AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : ACOC Hears Complaints on Race Starts

The America 3 syndicate complains that the America’s Cup Organizing Committee hasn’t adjusted for daylight-saving time and is trying to start the defender races too early, before the wind settles down to a steady direction.

A letter sent to race manager Terry Harper after Friday’s loss to Stars & Stripes said, “Although the committee has postponed races periodically, it has apparently felt compelled to begin the sequence at the first sign of a breeze. . . . We feel our concerns have been ignored. In the future we ask that you consider beginning the races when the breeze has completely filled and settled, rather than starting at the sign of the first breeze. . . . We have noted that the challengers postpone their races until the breeze has fully filled.”

In Friday’s race, Kanza had to do a penalty turn after the start but temporarily overtook Stars & Stripes five minutes later.

“No way that would have happened without a wild shift,” A3 navigator Bill Campbell said, producing weather graphs showing the erratic shifts.

It was suggested that the race committee was forcing the starts to accommodate ESPN’s schedule. Friday the network stayed on 12 minutes past the scheduled 3:30 end of the telecast to get the finish.

But ACOC general manager Tom Ehman said, “We get no pressure whatsoever from ESPN,” and ESPN personnel agreed.

Dennis Conner and the Stars & Stripes crew sang happy birthday to veteran bowman Scotty Vogel as they cruised into the finish line in Friday’s win over Kanza. Vogel was 34.