AMERICA’S CUP / DAILY REPORT : CHALLENGER, DEFENDER TRIALS : Stars & Stripes Wins Again, Ties Kanza
Kimo Worthington learned something about steering an America’s Cup boat Saturday. It’s hot back there.
The heat comes from those who, the sailors believe, make too much of who is at the helm. For example, Worthington and boat owner Bill Koch sailed America 3during a 1-minute 56-second loss to Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes with their most experienced helmsman, Buddy Melges, on the beach.
The victory was Stars & Stripes’ fourth during this round, including a bonus one for placing second in the points rounds. That ties Kanza with four races remaining and reduces the magic number for clinching a berth in the defender finals to two.
During the challengers’ semifinals, New Zealand (3-2) rebounded from Thursday’s loss to Il Moro di Venezia (3-2) on an umpire’s call to defeat Nippon (1-4) by 2:49. Ville de Paris (3-2) passed Il Moro in the tricky, dying winds on the final leg to win by 1:56.
The skippers who won were the ones on best terms with Catalina Eddy, the occasional Southern California phenomenon of opposing offshore southerly and westerly winds.
The winds peaked at about nine knots and finished at four and shifted wildly at times.
Stars & Stripes tactician Tom Whidden said: “We said the kind of day it was is why Dennis makes the big bucks . . . conditions where Dennis feels the most comfortable. I think he revels in the shifty up and down conditions.”
Koch, who has been sailing only eight years, isn’t in Conner’s class, and his steering was partly blamed for his boat’s losses in the first two races of this round.
Then Saturday, when he left Melges behind and had Worthington steer the first two legs, second-guessing was in full season.
Whidden said: “I hear everybody asking questions about steering ability, but there’s a lot more going on out there than that. There was a 50-degree shift on the first beat. And being the person who has to monitor the speed of Bill’s two boats, believe me, these guys are not sailing those boats slow.”
New Zealand led Nippon throughout, although the Japanese closed to eight seconds at the first leeward mark when New Zealand dropped its spinnaker pole in the water.
Then the Kiwis got a break after tacking on top of the Japanese when they crossed on the second windward leg. Nippon skipper Chris Dickson started to tack out from underneath but was too close and turned away only three or four feet from crashing into the side of the Kiwi boat.
New Zealand protested, and umpires Neville Wittey and Graeme Owens ruled that Nippon had luffed illegally, trying to force New Zealand upwind.
That wasn’t Dickson’s intent. He simply wanted to tack, but he didn’t have room to do that, either, so Nippon had to do a 270-degree penalty turn.