America 3 Takes Control : Sailing: U.S. crew steers clear of its own mishaps and Il Moro di Venezia on its way to a 3-1 lead.
Pinned flat a minute before the start, flirting with a falling mast, two crewmen nearly lost overboard--just another day’s race for America 3, compared to the peril of Paolino.
After a 64-second loss Thursday, it’s Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard who is really in trouble.
America 3took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven America’s Cup finals after starting helmsman Dave Dellenbaugh steered the boat clear of a trap laid by Cayard, and Buddy Melges got on the gas. After a lay day today, America 3can win the Cup on Saturday.
Nobody except Australia II in 1983 has come from that far behind to win, when John Bertrand--not to be confused with Dennis Conner’s strategist--defeated Conner’s Liberty by 4-3.
Watching these current events, Bertrand saw few similarities to encourage the Italians.
“They have more of a problem than we had,” Bertrand said. “We had a definite speed edge in certain conditions. There doesn’t seem to be an Achilles’ heel in America 3.”
Cayard said: “I don’t want to lay too much on the boat. I think today they outsailed me.
“The one area where they are pretty darn quick is dead running (downwind). That’s a fact that keeps showing its ugly head every day.”
America 3, which switched to a smaller keel for less drag since defeating Conner, broke the race open on the first downwind leg when it doubled its lead to 47 seconds. Although Il Moro cut that back from 11 boat lengths to two for a moment on the next, upwind leg, America 3 never lost control of the race.
Having vowed to sail more aggressively to counter America 3’s speed, Cayard appeared to be in control through the pre-start sequence. He chased America 3through the spectator fleet and later held his rival pinned on his downwind side as the boats crawled upwind toward the committee boat at the right end of the line.
Then, with one minute remaining before the gun, Dellenbaugh suddenly jibed (turned downwind) away from Il Moro to circle clockwise back to the left side, catching Cayard by surprise.
The Italians protested that America 3had jibed too close, but the umpires waved it off, and by the time Cayard tried to follow, Dellenbaugh was headed back up toward the line, sails full and driving.
“Wasn’t that slick?” helmsman Melges said later.
The boats started virtually even and sailed on a long starboard tack until America 3skated far enough out to dump its disturbed wind on the red boat’s sails. Cayard tacked away for clear wind, but soon America 3had cruised out on top of his wind again, and he was unable to escape before America 3rounded the first mark 24 seconds ahead.
After that, the Italians’ only hope was an America 3catastrophe--which indeed stalked the U.S. boat at a couple of turns.
As Koch steered around the second reaching mark, Melges was slow to take up the slack on the starboard running backstay, which prevents the mast from falling forward. As the full-sized gennaker sail filled like a parachute, the mast bent alarmingly to leeward near the breaking point.
Koch’s boats already had suffered two dismastings in practice over the last few months.
Near the end of the next leg, a nervous Koch said to Melges, “Buddy, you (steer) this rounding . . . and the next leg, OK?”
America 3’s adventures weren’t over. At the next mark, as the boat rounded to head upwind the last time, grinder Peter Fennelly was on the foredeck to help pull in the doused gennaker when the 5/8-inch-thick sheet (a Kevlar rope) for trimming the new, upwind headsail whipped around his right ankle like a snare.
As Mike Toppa trimmed the sail in and the sheet grew taut to thousands of pounds of tension, Fennelly was pinned to the cap shroud (the inch-thick steel rod that runs from the side of the boat to the top of the mast), hanging overboard with his leg in danger of being crushed.
Bowman Jerry Kirby pulled his knife and leaped to Fennelly’s aid, while pitman Wally Henry held Fennelly in a headlock, but Toppa eased the sheet before Kirby had to cut it.
“Kirby saved my life,” Fennelly said.
Other than that, it was another routine victory for America 3.
Il Moro also was down 1-3 to New Zealand in the best-of-nine challenger finals before pulling out a 5-3 victory, but that, like Australia II’s victory victory in ‘83, was different.
Unless the winds diminish to the fluky, 5-to-6-knot range where Conner’s Stars & Stripes found its only success against America 3, the Italians probably will be tuning up the sad violins by Saturday night.