Spain Seeks to Reaffirm Sea Heritage : Sailing: History is on the side of the Spanish syndicate, but it must come a long way in a very short period of time.

Not much of a sailing tradition? The Spanish? Obviously the names Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria have escaped you.

“Where were you 500 years ago?” said Diego Colon, technical manager for Espana ‘92, which is making Spain’s first splash into the America’s Cup. “Yes, we don’t have any tradition in the America’s Cup, but we do have a strong tradition in smaller yachts.”

The dimensions of the three ships Christopher Columbus sailed to this continent five centuries ago are unknown, but the fleet could hardly be considered small. Santa Maria, the flagship, was believed to be approximately 85 feet long, or 10 feet longer than the new International America’s Cup Class yachts.

Granted, you have to go back a few years to trace the Spaniards most notorious and successful relationship with the sea, but the point is, sailing isn’t a new gig for an old country bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.

“I guess you could say it is in our blood,” said Colon, 41, and a native of Madrid.

No one disputes Colon’s claim, nor does anyone in the Cup community have such illustrious bloodlines. His sailing genes can be traced back to Cristobal Colon, the same Christopher Columbus who came to the Americas.

Colon knows firsthand that dreaming big can result in even bigger discoveries.

But exactly what are the Spanish setting out to discover?

“This is a very important year for Spain,” said Carlos Fernandez, general secretary for the syndicate. “We haven’t been involved in the America’s Cup that long, so we’re not comparable to other countries in that sense, but we do want to bring an awareness to the world that we are emerging as a force in commerce, in business and in creativity.”

Spain will have more than one chance. Its first America’s Cup bid kicks off a social calendar that includes playing host to the World Expo ’92 and the Summer Olympics.

“This is the first event for the national commemoration of the 500-year anniversary,” Fernandez said. “Five hundred years ago we came back with America. Five hundred years later we’d like to come back from America with the Cup.”

Viva Desafio Espana Copa America!

Long live America’s Cup Spanish Challenge.

It hasn’t been a lifelong endeavor, but for the trio of men who first dreamed of Spain in the Cup, it has been an all-encompassing one.

The dream began with Pedro Campos, the soft-spoken skipper who didn’t speak a lick of English at the World Championships last year. He no longer needs to use a translator. Campos, 36, Colon and Juan Carlos Rodriguez, who is no longer with the syndicate, began small meetings four years ago to discuss the idea of Spain competing in the America’s Cup.

They eventually shared their ideas with several businessmen, and soon the word was out that Spain was going to compete for the America’s Cup.

“After two years,” said Colon, “I could realize it was a reality and not a dream. In June of 1990, we knew the project could go ahead. Like the discovery of the New World, we knew it would be difficult to stop.”

Fernandez said until this endeavor, seven Olympic sailing medals and several European and World championship were Spain’s claim to fame in yachting.

“This is the most important thing Spain has done in sailing in a long time,” he said.

Important and extremely difficult. Monetary woes have hit the Spanish economy as hard as the rest of the world. There were times, Fernandez said, that the dream seemed to slip away for lack of financial resources. But every time the outlook dimmed, they would find additional sponsorship and avert a potential collapse of the project.

“We never said it’s not going to happen for more than five minutes,” said Fernandez, “but we did say it a couple of times for five minutes.”

Said Campos: “We have this mentality, if the goal is difficult, we will push hard. But if the goal is more difficult, we will push even harder.

“In a way, this is bigger than anything we’ve done, but in another way, we are not going to the moon. This is something we can reach.”

Spain’s approach to this regatta is neither mighty nor meek. The better word might be moderate, which is considerably more optimistic than Spain’s chance of actually winning the Cup. Going into today’s second round of the Louis Vuitton Cup, Espana ’92 has two points.

They lack the savoir-faire of the French, the yen of the Japanese and the experience of the Kiwis. Although by no means do they consider themselves the weak link among the challengers, they aren’t in the pressure-cooker reserved for other syndicates either.

“If we beat the Italians, it would be disastrous to them,” Campos said. “But if we lost to the Italians, it would not be disastrous to us.”

Espana ’92 figures that as a beginner in this game, it has nothing to lose and can use this as a platform to build for future Cups.

“When we won our first two races, people in Spain think you can bring the Cup back to Spain, but really you know that we lack the experience of many others,” said Campos, who said daily improvement in crew work was an important element toward the syndicate’s goal of reaching the semifinals of the challengers’ trials. “A miracle, I think it would take to win (the Cup). But to get a good result, this will also help to make another challenge.”

Day-to-day operations keep the various syndicates plenty busy, and there’s little lag time for members of rival camps to pal around. But while the Spanish, headquartered next to Stars & Stripes’ base camp, don’t exactly borrow sugar or spinnakers from Team Dennis Conner, they are friendly.

“We’re good neighbors,” said Barbara Schwartz, a Team Dennis Conner representative. “We have a nice rapport, but there’s not much interaction.”

There was, however, interaction on opening day of Round 1 of their respective trials. The Spanish blew horns in a supportive send-off for Stars & Stripes, which the Americans reciprocated later by a mini-fiesta where Spanish music played from a boom box on the tender Betsy and where team members waved pompons from the dock.

When Princess Cristina--Spanish royalty is very into the Cup--paid a visit to the Espana ’92 team recently, the syndicate took a Stars & Stripes hat over to her.

Not that the Spanish are social introverts. Hardly.

A press release by the Tourist Office of Spain states: “the historical memory of Columbus has inspired many Spanish enthusiasts to give into and continue to be intoxicated by the sea and by sailing . . .”

Sailing isn’t the only thing that is intoxicating the Spaniards. The crew has adopted downtown’s Cafe Sevilla and Coronado’s Bula’s Pub as its local watering holes.

According to Cafe Sevilla General Manager Antonio Gordinho, members of the Spanish entourage--the sailors usually stay away on race days--patronize the establishment at least seven days of the week.

“They’re rowdy,” Gordinho said. “It’s hard to get them out at 2 a.m. They are used to Europe, where the bars don’t close at 2 a.m.”

Steve Lindsey, owner of Bula’s and the Bay & Beach Cafe, said the Spaniards do not even think of eating until 8, unlike the New Zealand team, which eats at 6 and has lights out by 9 p.m.

“They haven’t sacrificed their Spanish lifestyle,” he said. “The Kiwis, they’re fun guys, but they’re on the fringe. But the Spanish? They’re major players in the fun zone.”

A significant part of that zone includes the 12,000 square-foot Tudor mansion the team rents in Coronado, where 16 unmarried team members reside.

Lindsey calls it “Spanish animal house.”

“If you’re going to write about the Spanish,” he said, “you’ve got to talk about the house.”

Located on the corner of Seventh and A avenues, the majestic old house, with ivy dripping from every crevice and a huge Spanish flag draped on one side, belongs to a retired bank executive. Although Lindsay said the team members are “salt of the earth” types, some Coronado residents are feeling salt in their wounds as a result of their stay.

According to a Jan. 2 article in the Coronado Journal, neighbors have complained about noise, crowded streets and rowdy goings-on since the Spanish arrived in September. One unhappy neighbor even challenged the legality of the owner renting rooms in a residential area, but city officials said such rentals were legal as long as the tenants stayed more than 25 days.

The story resulted in the newspaper running an editorial, and letters to the editor scolding residents who complained that the Spanish weren’t being upstanding goodwill ambassadors.

(All this hoopla came well after May 1, 1991, when Mayor Mary Herron proclaimed it Spanish America’s Cup Challenge day in Coronado.)

One reader even asked fellow community members “to reflect upon the hospitality extended to you as a foreigner. Then, perhaps, you will turn a deaf ear to that Flamenco dancing at 2 a.m. or, better still, pop on over and welcome them to our community over a glass of Sangria.”

San Diego can share more than wine with the Spanish. The cultural relevancy that Espana ’92 has injected into the races hasn’t been lost on a community with its own deep Spanish roots. Several syndicate members said San Diego has embraced its European visitors.

“The people here are very warm to us,” said Fernandez. “Sometimes we’ll go somewhere and we only hear Spanish spoken. It is nice.”

Said Campos: “Maybe they cheer us more because of the Spanish influence.”

In a country where 20,000 people sail compared to 500,000 in nearby France, Spain is hoping its presence here will influence the future of sailing and mark the beginning of its involvement in many America’s Cups to come.

“You remember Seve Ballasteros?” Fernandez said. “He changed the world of golf in Spain overnight. We hope that us being here will also change sailing in Spain.”

Just check back with them, but don’t expect it to take another 500 years.