Spirit of Australia Suffers Slow Start : Sailing: Problems plague ‘people-powered’ campaign.

Has g’day turned into g’by for the Spirit of Australia?

Of the three one-boat syndicates competing in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challengers’ version of the America’s Cup trials, the “people-powered” Spirit of Australia is considered the likeliest to advance the furthest.

But Spirit of Australia’s calamitous performance against Ville de Paris, an 11-minute loss in Round 1, on Day 2, in Match 4 Sunday, demonstrated that the people powering this effort are going to have to start pushing harder. Added to Saturday’s 2-minute, 23-second defeat at the hands of Il Moro di Venezia (2-0), and Spirit of Australia sports an 0-2 mark.

“It’s really not what it seems,” said Rob Mundle, an Australian journalist who has worked closely with the Australian syndicate. “I’m not trying to make excuses for them, but there were a lot of little things happening out there that caused the (11-minute) spread.”

Shifting wind, up to 75 degrees, was Spirit of Australia’s biggest nemesis, making Sunday a sorry sailing day for syndicate head Iain Murray and skipper Peter Gilmour.

“We were sailing as hard as we could, but down the second reaching leg, the wind shifted dramatically,” Gilmour said. “It turned a reach to a downwind run. We had to waddle our way down there. It took us a lot longer than everyone else.”

Considerably longer than the rest of the eight-boat field. Although Spirit of Australia raced only the French, its 28-minute, 39-second fifth leg was 7:34 slower than Ville de Paris’ and 8:10 behind Il Moro di Venezia, who posted the fastest fifth leg.

On the next leg, Spirit of Australia got the brunt of some bad wind and had to tack like crazy just to get around the mark.

“Once they got ahead of us, (the French) did a pretty good job of staying there,” Gilmour said.

No one’s been seen lingering on the window ledges of the Aussie compound in Mission Bay, but the popular sentiment is that things must improve. And the sooner the better.

“It is early,” Gilmour said. “But I wouldn’t be being honest if I said there wasn’t some kind of anxiety. We’d like to be the fastest boat and for everyone who’s not the fastest, there’s a little bit of anxiety. That’s normal for any sports person. We’re pretty much in control. We know where we’re headed, what we’re doing.”

Major modifications are what the syndicate will do after three more days of racing. Spirit of Australia announced Friday the keel of its boat is going under the knife. “Chainsaw surgery,” is how a press release described Murray’s method of sailboat improvement.

“Basically, we thought we had a V-12 (engine) and it’s only a V-6, so we’re turning on the turbo,” said Gilmour, who blamed the needed change on inaccurate testing information. “It’s pretty big surgery we’re doing. We’re putting on a turbo-charger, that’s what it’s come to.”

Gilmour downplayed the idea that the time spent on the boat reconstruction will take away from the sailing prowess of the crew.

“Sailing is critical, but what’s more critical is boat speed,” he said. “America’s Cup is not a one-design class, although people would like it to be and then it comes down to crew work. But that’s just not the case. Boat speed is what we have to have before the crew can make a difference.”

Spirit of Australia knew almost a month ago that its sloop needed detailed engineering, so Murray and Gilmour figured sitting out two races at the end of Round 1 would figure best into its timetable. They likely will forfeit those races to Japan and New Zealand. The second round won’t start until Feb. 13.

Of the three additional people flying into town to help with modifications, boat builder John McConaghy is among them.

Murray and his camp would love to mimic the race strategy of the Royal Perth Yacht Club in 1983, the year Alan Bond’s wing-keeled Australia II defied 132 years of sailing tradition and defeated Dennis Conner’s Liberty, 4-3.

Everyone remembers Australia’s inaugural victory, but do they remember the yacht’s lethargic start during the trials?

“Australia II was terrible in the first rounds,” Mundle said. “I think it went 0-2 in the beginning as well.”