SAILING : Grillon, Davis Share Early Lead

Peter Isler, a Congressional Cup competitor in recent years, is far from Long Beach now, but his presence is being felt.

While Isler explores Cape Horn for a television sailing special, Steve Grillon, usually part of his crew, is skippering a boat and shares first place with three-time winner Rod Davis. Each has a 4-1 record after Wednesday, the first of five days of match racing.

Isler’s wife, J.J., is carrying on the family tradition. Jennifer Ann Isler, a bronze medalist in the Barcelona Olympics last year and the first woman skipper in the Congressional Cup’s 29 years, is six weeks pregnant.

“If I hear one more joke about having an extra crewman on board. . . “ she said before winning two of her five races, including a 21-second victory over defending champion Terry Hutchinson of Traverse City, Mich.

Hutchinson had already lost to Davis, France’s Bertrand Pace and Australia’s Chris Law after committing pre-start fouls that compelled him to perform penalty turns after the gun, putting him too far behind to recover.

Hutchinson has 13 races remaining to recover from a 1-4 start.

The winds built from five to 14 knots through the day. Roy Heiner of the Netherlands would have joined the tie for first, except for Pace’s protest against the race committee for failing to fire a recall gun in their third-round match, which Heiner won.

Both will be 3-1 when they re-sail that race today.

Wednesday’s best race was Isler’s victory over Hutchinson. She got on Hutchinson’s wind on the first of two downwind legs and poked the bow of her Catalina 37 around the mark in front, then held off Hutchinson through a heavy tacking duel.

“I feel fine,” Isler said, “except after five races I have such a headache and the doctor told me I can’t take anything.”