War Affecting Size of Turnout at Match Racing

Next stop for the World Match Racing Conference after last month’s Mazda World Championship at Long Beach: the ACY Cup in Croatia Sept. 28-Oct. 4.

New Zealand’s Chris Dickson isn’t going. Although he is the world’s top-ranked match racer--at least before finishing fourth at Long Beach--the event doesn’t appeal to him.

“There’s a war going on in Yugoslavia,” he said. “I don’t go to wars.”

Technically, the war is in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which borders the breakaway independent nation of Croatia, but Dickson is still nervous about the potential for trouble.

“I can imagine what might happen at such a high-profile event,” Dickson said. “It’s not a safe place.”

The ACY Cup, staged at Rovinj on the Adriatic coast, has been one of 10 events on the circuit for the last five years. ACY used to mean Adriatic Cup of Yugoslavia. Now, according to George Pantovic, a marketing executive who was at Long Beach representing ACY, it’s the Adriatic Cup of Yachting.

The ACY company also operates 19 resort marinas along the Adriatic coast. The southernmost one at Dubrovnik was hit by the war, according to Pantovic.

“The Yugoslav army--the Serbian army--never came in,” Pantovic said. “They just shelled the town. The old town was shelled but not destroyed. Our marina, unfortunately, was severely damaged. But we are again there and starting to repair it.

“The war stopped in Croatia about six months ago, so there is nothing to be afraid of. We are very far from things happening in Bosnia--about 900 kilometers (560 miles). “The situation in Bosnia is not a very nice one, but Croatia is a very safe country.”

New Zealand’s Russell Coutts, who won the Mazda event at Long Beach, is defending champion of the ACY and plans to return.

“I’m interested in going back just to see that aspect--how the war has affected things, to see how life has changed,” Coutts said. “If it gets ugly, I’ll be the first one out of there.”

Sailing Notes

MATCH RACING--Russell Coutts of New Zealand moved from fourth to third in the rankings by winning the world championships at Long Beach, but New Zealand’s Chris Dickson and Australia’s Peter Gilmour held their 1-2 positions by finishing fourth and third, respectively. San Diego’s Peter Isler dropped from second to fourth. Runner-up Kevin Mahaney, an Olympic silver medalist, moved from 13th to 10th but “retired” at Long Beach. . . . All five world titles have been won by sailors from Down Under--Dickson in 1988, ’89 and ‘91, Gilmour in 1990 and Coutts in 1992.

Mahaney recently fulfilled a commitment as John Bertrand’s tactician in the Merit Cup at Zushi City, Japan, which Bertrand won, sailing Nippon Challenge boats against Dickson, Gilmour and France’s Marc Pajot.

AMERICA’S CUP--An unconfirmed report in an Italian newspaper has Dennis Conner sailing an Italian challenge in ’95 for the industrial giant Montedison, which sponsored Il Moro di Venezia this year. The report might have leaped to that conclusion from the fact that Conner’s Whitbread Round-the-World-Race boat, designed by New Zealand’s Bruce Farr, is being built at Montedison’s Tencara shipyard. Dennis Conner Sports executive Jerry La Dow said: “We have no deal going with the Italians . . . but Dennis doesn’t leave any door unopened.”

Paul Cayard was unable to work out his own deal with Montedison for ’95 but might return with Raul Gardini, the company’s deposed leader, if Gardini wants to commit his personal resources. . . . The San Diego Yacht Club has declared France the Challenger of Record for ‘95, upsetting some of the other potential challengers. . . . The club’s Technical Committee has proposed some changes to cut costs, including shortening the course from 20.06 to 18 nautical miles, three times around a simple three-mile, windward-leeward course, and eliminating the Z-leg reaches on the middle lap. That would eliminate the need for several special sails and reduce maximum crew size from 16 to 14, since less sail handling would be needed.

The club has received three proposals to play host to as many as 10 syndicates in one place in 1995--from the Mission Bay Organizing Committee, a Commercial Basin group on Shelter Island, where Il Moro di Venezia and America 3 were based this year, and Coronado. Mission Bay, where four challengers were based, claims its city-owned Quivira Basin would need $3 million in improvements, without environmental impacts, the others would be from $17-20 million.

Dickson took some broadsides in Patrick Smith’s book, “The Nippon Challenge,” including blame for the Japanese mast falling down in the ’91 IACC world championships. “If I went out there on a 25-knot day trying to break a mast, I’m not sure I’d know where to start,” Dickson said.

The New Zealand Challenge is selling its first three America’s Cup boats--not the campaign boat--as starter kits. Asking prices: $1.6 million for both of the first two, plus a chase boat, and $1.4 million for the third. The boats are stored at Dennis Conner’s old compound.

ULDB 70S--Peter Tong’s victory with Blondie in the Summer Sled Regatta at Cabrillo Beach was his second consecutive success in an owner-driver event. Blondie, from Long Beach Yacht Club, was the oldest entry--Santa Cruz 70 No. 1. . . . Sailmakers might be getting nervous as some of their best customers, the sled owners, are talking about cutting costs by limiting the number of new sails they can buy each year. . . . If LBYC’s November Mexican race stops at Cabo San Lucas, the sleds will compete. If LBYC decides to run to the mainland--Mazatlan is now being considered--the sleds will stage their own race to Cabo San Lucas.

NOTEWORTHY--George L. Fisher, the first commodore of the Southern California Yachting Assn. in 1946, died recently at his home in Palm Springs. He was 85. Fisher was instrumental in securing the first small craft harbor in Los Angeles Harbor. He is survived by his wife Kay and two daughters.

Southern California sailors collected two second-place finishes in the national US Sailing/Rolex junior championships at Newport, R.I. The Southwestern YC team of skipper Tim Wadlow, Del Mar; Preston Holdner, Del Mar; Aine McLean, La Jolla, and Jeff Umansky, Bonita, competed in J-24s. The California YC duo of skipper Peter Wells, La Canada, and Rob Dean, Newbury Park, sailed Laser IIs.

The Yacht Clubs of Long Beach annual Charity Regatta to benefit the Children’s Clinic is scheduled for Sunday. Yacht club membership is not required. There will be classes for sailboards, catamarans, bay classes and ocean classes. Details: (310) 421-6996.