Speedier French Upset New Zealand : America’s Cup: Kiwis insist that furor over the bowsprit had nothing to do with loss in challengers’ race. In defenders’ race, Conner loses to Defiant.
Scratch one bowsprit and voila! --it’s a wide-open America’s Cup again.
Or was it was just a coincidence that New Zealand went from front-running to faltering in losing to France by 1 minute 21 seconds Saturday?
Like a knight with a blunted lance, Sir Michael Fay’s little red boat seemed shaken as it opened the third round of the America’s Cup’s Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials unable to use its leading appendage to advantage, as it had in the first two rounds.
Skipper Rod Davis said, “We didn’t have a good day today, but that wasn’t because of the bowsprit. The bowsprit really affected only one thing. I had a problem with the starting line. We were over (early) by about the length of the bowsprit.
“We didn’t get the job done. (But) you’d be naive to believe that this bowsprit issue is gonna prevent New Zealand from winning the America’s Cup.”
Meanwhile, on the defenders’ course, Dennis Conner ran Stars & Stripes into the stern of a spectator boat during some tight prestart maneuvering and was stuck in the fleet as America 3’s Defiant got away 32 seconds ahead.
Defiant helmsman Buddy Melges tweaked Conner, saying, “Dennis, who is the master of time and distance, missed on both.”
Although Conner closed to 31 seconds midway of the race, Defiant won comfortably by 1:19, setting up a tempting scenario for Bill Koch’s team.
With victories counting four points, the Cubens will drop Stars & Stripes (11) into third place if their top boat, America 3 (28), loses to Defiant (8) today.
Gee, would they do that?
Among the challengers, where victories in the third round escalate to eight points, Il Moro di Venezia (12-3) went into first place with 37 points, as New Zealand (13-2) fell into a tie with Nippon (12-3) with 34. France (10-5) has 29.
Il Moro meets Nippon today.
New Zealand’s plight followed a joint, 11th-hour and somewhat confusing decision by Stan Reid’s Challenger of Record Committee and Graeme Owens’ LVC jury that (a) “the LVC jury decision of Jan. 25 will be in effect,” but (b) “New Zealand will however employ a system of usage of the bowsprit which . . . complies with the Cup jury interpretation.”
The Cup jury interpretation issued Thursday was in conflict with the LVC jury’s earlier decision on the point of whether New Zealand could attach its spinnaker or gennaker headsail to the bowsprit rather than a spinnaker pole while jibing (switching sails from one side to the other downwind).
Saturday, in light, southwest winds of 7 to 11 knots that called for sharp downwind sailing angles, the Kiwis altered their technique to bring the tack (lower corner) of the billowing sails from the end of the bowsprit back to the point of the bow while executing the manuever.
Davis said, “We made a decision this morning that we’d use the sails we normally use. We weren’t gonna be intimated about the bowsprit issue and have to change.
“We made some slight modifications to our boat last night to accommodate it, and we’ll make more after this round.”
How much difference did it make Saturday? They lost distance on every off-wind leg, when the bowsprit comes into play--but, then, maybe Ville de Paris’ new keel was a factor.
“I don’t know what keel you mean,” skipper Marc Pajot said, innocently.
Perhaps more important, Pajot and the Ville de Paris crew, still smarting from an eight-second loss to New Zealand in the second round, sailed their blue boat flawlessly, if an aborted start can be overlooked.
New Zealand led the French over the line early and both had to drop back to restart.
The Kiwis led by eight seconds at the first, windward mark, but the French outsailed them thereafter--tactically and physically.
The boats were only one or two boat lengths apart around the first three marks, as observers wondered if the French would blow this one, as they had other close contests.
Instead, the French withstood a 35-tack attack by New Zealand on the second windward leg, and then it was the Kiwis who became flustered.
A problem with a gennaker sheet on the first reach--actually, a downwind run because of a wind shift--cost them two boat lengths, and when they appeared to have regained a small edge near the mark, they jibed too soon, slowed down and Ville de Paris flew past and away.
Il Moro had no trouble with Challenge Australia (0-15), winning by 8:03, and Nippon left dispirited Spirit of Australia (5-10) behind by 4:45.
Espana ’92 (6-9) beat Tre Kronor (2-13) by 4:39, but the Swedes had a protest pending.
After the Spaniards, leading by only two boat lengths, bungled a spinnaker takedown and left the sail behind, Tre Kronor collected the sail on its keel and stopped dead in the water until a crewman could dive in and clear it.