SAILING / RICH ROBERTS : Death of Gardini May Open Doors of Support for Italians’ Cup Bid

Raul Gardini’s suicide--the 10th connected with the ongoing Italian government scandal--has caused waves in the sailing world. His role as head of the Il Moro di Venezia syndicate in last year’s America’s Cup races off San Diego won him international notoriety.

Generally, he kept his distance from the media and was only seen riding on the back of the big red boat, wearing a tie--to keep his neck warm, he said--and chain-smoking cigarettes.

His aura fostered considerable respect. While others were readily addressed as Buddy (Melges), Bill (Koch) or Dennis (Conner), it was always “Mr. Gardini,” never “Raul,” even for those closest to him in the Il Moro di Venezia hierarchy. With his Mediterranean tan, wavy gray hair and Romanesque profile, he brought a touch of elegance to the America’s Cup. Among the challengers, Il Moro di Venezia--the Moor of Venice--had the most boats, the best shore compound, the best uniforms and the best logo--a fierce lion through a sunburst mane.

Gardini did it with Montedison’s money, which was turned off the moment the competition ended with Il Moro beaten by Bill Koch’s America 3 in the finals, 4-1. Gardini had been booted off the Montedison board by his wife’s Ferruzzi family months earlier, for reasons that may become clear in the coming weeks.

The investigative net was closing in on July 23, when he put a gun to his head in his Milan apartment. A former Ferruzzi lieutenant had been arrested in Switzerland and, according to the Financial Times, was telling the whole story of political payoffs and other financial irregularities at Montedison.

Gardini’s death has been especially hard on his protege, American sailor Paul Cayard, who built and ran the team and often choked up when discussing his relationship with the man he regarded as a father--just as Gardini regarded Cayard as a son.

They conversed in Italian, which Cayard learned while sailing Gardini’s boats. In public, Gardini seldom spoke English but let Cayard translate for him, although it was always suspected that he understood more than he let on. In rare interviews he would sometimes give himself away by smiling at a comment before hearing the translation.

On one occasion, Gardini showed a harder side. It was at the height of the controversy over New Zealand’s bowsprit. With Kiwi syndicate boss Michael Fay at the other end of a dais, Gardini, using words such as bon presso, for bowsprit, and malafede, for bad faith, said New Zealand should be kicked out for cheating. Cayard translated that, too.

Long before they met for the America’s Cup, Koch had known Gardini while competing on the world maxi-boat circuit. Koch had heard that Gardini’s world was crumbling but was stunned to hear how it ended.

“He loved to win and he hated to lose,” Koch said. “He was a very fierce competitor, but he also was very charming and very gracious. We’d tease and joke with each other.

“He was very good for the America’s Cup, and he was very good for us. He forced us to be better. I will miss him.”

Gardini and Cayard had already teamed up for the next America’sCup in 1995, but without Montedison’s support they would have had a much tighter budget. Now, one insider speculates, Cayard may find more sponsors’ doors open without Gardini and the associated scandal.

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The tough part of the Transpacific yacht race to Hawaii usually is not the race but the sail back, into the wind. The boat owners understand that, which is why those with the sense and the means hire crews to return their boats to the Mainland. The owners fly home.

It’s no fun sailing more than 2,000 miles into 20 or 30 knots of wind pushing 10- to-15-foot seas, which is what the delivery crews have faced this summer. The weird weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere not only generated Midwest and Asian floods, but a freak Pacific high pressure area that altered strategy for the race.

Wind rotates clockwise around the high, which has little wind itself. Therefore, boats usually try to avoid sailing into the southern headwinds all the way home by heading north from Hawaii, then turning east into the high and motoring until meeting the more comfortable northwest winds on the other side.

But the high is farther north than usual, meaning the boats may have to sail as far as 1,000 miles out of the way, putting them on a course east for Seattle.

Bob Allan of Carmel talked by radio to his son Skip, who with four others is bringing Jim Ryley’s Santa Cruz 70, Mirage, back to Santa Cruz.

“Skip said they were sailing with a triple-reefed mainsail and a storm jib and were heeled over flat,” Allan said.

Those are lousy sailing conditions, even with a full crew. To complete this delightful voyage, there are logs and overboard cargo containers drifting just under the surface waiting to rip the keel off a sailboat in the middle of the night.

Sailing Notes

OFFSHORE--ESPN is covering the 1993-94 Whitbread Round-the-World race with periodic reports. . . . Dennis Conner isn’t an ocean racer by nature, and even his victory in the RORC Gold Cup tuneup race for Whitbread boats from New York to Southampton, England, didn’t seem to change his mind. His Whitbread 60 averaged 10.5 knots, but Conner said, “The exhilaration of going fast does not make the conditions down below (deck) something that anyone could enjoy. It is very wet, you are living in something like 100% humidity (and) if the generator is running, there is the smell of diesel. There are only four usable bunks, but it is not unbearable. The crew are young and agile. They won’t have any trouble.” Conner said they , not we . He hadn’t decided which, if any, of the six Whitbread legs he’ll sail. “I am going to take a couple of weeks to recover from this one,” he said. The nine-month, 31,975-mile race starts Sept. 25 at Plymouth, England.

INSTRUCTION--The Coast Guard Auxiliary will present 14-week classes in “Boating Safety and Seamanship” and “Sailing and Seamanship,” starting Sept. 20 at Long Beach Wilson High. Fee: $25. Details: (310) 421-4960.

EVENTS--The annual Ullman Sails/PHRF of Southern California Championship Regatta will be held Aug. 14-15 off Newport Beach, hosted by the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. Details: (310) 438-6712. . . . The North American Star class championships are scheduled for Aug. 21-27 off San Diego, featuring two-time defending champion Joe Londrigan and crew Phil Trinter and Olympic gold medalist Mark Reynolds and crew Hugo Schreiner. . . . The Rolex Swan California Regatta for Nautor Swan luxury boats is set for Aug. 26-29 off Long Beach.