AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Cats From 1988 Cup Defense to Compete in Ensenada Race

The two 60-foot Stars & Stripes catamarans from the 1988 defense will race in the 45th annual Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race starting Friday, May 1.

Dennis Conner sailed the backup, soft-sail cat to a record of 9 hours, 8 minutes last year, and seven Stars & Stripes crew are expected to sail it this time, although Conner’s participation depends on the America’s Cup situation.

The hard-sail cat, with the fixed-shape wing for a sail, will be rigged about 40% smaller than what it was to trounce New Zealand’s big monohull two straight in ’88.

The boat then was bought by Mexican businessman Victor Tapia, who kept it at Acapulco and had it sailed back 1,300 miles to San Diego last year--sometimes into headwinds of 35 knots. During the Cup it has been moored at Coronado, next to the New Zealand compound.

To conform to Ocean Racing Catamaran Assn. (ORCA) rules, the cats have been equipped with heads, stoves and four bunks each, and must carry motors and fuel.

About 500 other boats will start in eight waves on two starting lines.

Sailing writer and competitor J. Wells Coggeshall of Madeira Beach, Fla. died Tuesday of a heart attack.

Coggeshall, 64, was in San Diego to report on the Cup for Suncourt Publishing Group of Florida. He was the longtime historian of the Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) series.