover each other,” Fischer said. “I helped Bondy (Alan Bond) in 1983. Iain was skipper of our boat then. He and the crew warmed their crew up before the races.

“In 1987 I lent (the 12-meter) Steak N’ Kidney to Bondy to warm up Australia IV--not that it did them any good, because it would just tear their bloody ears off before the race. I’m not sure that was a good idea.”