AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : New Zealand Boat Overtakes Il Moro di Venezia In a Poll

Heading into the third round of trials, New Zealand has moved ahead of Italy’s Il Moro di Venezia in the the Mondo Barca poll, with 36.2 points on a maximum scale of 40.

Also, America 3 and Team Dennis Conner have switched fourth and sixth places.

Mondo Barca is an Italian boating magazine. Others: Il Moro di Venezia, 34.4; Nippon, 31.8; America 3 , 30.2; Le Defi Francais, 30.0; Team Dennis Conner, 28.8; Spirit of Australia, 23.5; Espana ‘92, 20.0; Sweden, 13.6, and Challenge Australia, 10.5.

The poll of media covering the Cup rates teams in four categories: organization, boat, helmsman and crew. New Zealand was rated first in everything but its helmsman, Rod Davis.

Davis, the second-ranked match-racing skipper in the world, behind Nippon’s Chris Dickson, was rated fourth (8.4) to Dickson (9.1), Dennis Conner (8.8) and Il Moro’s Paul Cayard (8.7).

Forget about the notion that the ace up Conner’s sleeve is a hardsail rig, like the catamaran he used in the ’88 defense.

That rig, now offered for rides across the bay on Coronado Island, was built at Burt Rutan’s Scale Composites plant in Mojave, where Rutan earlier built the Voyager airplane that his brother Dick and Jeane Yeager flew around the world non-stop, without fueling, in ’86.

But Rutan says he hasn’t talked to Conner in at least two years and isn’t working on anything to do with sailboats these days--including secret boats or hulls.

Besides, hard-sail rigs, or fixed-shape wings, are illegal under the International America’s Cup Class rules.

IACC measurer Nick Nicholson, asked if such rigs would be legal, said, “It’s very difficult to imagine how they would be. The rules state that the sails have to be capable of being folded, and there also is a rule against multi-surface sails.”

A wing sail generally has airfoil material stretched tight on two sides.

Bill Koch’s answer to keeping the Cup cost-attractive to competitors: “Instead of changing these boats, I would shrink the size of them and eliminate carbon-fiber.

“The cost of the boats is driven exponentially by the size and by the carbon-fiber that’s in them. You could preserve their unique sailing characteristics, but you could still get a much broader participation.

“Otherwise, it is going to go the way the J-class did.”

The magnificent J boats of the 30s--Ranger, Shamrock V, Endeavour, etc.--got so big and expensive that they chased away many interested competitors.

Koch’s idea could be taken a step farther: handicap a team one minute for every million dollars it spends.

Anyone bothered by some Cuppers sailing under foreign flags should know it’s been going on for more than 100 years.

The Auld Mug Weekly publication points out that Mischief, which defended the Cup for the New York Yacht Club in 1881, was owned by Capt. J.B. Busk, an Englishman.

The Norwegian Cruise Line’s M/S Southward, through Olsen Incentives of San Francisco, is offering anchored viewing of the May finals on four-day tours from Los Angeles.

Prices range from $1,415 to $2,160 per person.

The May 11-15 tour includes a day at Catalina Island. A highlight of the May 8-11 tour is “Southward sails to nowhere.”

Not only that, but a press release promises “the excitement of seeing these powerful 12-meter boats up close.”

A blast from the past?