Fleet Owners Say Their Cup’s Empty : Controversy: As crowds watching the regatta begin to beef up, operators of some spectator boats claim they’ve been cheated out of business by race organizers.

Rico Gorini came all the way from Zurich to see the America’s Cup regatta “the way it should be seen--out here on this boat, and not in some bar, watching television.”

He paused, and with a beatific expression, said, “I couldn’t be happier, but I know I would feel much differently if I were somewhere other than here. Here is beautiful.”

Walter Burnett, a sailing enthusiast from Seattle, and Dr. Jep Cobb, a family practitioner from Mobile, Ala., said San Diego should quit being hard on itself and feel good about being the envy of the yachting world in 1992.

“I mean, it has the Cup ,” Burnett said longingly, as though the battered silver mug were the Holy Grail itself.

Gorini said the difference between enjoying the world’s oldest regatta and wondering what it’s all about is the difference between watching it on television or venturing out on any of the 300 to 500 daily individual and touring spectator boats (600 to 800 on weekends) and “tasting its essence.”

Seeing the America’s Cup from a spectator’s boat is the way to see it--perhaps the only way to see it. On that point almost everyone agrees. But even the spectator fleet has been a symbol of the controversy and chaos surrounding San Diego’s version of the Cup.

Even without controversy, “tasting” the essence of the Cup by watching it from a private or commercial boat is limited largely to the wealthy.

ESPN, the cable sports network, may be doing a smashing job of transmitting sound and pictures, Gorini said, but, until you witness the race with the wind and sea blowing in your face, “You have no idea what it’s all about. You have no idea of its . . . reality.”

Gorini and more than 200 other passengers saw Tuesday’s America 3 victory over Il Moro di Venezia from the Spirit of San Diego, one of several spectator boats operated by the San Diego Harbor Excursion, which charges Cup fans $150 apiece for six hours of viewing.

The action is, in Gorini’s words, “up close and very personal . . . the only way to see such a race. I could watch television in Zurich. Why do it here?”

Tuesday, it was hard to argue. Six hours of sun, with gentle waves lapping against the boat and the San Diego skyline shimmering in the distance, beat just about anybody’s television picture.

Not that you couldn’t find television on board. Four monitors broadcast ESPN’s sound and pictures from the corners of the boat, via a special microwave hookup from Mt. Miguel that operator Eric Lund says cost $5,000.

The less adventurous opted to sit inside and sip bloody Marys while watching ESPN’s sometimes fuzzy signal. Some slept, while their sail-crazy spouses soaked up the rays. One elderly man sat inside, never moving from his chair. He almost finished Tom Clancy’s new book between the offshore hours of 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

“It’s called ‘The Sum of All Fears,’ ” he said quietly. “It’s very good.”

Others had their eyes on the water.

“This is fabulous, this is what I came for,” cooed Mobile’s Dr. Cobb, 58, who said “the peace, the quiet, the movement of the water is the only way to enjoy a yacht race. You can’t judge it by limiting yourself to television.”

Almost every person on board the Spirit of San Diego agreed--being a member of the spectator fleet, even at the sizable price, was the only way to go.

But even the spectator fleet, potentially one of the most lucrative local venues, has--like the rest of the big event--been awash in controversy.

The San Diego Harbor Excursion fleet has done well, general manager Lund says--he drew a sellout of 400 passengers Saturday--but other fleets are crying foul.

Ross Hecht, general manager of Point Loma Sportfishing, charges spectators $75 apiece--half the price of the Harbor Excursion boats--and says, for him, the America’s Cup “just hasn’t been good at all. . . . Only now are we starting to have the kind of crowds we expected back in March and April.”

Hecht is averaging only about 22 passengers a day for the finals and had so little demand for Tuesday’s race that he refused to send out any boats, saying, “It’s just not worth it. For the most part, the best term to describe all this is ‘underwhelming.’ It’s been extremely underwhelming.”

Phil Lobred, general manager of H&M; Landing, is as disappointed as Hecht, and angry, too.

Lobred, like Hecht, charges $75 per passenger and, “on a good day, we run at 50% capacity. Some of my boats are charter boats, others party boats. The party boats haven’t done well at all.”

Lobred, like many small-fleet operators, is harshly critical of America’s Cup Services, the for-profit marketing arm of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, branding its directors “greedy” and “mired in conflicts of interest” while accusing them of extracting $2,400 contributions from small-fleet operators and offering little or nothing in return.

“They created a co-op, while refusing to call it that,” Lobred said. “They told us we could do anything we wanted, except use the America’s Cup logo and trademark, which is a huge exception. Then they decide shortly before the races to form an in-house travel desk. Then they turn around and sell that to a private individual--Warren Pateman (from Australia).”

Lobred claims Pateman began bringing in boats in which he maintained a financial interest--a charge Pateman has denied. Lobred claims executives for the Sheraton hotels on Harbor Island hired a foreign spectator fleet, even though local companies could have performed the same services for less money.

“They’re a hop, skip and a jump from me,” Lobred said of the Sheraton. “But they’re running a large, 300-passenger spectator boat from Australia. My boat is almost identical. Their manager claims he checked around, and that the locals tried to rip him off, which just isn’t true. I don’t remember anyone checking around, and I know our price is lower.”

Sheraton executives could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this year, Pateman’s for-profit travel agency drew protests from members of the San Diego tourism industry who felt Pateman was steering business toward companies in which he held a financial interest. At the time, Pateman defended his operation and denied any improper activities.

Last month, Pateman was arrested by agents for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and charged with failing to secure a proper U.S. work permit. He was later barred from playing an active role in the day-to-day management of any U.S. company, including the America’s Cup Services Travel Desk.

However, Pateman was not barred from maintaining an individual, commercial role in the races. Since his arrest, he has declined all interviews.

Lobred of H&M; Landing said the America’s Cup organizers “tried to control everything themselves, which would have been fine--it could have been their baby--but you don’t come in and ask people for money, and make promises you can’t keep, without pissing people off.

“If the Cup comes here again, things will have to be done a lot differently. It’s left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.”

But Warren Burnett, 53, an executive in the Washington state dairy industry, says part of the charm of the races is its continuous courting of controversy. And Tuesday, on board the Spirit of San Diego, he was having a wonderful time.

“It wouldn’t be the America’s Cup without conflict and chaos,” he bellowed from the deck of the boat. As the boat neared the harbor, Burnett roared at the sky, “God, isn’t this fabulous! Man, where are the poor folks? Do you see any poor folks?”

Burnett said he loves the Cup for what he called its decadent appeal.

“It’s just big boys and their toys,” he said with a grin.

Craig Selimotic, 21, a student from New York City, says he loves the Cup for its jet-set allure. He just finished backpacking through China--ending up in Mongolia--before abandoning the trail and coming to San Diego for the Cup.

Before that, he went to Egypt to see the pyramids.

“This is the Super Bowl of sailing,” he said. “What more do you need to know?”

Selimotic and Burnett say the anger and regret of the spectator fleets and even the controversy surrounding the local version of how-to-stage-an-America’s-Cup mean nothing to them.

Selimotic has had, in his word, a “blast.”

Gorini, 52, who hails from the Italian part of Switzerland, goes so far as to say that Italy’s winning the regatta, thus moving the event to the Mediterranean, would be “a disaster. . . . Venice just doesn’t have the infrastructure of a city like San Diego.”

Of course, Gina Paterno, 34, a “housewife from Italy,” disagreed--with passion.

“The media, over here, they only favor the Americans,” she groused, punctuating her remarks with lavish gestures. “Listen to them now, on the television there--’Italy will protest, because they protest about everything.’ That makes me mad! It is racist!”

But even Paterno agreed that the conditions--warm sun, soft breezes and the spectacle of hundreds of sails--took away some of the sting.

Jim Steer, 67, a retiree from Jupiter, Fla., agreed it was “all very nice,” but the Cup events he’s been to in Newport, R.I., “were a lot better. This is too big a town. Too much going on. My son and daughter live here. They could care less. The apathy is overwhelming.”

Eleanor Elsner, 62, of Hanover, Pa., who came to the races with her sailing-fanatic husband, said $150 a ticket was too much. She believes San Diego’s handling of the races “has been far too disorganized. . . . It was hard to get accurate information.

“These spectator boats are OK,” she added, “but everyone we’ve talked to who saw the races said the boats in Australia (for the last Cup event in Fremantle) were much closer to the action, and a lot more fun. We would prefer being closer to the boats themselves.”

Steer took a sip of beer and summed up the day.

“I hope the Italians win,” he muttered. “Because, if they do, the New York Yacht Club will mount a challenge that no one will overcome and return the races to Rhode Island, where they’ll remain forever and ever . . . just as they should be.”