AMERICA’S CUP ’92 : Luck, Points Prove Elusive for Australia : Sailing: Challenge Australia saw its best chance to gain some points sail away.

If you thought you had a bad day Wednesday, consider the sailors from Challenge Australia.

Winless and now, it seems, almost hopeless in their quest of the America’s Cup, they can hardly relate to, say, front-running New Zealand, which defeated perhaps its strongest rival, Il Moro di Venezia, by 1 minute, 16 seconds.

That was supposed to be the most interesting match of the day, and it was until the Kiwis broke away to stay on the second upwind leg for their 10th win in 11 races--their only loss coming against Il Moro in the first round of the defender trials.

The other three matches were proceeding as expected until Nippon skipper Chris Dickson, leading Challenge Australia by 2:15 at the first reach mark halfway through the 20-mile race, suddenly turned his boat head into the wind and stopped.

The first report was that two crewmen had fallen overboard--or that they were so far ahead they decided to stop and get some fresh sushi for lunch.

Actually, grinders Taketaro Suizi and Matsukichi Nishikawa had stripped and dived under the boat to remove a huge clump of the notorious Point Loma kelp from the keel.

Tactician John Cutler said, “We noticed we weren’t going as fast as we should be going, by about 3 knots.”

His first clue was when Challenge Australia gained 68 seconds on that leg.

The operation took about four minutes, as Challenge Australia, finally smelling blood in its 11th race, closed in and sailed past, building a lead of 1:32 and 1:29 at the next two marks.

“We were cautiously optimistic that we might get some points on the board,” skipper Phil Thompson said.

It wasn’t to be. As the crew dropped its gennaker headsail approaching the last leeward mark, the sail wedged between the bobstay wire running from the bottom of the bow to the tip of the bowsprit, fell into the water and wrapped around the keel.

In stopping to clear the mess, the Australians gave back the four minutes and more, and Nippon was home free by 3:33.

“It was very disappointing,” Thompson said. “We’re all very deflated. I believe we have certainly gone backwards since the first series. It’s hard, but each day we go out there and try.”

Ironically, the Australians had installed the bowsprit between rounds hoping to make the boat go faster. They also switched to a radical keel, which has worked out so poorly that they don’t even bother to hide it anymore, and Thompson is perfectly willing to talk about it.

“Very simply, we have a fin that is fully rotatable,” he said. “The entire fin of the keel rotates. The bulb stays straight. It sounds very good, but apparently it’s not working.”

In other races, Spirit of Australia won easily over Sweden’s Tre Kronor by 2:52, and Ville de Paris thumped Espana ’92 by 3:07, although the Spaniards filed a technical protest afterward.

The French, leading Spain by almost two minutes, left their gennaker behind in the water at the end of the second reaching leg. Their inflatable chase boat rushed in to try to retrieve it before Espana arrived but had it only about three-fourths on board when Espana rounded the mark.

Espana protested that a chase boat is not supposed to cross in front of an opponent’s race boat, and that having a chase boat collect a lost sale violates the “spirit” of the competition.

The challengers’ international jury heard the protest late Wednesday night.

Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard gave New Zealand credit for “sailing smarter than we did.”