AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Blake Gets a Little Canoe-Shy During New Zealand Ceremony

Peter Blake, general manager of the New Zealand syndicate, was apprehensive about the Maori challenge ceremony that called for him to ride in the 65-foot war canoe, or waka , from the Southwestern Yacht Club to the San Diego Yacht club early Thursday morning.

In three Whitbread Round the World Races, including 1989-90 when his ketch Steinlager 2 finished first, Blake has seen hurricanes, icebergs and monstrous seas.

But he took one look at the waka and said, “It doesn’t look too stable to me.”

Blake rode with syndicate head Sir Michael Fay and skipper Rod Davis. All three wore ceremonial cloaks made from the feathers of New Zealand birds, some presumably kiwis.

“The feathers had been picked up off the ground,” a syndicate spokesperson pointed out, assuring that the ceremony was environmentally correct.

The cloaks are normally worn by Maori elders, or rangatiras . Fay’s was his own. In addition to his knighthood, he also has been declared an official rangatira .

Some guys have it all.

As the two-hour ceremony was winding down, the Maoris returned to their canoe at the dock in front of SDYC to perform one more haka , or war dance.

Steve McDowell, a member of New Zealand’s All-Blacks rugby team last year, is now a Steinlager sales rep in San Diego. He watched from the deck of the club as the group looked around for someone to lead it. By tradition, it must be someone with Maori blood.

McDowell, who is part Maori, led the All-Blacks in their pre-game hakas , so he ripped off his coat, shirt and tie leaped the railing to the dock below and started jumping and chanting, rousing the crowd to a frenzy.

Observers said there wasn’t a dry Kiwi eye in the place. McDowell is now on call for regular appearances at the New Zealand dock on race days.

Some challenger syndicates have quietly asked the official Cup measurers for an interpretation or clarification of the International America’s Cup Rule concerning the bowsprit on New Zealand’s fourth boat, the one it will sail in the trials starting Saturday.

It’s the only boat with a bowsprit, which projects one meter beyond the snub-nosed bow of the radical boat.

Il Moro di Venezia’s rules adviser, Dave Perry of Milford, Conn., apparently is leading the inquiry, supported by Iain Murray’s Spirit of Australia team and Nippon Challenge.

Il Moro’s comment was “no comment,” but a spokesman said there was not a protest.

New Zealand spokesman Alan Sefton said, “All we know is that the boats--three and four--are already 100% (approved).”

The measurement process started when Ken McAlpine, one of three Cup measurers, checked the boats under construction in New Zealand. The process was completed early this month in San Diego.

The rivals’ action probably will lead to nothing, but it recalls the bitterness of the “glassgate” controversy at Fremantle in ‘86-87 when San Diego’s Sail America syndicate challenged the integrity of the fiberglass New Zealand boats.

Race change:

The challengers will now try to start their races at 11:30 instead of 11 when they open their Louis Vuitton Cup trials Saturday.

They hope the wind will arrive in the extra half-hour, and that shortening the course from 22.6 to 20.03 nautical miles will still allow them to finish before the wind stops.

The four pairs will start every 10 minutes.

Do the Maoris have a wind dance?

Dennis Conner’s look at the challenger trials starting Saturday:

“I think you’re gonna see some disparity (in speed), knowing what we know about their underwater appendages--some boats with rudders, some boats with no rudders and some boats with two keels. They’re not all gonna go the same speed.”

“Knowing what we know”?

The accuracy of Conner’s intelligence isn’t certain, but the latest, radical New Zealand boat was at one time rumored to have no rudder. Murray’s boat was said to have a unique keel configuration.

Conner didn’t say who had what or how he knew. But the rumors about Australia II’s winged keel in ’83 were true.

A buzz around San Diego is that Bill Koch will take Conner aboard to steer his boat if America 3 wins the defender trials.

Conner didn’t totally dismiss the idea but said, “They have plenty of talent over there. I can’t imagine after Bill’s commitment and the stance he has taken why he would (do that).”

New Zealand might not carry a 17th, non-working crewman on its boat, as the new IACC rules allow but don’t require.

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea,” Blake said. “It could be dangerous for a sponsor back there. You can lose your concentration for a second and get hit by the boom. There’s a lot going on and sometimes it’s hard to stay out of the way.”