So Where Was All the Electricity? : America’s Cup: The pursuit of sailing’s greatest prize had its highs and lows, but overall it fell short of expectations.

Reflections on a silver ewer:

It was the best of America’s Cups and . . . well, maybe not the worst, but it could have been better.

Given San Diego’s notoriously light wind, the racing was far better than anyone expected. Some of it was exciting at any speed.

Given the potential of contesting sailing’s greatest prize in a major sailing city, it bombed far short of Fremantle in 1987 or Newport, R.I., in the old days.

No tingle.

No feel.

Louis Vuitton’s production of the challenger trials was first-rate. The America’s Cup Organizing Committee’s performance was OK, once it settled down to running the event, which is what the yacht club hired it to do.

Later, it may need an autopsy--or an audit--to determine its cause of death.

Together, Louis Vuitton’s Bruno Trouble and the ACOC’s Dennis Morgigno ran a highly efficient media center.

The Southwestern Yacht Club ran the challengers’ trials and the San Diego Yacht Club the defenders’ and the match was nothing short of magnifique. The challengers’ jury should have handled the bowsprit matter better.

The defenders’ and match juries happily had little to do.

On-water umpiring wasn’t perfect, but it was better than all-night protest hearings.

At four months, the event was about twice too long.

So was the 20.03-nautical mile course. It made some races look like contests between 20.03-mule teams.

But even traditionalists had to admit that the downwind finishes were better than the old upwind finishes.

The Z-leg parades were a waste of time and sail material.

On-board TV cameras and microphones made sailing a spectator sport. Geoff Mason, executive producer for the host feed, made ESPN and the rest of the world look good. ESPN’s Kelly, Jobson and Isler made it sound good, even in Wichita.

Remember the names?

Amir Pischad. Yvon Kergreis. Bob Sloan. They took dives.

Jerry Kirby. Greg Prussia. Alberto (The Great) Fantini. They got high.

And Rod Davis got hung out to dry.

A red boat still hasn’t won the Cup. Maybe never will.

Will it be better in 1995? Why should it be?

Remember, this was San Diego’s third try. L’affaire catamaran was shamefully unfair, a defense of which nobody could be proud. The International America’s Cup Class world championships in 1991 were an overdone practice regatta.

And Bill Koch’s real thing in 1992 had all the pop of flat champagne, a sense of . . . is that all there is?

The foreigners said the best thing for the Cup would be to get it out of San Diego, preferably to a smaller city that loves sailors.

Good idea. The Times’ Dave Distel suggested Coronado. Coronado loves the idea. As Kiwinado, it caught the spirit. As Cuponado, it could be the magic sailing kingdom that Fremantle was.

Stan Reid, the Perth physician who headed the Challenger of Record Committee, said, “I’m sure they’re looking at that. I’m sure getting the public involved would be good for the event.”

In Fremantle, the waterfront suburb of Perth, “The compounds were closer together and people were seen to be coming and going, and there were flags and languages in the street,” Reid said. “People were made to feel part of it.

“Mind you, you put 10,000 people in Fremantle and that makes a dent. You put 10,000 people in San Diego and you don’t even know they’re here. But if you put those 10,000 people (in the same location), those people would feel part of it.”

Cuponado. Could it happen?

Dennis Conner and the Australians should be back in 1995 with proper campaigns.

John Bertrand--not Conner’s strategist but the guy who won the Cup from Dennis with Australia II in 1983--might know as much about nautical technology as Bill Koch and almost as much about sailing, although Skipper Bill gets better every time he talks.

Bertrand is hoping to organize an Australian campaign that has a real chance to win.

“I’m sniffing around,” Bertrand said while visiting San Diego last week. “Australia can do it a lot better than what we did this last series. The high-technology area is intriguing.”

After a 1970 challenge in Newport, R.I., Bertrand, 45, stayed in the U.S. to get a master’s in science from MIT--Koch’s alma mater. He didn’t meet Koch but studied under one of Koch’s key designers, Jerry Milgram.

“It’s more difficult than designing a military airplane, aerodynamically,” Bertrand said. “The impressive thing with the Cuben program is it was brought together (for the Cup match) . . . the marriage of the technology with the feeling to make it happen.

“They would have loved to have brought it together two months ago, but it’s like controlled chaos, a program like that, with the heavy commitment to research and development, controlling all the engineers and scientists, particularly the way Bill runs the program.

“It tends to wander, but there are so many smart people involved eventually they get to a solution. It’s a very creative program. That’s one thing that’s been underestimated by a lot of people. Bill’s main contribution has been to put a lot of emphasis on applied engineering and make it happen.”

But it cost Koch $65 million, by his accounting. Bertrand thinks a successful 1995 campaign could be done for $30 million.

“We were No. 1 in the world in the early 80s,” he said. “It’s important for Australia’s national psyche. We see it in Italy now, the pull that this America’s Cup has. It really does capture people’s imaginations.”

Maybe, someday, San Diego’s.