AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Taylor Says Challenger Trials Are in Good Financial Shape

Ernie Taylor, executive director of the Challengers of Record Committee, refused to budge when asked to disclose how much money it took to stage the challengers’ trials.

“We’re fortunate,” he said. “We have good sponsors, and we also happen to be good businessmen. The regatta is certainly paid for. We don’t owe any money. What it cost is confidential information.”

Besides using the question to give the CORC a pat on the back, Taylor took a jab at the America’s Cup Organizing Committee.

“We paid off an ACOC debt, and the world is very happy with the television,” he said. “. . . And our budget was much less for eight boats then it was for two or three boats on the defenders side.”

CORC Chairman Stan Reid tossed a one-pound English coin to determine how the challengers would choose starting ends for this series.

New Zealand won the toss and chose starboard, but Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard didn’t seem to mind.

“My wife said to me last night, ‘What’s the big deal about the coin toss? It doesn’t matter what end you come in on, you get all twisted up anyway.’ ”

Cayard and New Zealand skipper Rod Davis insisted theirs is not a rivalry. Fact is, they sailed together in a 1982-83 Cup campaign, have sailed together frequently and sounded like a mutal admiration club.

“We’ve been in some match races, and I’m sure we’ve beaten each other,” Cayard said. “We’re pretty even competitors. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a good friend, and I’m sure the best team will win.”

Said Davis: “We’ve sailed together more than we’ve sailed against each other. That’s probaby how we’ve become good friends.”

It is the issue at won’t go away, but New Zealand hopes that with a final clarification, it finally will.

Cayard asked the CORC to review the conditions on the use of the bowsprit earlier this week, and the Louis Vuitton Cup jury reaffirmed its earlier decision.

Davis couldn’t figure out why Cayard decided to re-introduce the subject six days before the finals.

“I don’t know why Paul has left it this late to have another go at us on bowsprits--except maybe to try to unsettle us. He’s wasting his time.”

Said Cayard: “We have to live with (the decision), and that’s it.”

Davis can empathize with the frustration America 3 helmsman Buddy Melges felt trying to get to the second windward mark before the defenders’ race was abandoned Saturday.

“I grew up in San Diego,” Davis said. “I would say where we’re racing now, on the backside of Point Loma instead of down by the Hotel Del (Coronado), which is where we used to race . . . well, the backside of Point Loma is a funny place to sail. A lot of very strange things happen.

“The time that all the teams left here have spent in San Diego is about equal, and they are as prepared for San Diego (conditions) as they can be. But there are still a lot of surprises that come up out there.”

Dennis Conner said the current is more pronounced during a full moon.

“The current changes with the moon and is probably accentuated when it lines up with the tide,” Conner said.

If light wind and current weren’t enough, Conner said, the largest mass of spectator boats so far made conditions worse.

First, the spectator fleet had to be moved when the course direction was shifted before the start, causing a 50-minute delay.

Then, Conner said, “The spectator fleet was so close that it took what existing wind there was, and they didn’t realize the current was taking them towards us, too.

“They’ve gotta be controlled. They’re not ill-meaning. They just don’t realize what they’re doing.”