A Thriller for Kiwis, Thrill for Swedes : Sailing: New Zealand wins by 8 seconds. Tre Kronor earns first on-course victory.

It was the best of sailing and the worst of sailing.

You want close?

Front-running New Zealand, its red gennaker hanging in shreds, held on by the last gasp of air Saturday to beat France’s onrushing Ville de Paris by eight seconds--about a boat length and the closest of 65 America’s Cup races over the last five weeks.

Another boat length past the finish line, Ville de Paris was in front.

You want drama, acted out in mist and fog, like a swashbuckling B-movie from the 40s?

Il Moro di Venezia, slowed by kelp on its keel as Espana ’92 closed in, twice sent grinder Andrea Madafarri diving under the boat. As skipper Paul Cayard luffed into the wind at 3 knots of speed, Madaffari swam underneath from bow to stern, pulling off weed, climbed up the transom, ran to the front and did it again.

You want joy?

Sweden’s Tre Kronor scored its first victory--other than a first-round forfeit from winless Challenge Australia--by breaking open a close race to beat the luckless Aussies by 6:59.

That was the ecstasy. Now, you want agony?

In light, shifty and unpredictable zephyrs of 4 to 8 knots, the luckless Aussies took 3 hours 52 minutes and 10 seconds to crawl around the course. Hugh Treharne, navigator on victorious Australia II in 1983, replaced Phil Thompson at the helm, but it made no difference.

The time topped the record of 3:46:35 set by Espana ’92 a few minutes earlier in losing to Il Moro by 13:58--the most lopsided race so far.

That was after Il Moro fouled Espana in the pre-start maneuvering and was ordered to execute a 270-degree penalty turn after the gun--only to have the start postponed because of a wind shift.

Il Moro had some anxious moments when Madaffari went swimming, and the Spaniards gained four minutes on the second windward leg. But when Spain had to send one of its crew overboard to remove kelp on the last windward leg, Il Moro was home free.

The other Aussies, Spirit of Australia, trailed Nippon by 12:21, waiting for Chris Dickson’s Japanese crew to make a mistake they haven’t made yet.

Finally, Ville de Paris has been in the challengers’ four closest races and lost three.

The French (8-5) beat Il Moro (10-3) by 25 seconds in the first round and lost to the Italians by 11 seconds last week, besides losing two races to Nippon (11-2) by 0:29 and 1:42 when they sailed over their own gennaker and broke their spinnaker pole.

It’s getting harder to shrug and say c’est la vie .

“I feel not happy not to win,” skipper Marc Pajot said, “but confident in the speed of the boat.”

On the last, downwind leg, the French rode a freshening breeze to close from 2:11 behind at the last mark to within a couple of lengths. With both boats sailing sharp angles for maximum speed in the light wind, Pajot saw New Zealand’s gennaker start to tear vertically at the foot after its next-to-last jibe 600 yards from the finish line.

“But I knew it was too close to the line (to make a difference),” Pajot said.

New Zealand syndicate manager Peter Blake, who was aboard as the non-contributing 17th crewman, said the crew knew the gennaker would tear apart completely on their final jibe, so they delayed it until they were as close to the line as possible, only a few boat lengths out, near the committee boat.

Sure enough, as soon as the sail filled on the new jibe it tore completely across, and skipper Rod Davis pointed the bow downwind and coaxed the drifting craft the last two boat lengths.

Their stern had barely cleared the line when France was alongside, a trifle late.

Some observers also thought the line may have been cocked off square, and New Zealand picked the favored end.

Blake said the sail tore because “it got snagged on a halyard we had in the wrong place--human error.”

Add kelp and the tricky winds to human error, and boat speed becomes least important.

Tre Kronor skipper Olle Johansson, enjoying his first win, said, “We’ve been sandbagging all the time through 10 races.”

Seriously, he added, “We haven’t sailed the boat much. This was our 17th day on the water today. I think we’re going to improve before the next round.”