AMERICA’S CUP / DAILY REPORT : DEFENDER TRIALS : A New Boat Gets a New, Silvery Sail

Earlier in the week, America 3syndicate head Bill Koch described America 3, his third in a series of four boats, as “a beautiful lady.”

She proved she’s a sharp dresser, too, showing up for the third day of Round 3 of the defender trials off Point Loma Thursday with an elegant new headsail.

The silvery sail, made up of a combination of liquid crystal, polymer and carbon fiber that has been dubbed “Cubenfiber” for lack of another name, is a severe departure from the more common yellow-gold Kevlar sails.

“Get your gamma-ray sunglasses out,” said Andreas Josenhans, the tactician aboard America 3 this day.

About the only thing America 3 had to block out Thursday was boredom. The intramural race between the syndicate’s America 3 and Defiant ended after the first leeward mark, with America 3holding a 2-minute 31-second lead.

When Defiant’s crew noticed the mainsail drop during the second run, it elected to bail out of the race and return to the compound for overnight repairs. To pick up the four points it normally would earn in victory, all America 3 had to do was finish the 20-nautical-mile course.

“At that point, we were already a couple of minutes ahead,” Josenhans said. “The best of the race is over.”

Even if Defiant could have fixed the problem, Josenhans said, America 3 had no choice but to continue on its course.

“In the interest of good sportsmanship, we couldn’t do a whole lot,” he said. “We could have eased the sail and beat up on them later, but the problem with that is, it can be construed as trying to give them another chance.”

Defiant had its chance in the beginning, when Dave Dellenbaugh steered the yacht to the left side of the start line, forced America 3 to the right and immediately had a six-second lead.

But America 3 found the better wind all the way up to the first windward mark, where it took a 1:48 lead, which it extended to 2:31 on the second leg, before Defiant discovered its mast problems.