AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Race Committee Chairman Calls Il Moro’s Victory ‘a Clean Win’

John Folting, America’s Cup race committee chairman for the San Diego Yacht Club, called the finish of the closest race in the history of the final Cup match--Il Moro di Venezia’s three-second win over America 3 that evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1 Sunday.

Folting was aboard the committee boat De Fever 43 at the far end of the finish line as the boats drifted past the anchored inflated buoy at the opposite pin end. Well before the boats arrived the boat had hoisted anchor and was maneuvering fore and aft to keep the line straight so as not to favor either boat.

“We were trying to keep the line square to the current and the course,” Folting said. “We got the line down to one degree so they could finish properly. About 15 seconds from the finish, we looked up and it was, ‘Here they come.’ ”

Then Folting left the helm to sight down the line.

“Il Moro came off from the right, and the Cubens came in behind ‘em. It looked like (America 3) was gonna catch ‘em for a while . . . (but) his chute collapsed for a moment.

“I was right on the line,” Folting said. “(Il Moro’s) chute was the first across the line. It was a clean win--very distinct.”

No signals are posted to indicate the winner, so the crews didn’t know who won until about three minutes later.

“I wasn’t aware of that,” Folting said. “(Other boats) were all ganging up on me to find out.”

Folting’s communicator, Dan Mangus, radioed the result to race manager Terry Harper, who informed the boats.

Sunday night the committee, anticipating more close finishes, decided to fly the national flag of the winner from the committee boat immediately, leaving no doubts.

“It was a great race,” Folting said. “I hope all the rest are like that.”

Bill Koch steered only the fifth, reaching leg Sunday, partly because it was such a tight race and partly because “I still wasn’t feeling so hot.”

In Saturday’s win by America 3 he got conked by the starboard running backstay--the aft rigging that holds the mast up and is adjusted from one side to the other when tacking or jibing so the mainsail can swing across.

“The guy who was bringing up the runner--a very fine guy who is still my friend--didn’t bring it up fast enough and I stuck my head up too far,” Koch said. “It hit me in the head and knocked me across the boat . . . knocked me down. I stumbled around and it took me a couple of minutes to get back on my feet.”

The guy was David Dellenbaugh, the tactician.

“It did make me babble yesterday,” said Koch, who did seem more talkative than usual over his on-board microphone. “I wasn’t as coherent as I’d like to be.”

Koch paused. “Am I coherent now?” he asked.

Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard, seated alongside, assured him he was.

“Thanks, Paul,” Koch said.

“The doctor said I’ve got a typical head injury. I should go home, take a bath, lie down, get plenty of rest--all of which I did, and I still have a headache today, which he said would be gone tomorrow. I still have a lump on the side of my head.”

Koch was asked Sunday how America 3 tore a hole in its gennaker.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I was busy ducking.”

America 3 considered protesting Sunday’s finish on the official rules definition of finishing: “A yacht finishes when any part of her hull, or of her crew or equipment in normal position, crosses the finish line . . . “

America 3 thought Il Moro might have purposely released its gennaker to blow forward across the line.

“We thought our bow crossed the line first,” Koch said. “We thought the Italian boat blew its sheets to get its (gennaker) out in front of ours, which the videotape showed that they did.

“But in going back and analyzing the videotapes we found that their bow crossed the line a fraction ahead of our bow. If that had not been the case we would have gone ahead and protested.”