AMERICA’S CUP / DAILY REPORT : Patchwork Japanese Boat Falters; Melges Is Left Facing the Music
Broken mast, broken rudders, broken boom, broken dream--the Japanese have felt the weight of competition for the America’s Cup through the past 12 months, but it hasn’t broken their hearts or their resolve.
And even on the verge of elimination they seem less confused than the America 3syndicate, which keeps changing boats and lineups and helmsmen like “musical chairs,” helmsman Buddy Melges says.
When Nippon’s boom broke 5 1/2 minutes before the start of Sunday’s race against Il Moro di Venezia, there was only a momentary thought of giving up, even though its chances of surviving the challenger semifinals already were foundering.
Instead, Chris Dickson’s Nippon crew patched and jury-rigged, sailing remarkably well against one of the teams that figures to reach the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup and losing by 1 minute 53 seconds.
That was closer than their 2:04 loss to the Italians last Tuesday, and closer than Ville de Paris’ 3:11 loss to New Zealand in Sunday’s other semifinal.
While maintaining a front of organized direction, Bill Koch’s America 3team shows signs of disarray, as if Dennis Conner’s winning five of their last six races has thrown the camp into chaos.
Nobody seems to know who’s going to be steering either America 3boat from one day to the next. On Saturday, Koch explained that he left Melges behind for the race against Stars & Stripes because Melges wanted to stay on Kanza, the newer boat, all the time.
Then Kimo Worthington showed up Sunday sailing America 3, while Koch sailed Kanza.
Worthington, who has rotated from mainsail trimmer to non-sailing boat captain to helmsman, was at the helm for most of Sunday’s victory over Kanza by 34 seconds--America 3’s first victory in this knockout round.
Melges said afterward: “We played a lot of musical chairs, and yesterday there weren’t enough for me to sit on. So today I became the esteemed tactician for Kimo Worthington.”
Melges added that the decisions are based on the anticipated sailing conditions--light wind, heavy wind, etc.
The Japanese, with all their troubles, at least remain focused. After suffering a broken rudder shaft Wednesday and the boom Sunday, they are 1-5 with only three semifinal races remaining, but their effort hasn’t diminished.
“It was obvious we weren’t going to be going very fast,” Dickson said. “For one fleeting moment I considered pulling out. The answer was very quick: ‘We’ll do the best we can. We’ll keep fighting. We’re down but we’re not out yet.’ We’d give up a point, probably, but Il Moro was going to have to work for it.”
New Zealand skipper Rod Davis called it “an impressive display of seamanship . . . typical of the effort they’ve put forth through this whole regatta.”
When the Japanese jettisoned their broken boom, there was some question whether that was legal.
“A couple guys on our crew said, ‘Hey, they just threw the boom over. Is that legal?’ ” Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard said. “I said, ‘Guys, if we can’t beat those guys without a boom, we don’t deserve to be in the finals.’ ”