AMERICA’S CUP ’92 : Ville de Paris Wins by Slimmest Margin : Sailing: America’s Cup finally lives up to its billing as France vs. Italy duel.

All talk and little action has been the official party line of the America’s Cup competitors since they took their marks, got set and embarked on this gala affair 20 days ago.

But Sunday’s escapades left hopeful observers with a nagging desire to come back, and newshounds calling editors locally and abroad to say they had something worth reporting.

In a plucky and engaging game of chase, the racing finally exceeded the hoopla. In the seventh and final day of Round 1 of the challengers’ Louis Vuitton Cup, Il Moro di Venezia and Ville de Paris took off on a race that upstaged the 23 that preceded it--and throw in the 18 defender races as well.

In the closest encounter of the challenger trials, underdog France held off Italy’s 20 nautical-mile charge to earn the 25-second victory and send the Italians stumbling from the top of the standings.

Going into Round 2, which starts Feb. 13, Nippon and New Zealand have six victories apiece; France and Italy have five each; Spirit of Australia, Espana ‘92, and Tre Kronor have three, two and one apiece; and Challenge Australia is winless.

In Sunday’s only other race, Nippon sailed to a 4-minute, 34-second victory over Espana ’92. New Zealand and Tre Kronor received a point for sailing the course alone; Spirit of Australia and Challenge Australia bowed out of the round.

France’s skipper, Marc Pajot, and his crew began celebrating immediately after Ville de Paris crossed the finish line, and Pajot’s joy spilled into a news conference hours later.

“The road will be long to the final, but today was a pleasant day for us. It was a good race,” Pajot said. “We learned a lot from tacking. . . . but we are also happy to beat the world champions.”

The Italians won the World Championships in San Diego last May.

Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard never spotted France a lead of more than 25 seconds. And on the third leg, the two boats exchanged 76 tacks--39 for Italy, 37 for France--and Cayard moved to within nine seconds of the leader.

“We were behind the whole day and couldn’t quite get around them,” Cayard said. “Maybe next round we’ll get a chance to be in his position and then see how close the race is.”

France’s crew work met with Pajot’s approval, but he was especially pleased with his boat’s response to the call for speed.

“We learned that Paris is a good boat and that we can be a leader with this boat,” he said. “It’s very important for my crew to know this.”

Cayard said he wasn’t surprised with the speed Ville de Paris showed, nor is he worried that Il Moro might not have enough.

“We knew they had a pretty quick boat,” he said. “I think the boats were pretty evenly matched today. I’m certainly not concerned about our boat speed.”

France, interestingly enough, has been involved in the three closest races of the challenger trials, but came out on the winner’s side for the first time Sunday. On Wednesday, Ville de Paris let a gennaker slip under the boat, lost its comfortable lead over Nippon and eventually lost the race by 29 seconds. Against New Zealand on Jan. 25--Day 1 of the trials--France won the first two legs but lost a subsequent tacking duel to finish 56 seconds behind the Kiwis.

Sunday’s race was thrilling for what it showcased, but equally so for what it lacked. There were no equipment breaks, no navigational snafus, no sandbagging accusations and no excuses, leaving the best race of the regatta with no asterisks.

“Il Moro obviously had a good race today,” Cayard said. “We congratulate Marc and his team. They had a little bit better race. It would be nice, we hope, to have some more close races.”

Several skippers agreed that, as time passes and the competition is worth more, closer races will become more frequent.

The new International America’s Cup Class boats have been criticized as being poor for match racing, but Nippon skipper Chris Dickson, regarded as the world’s top match racer, nixed that myth.

“It looked to us, from a distance, that this was as good as match racing comes,” Dickson said. “Two boats were 10 to 25 seconds apart for 2 1/2 hours, and there were a lot of times when Paul was coming pretty close to passing them and Marc was probably thinking the same thing.

“There were tacking duels and jibing duels. One error on either boat would have put the other in front.