AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Cayard Keeps Tongue in Cheek in Response to Koch Comments

When the sailors aren’t talking bowsprits, they’re talking sails.

America 3’s Bill Koch said last week that his new carbon fiber-liquid crystal-polymer sails make the Italian carbon-fiber sails “prehistoric in 10 months”--the time it took to develop them.

Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard, asked about Koch’s comment Friday, said, “Gee, that really hurts my feelings. I guess we might as well pack that stuff up and send it back to Montedison. Bill Koch’s the authority.”

New Zealand’s Rod Davis, asked for a neutral opinion, said, “They are interesting sails. I don’t know a lot about them. They could have some advantages and some disadvantages.

“But at this point we don’t have a lot of sleepless nights about them.”

Koch also had accused Cayard of “whining” about America 3’s espionage.

“I don’t think I whine a lot,” Cayard said. “Sometimes I tell it like it is. Some people don’t like that. I really don’t have much to say about any of Bill’s comments. We’re all getting to know the real Bill Koch a little better now.”

The date was Feb. 29, Leap Year, when the process of marriage proposals traditionally reverses, and Vanessa Cassidy suddenly realized she’d blown it.

Cassidy, an Australian, works at the Louis Vuitton service desk in the America’s Cup media center. Andrew Taylor, a.k.a. “Raw Meat,” is a grinder on the New Zealand boat. They met in 1986 at the America’s Cup at Fremantle, Western Australia, and Cassidy’s patience waiting for Taylor to pop the question had run out.

But the Kiwi boat had left the dock for practice last Saturday before Cassidy realized that was the day. Desperate, she phoned the New Zealand compound from the media center asking if they could patch her through to the boat by radio.

“I’ve got to ask Andrew to marry me, and it has to be today,” she said.

The connection was arranged, and Cassidy had one more request: “I want all his mates to hear because Andrew is such a team man.”

So, with the whole crew listening in, she said, “Andrew Taylor, this is Leap Year and the only opportunity I’m going to have to ask you to be my mate.”

Silence. Taylor thought it might be a prank. He asked Cassidy to quote their bank account number.

After he agreed, she told him, “You’d better win the America’s Cup, because I’m not marrying a loser.”

“Yep,” Taylor said, “that’s Vanessa.”

Some of the other skippers owe a lot to Cayard--several thousand dollars.

When Cayard won the Grundig match-racing event in France four years ago, the sponsor failed to produce the prize money totaling $150,000. Cayard kept pressing and announced Friday that he had finally collected $140,000 to be distributed among the top four finishers, in order: Cayard, Nippon’s Chris Dickson, Spirit of Australia’s Peter Gilmour and New Zealand’s Rod Davis.

Despite the discount, Cayard was still entitled to $100,000 but took only $93,000, boosting the shares of the other three.

“These guys are my peers,” he said. “Rod Davis is a longtime friend. We’ve raced in the America’s Cup together. And all of us are gonna be racing together for another 25 years, so . . .”

Volker Frick, renowned in Newport, R.I., as gourmet chef of the America’s Cup and as chef de cuisine at the New York Yacht Club, is performing his culinary art at the Shelter Island Marina Inn and Hurricanes Restaurant in San Diego during the Cup.

On three consecutive Tuesday evenings starting March 17, Frick will offer “International Regatta Culinary Classes.” The fee is $30 per person per session, but it includes a four-course meal. Details: (619) 222-0561.