Italians Come From Behind for Victory : Sailing: Il Moro di Venezia defeats France by 11 seconds.

Good wind, close encounters with whales, boats flirting with collision by inches and an 11-second, come-from-behind victory by Italy over France-- bene! Wake up, world, sailing can be exciting at San Diego.

Paul Cayard, Il Moro di Venezia’s American skipper, said after Monday’s tight victory, “Believe it or not, I was thinking to myself up the last beat, even though we were still behind, that I was having a helluva good time. I was starting to think sailing was really a boring sport.”

France’s 25-second victory over Il Moro last month was the closest previous race of these America’s Cup trials, and Monday’s was better. The northwest breezes building to a solid 14 knots brought most of the big boats to life.

Dennis Conner sailed Stars & Stripes to a 47-second victory over America 3’s Defiant in his last race of the second round of the defender trials.

In other challenger races, New Zealand routinely trounced Espana ’92 by 4:55, Spirit of Australia blew off Challenge Australia by 2:28, after jumping the gun and restarting 1:05 behind, and Nippon over Sweden’s Tre Kronor by 2:21.

In the challengers’ featured match, Ville de Paris starting helmsman Marc Bouet and Il Moro’s Cayard attacked aggressively during the 10-minute pre-start period, until Bouet gained the right of way to leeward at the line 30 seconds before the gun and forced Cayard to tack away to the right.

Cayard then ran out of room at the committee boat, took a chance by heading up and had his bow across a moment early. He had to return to restart, 31 seconds behind as Bouet handed off the helm to skipper Marc Pajot.

But Cayard, despite a series of minor setbacks, kept grinding away--20 seconds at the first mark, 21 at the third, 9, 7, 11, 17 and 7.

All the while the Italians has to deal with a doused spinnaker trawling behind at the first reach mark, bowman Alberto Fantini going to the top of the 110-foot mast to free a jammed halyard, and a lost spinnaker halyard a couple of legs later, as the chute flew off to leeward like Monday’s wash.

Near the end of the last windward leg Il Moro, converged on Ville de Paris on port tack, and Cayard had to make a decision: try to cross in front, without right of way; tack on the Pajot’s lee bow, or duck under Pajot’s stern.

At the last moment, Cayard calculated that Pajot wasn’t quite on the layline and would need two tacks to round the mark. He swerved the big red boat behind Pajot’s, missing the stern by inches, then tacked moments later at the layline.

As it was, Pajot didn’t have to tack but pinched up into the wind, his headsail useless, and squeezed around only a boat length in front.

Halfway down the last leg, Ville de Paris was holding off Il Moro when the French lost a line out of their spinnaker pole and a snap-shackle on their spinnaker sheet opened, forcing them to jibe away. When they jibed back, Cayard was almost alongside and ready to make his move.

The crews exchanged bilingual hails, each claiming the right to maneuver as they wished-- “engagement” (French for overlap) and “no ingaggiamento” (Italian for no overlap).

Cayard worked Il Moro onto Paris’ wind and swept past with ease. Pajot counter-attacked, so close that Il Moro claimed his spinnaker brushed the Italian mainsail.

Cayard protested, as did the French for Il Moro not giving them room, but the umpires ruled no foul. Five minutes later Il Moro finished a clear boat length ahead.

The Italians exchanged high-fives and handclasps, then turned to applaud the French for a classic encounter.

Conner, rammed by Buddy Melges on America 3 Sunday, although no foul was called, also went round and round with Defiant’s starting helmsman, Dave Dellenbaugh, on Monday.

When Conner approached the line too early, Dellenbaugh pounced and forced Conner behind him, but then had to pinch up into the wind to clear the inflatable buoy marking the left end of the line and lost just enough speed to make the start even.

They met six times on opposite tacks, but Melges could never quite cross Conner on port tack, with no right of way, and Conner soon got a slight, favorable wind shift that gave him a control he maintained throughout.

All New Zealand needed against outclassed Espana ’92 was an even start. Then the Kiwis, pointing higher and moving faster, sailed right over the Spaniards’ wind and away to another easy win.

Like Il Moro, Peter Gilmour on Spirit of Australia recovered from a premature start that left him 1:05 in arrears.