AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Cayard Doesn’t Think Protests Strained Friendship With Davis

It’s hard to say who was getting less sleep lately--skippers Paul Cayard and Rod Davis with their protests or the challengers’ jury that had to consider them.

But credit the America’s Cup executives of Louis Vuitton, the French luggage company that sponsors the challenger trials, with some behind-the-scenes prodding that moved the bowsprit problem off dead center this week, hoping to avoid embarrassment come the Cup match.

Chairman Graeme Owens estimated that the five-man jury had spent 200 man-hours on the bowsprit matter alone.

It also might have put strain on the long friendship between Cayard and Davis. Cayard didn’t think so.

“In the room we’re professionals,” he said Thursday. “We represent our sides the way they need to be represented. (On the water) I was a competitor . . . tough as nails.

“Rod is a good sailor and a really good human being. Rod Davis and I go way back. He had a tough series, but he’s a class act. He was the first to congratulate me this afternoon . . . the first to say I outdid him.”

Cayard said other friends also were a factor in his success. Tom Blackaller Sr., the father of Cayard’s flamboyant mentor who died suddenly in 1989, was visiting this week and Cayard had him aboard the boat Wednesday.

“Everybody knows how much Tom meant to me. Having his dad get on the boat . . . certainly a big part of Tom was on the boat. He was thrilled and said how proud he was of me, and on Tom’s behalf how proud he would be of me. You don’t have to say everything to feel it.

“A lot of things came together here at the end of this regatta that allowed us to start sailing better. I was very frustrated in the early rounds. I was sporadic, but my head was jammed with boat speed (concerns), with sails, with all kinds of items.

“In the semifinals I finally saw that my boat was OK, and I just concentrated on New Zealand. We stayed tough and got better.”

Every America’s Cup seems to have its controversial trademark--Australia II’s winged keel in ‘83, New Zealand’s fiberglass boats in ‘87, the Stars & Stripes catamaran in ’88. New Zealand’s bowsprit made its mark in this one.

It’s curious that a team from Down Under has been involved in the last four major disputes, although the catamaran was only a response to New Zealand’s big monohull.

The problem seems to be innovation--something different, something nobody else thought of, and, of course, something to be feared. The bowsprit has become all of that, and it’s now part of Cup lore, win or lose.

Italian TV commentator Cino Ricci this week urged all paisanos back home to fax letters of support to the team.

The response was Mt. Etna all over again--thousands of faxes inundating the syndicate office and some other fax machines at nearby locations.

One point several made was that they didn’t like tactician Enrico Chieffi’s calls. They said he was the best man New Zealand had.

Of course, that was before Il Moro had won four in a row.