Against the Wind

America’s Cup it’s not.

But in the competitive world of yacht racing, the venerable Congressional Cup that goes up for grabs each March in Long Beach is enough to keep generations of sailboat racers coming back year after year for the classic one-on-one match races.

Flying the flags of yacht clubs from five nations, and against the backdrop of constantly booming shotgun starts, racers have been lining up all week off Long Beach’s Belmont Pier for the right to put their name on the Congressional Cup.

Part intensely competitive athletic event, part rolling cocktail party, the Congressional Cup, a permanent fixture at the sponsoring Long Beach Yacht Club, remains one of yacht racing’s most sought after trophies. The races are scheduled to end today, weather permitting.

Past America’s Cup champions Dennis Conner, Ted Turner and Bill Ficker also won the Congressional, lured to Long Beach by what is one of the nation’s oldest regattas, now in its 33rd year. The name of the cup resulted from a special charter granted by Congress in 1964.

But outside yachting circles, the races command little attention in Long Beach.

At the end of Belmont Pier, where a public viewing area has been set up for the races, there are typically twice as many people fishing for kingfish and baby sharks as there are race spectators.

Even within the yachting world, the Congressional is struggling to maintain its stature in the face of races elsewhere with bigger purses. The Congressional offers no cash prizes, only a crimson blazer to the winners.

But for now, that is still enough to continue to lure a top-flight field to Long Beach.

“This is the granddaddy of all the match races,” said Dave Perry, a two-time Congressional Cup champion and former All-American racer from Yale who is among the race leaders this year.

Perry is part of a field that includes internationally prominent yachtsmen Paul Cayard, Jeff Madrigali and Peter Holmberg. The three are with different syndicates vying for the next America’s Cup in 2000.

Under the Congressional’s match racing rules, each of the 10 six-member crews is assigned an identical 37-foot Catalina yacht. To maintain competitive balance, the crews are assigned a different boat every day. Each crew races 18 times, facing each other twice over five days. Adding to the allure of the race are the often tricky and strong winds that blow into Long Beach’s outer harbor in March.

All that adds up to a format that creates an intensely competitive atmosphere and has been known to stir passions to the boiling point.

Two of the cup’s best-known participants--three-time America’s Cup winner Conner and media mogul Turner--mixed it up at the Alamitos Bay yacht club in 1975.

“Conner was on the receiving end of a round-house punch after he edged ahead of Turner to win the prestigious Congressional Cup,” wrote author Porter Bibb in his book on Turner, “It Ain’t as Easy as It Seems.” Turner, a legendary competitor, won the race two years later.

In those days yacht racing was dominated by wealthy yachtsmen, those who follow the sport say.

These days, Congressional Cup competitors still race for the love of the sport. But the amateurs in the field are interspersed with professionals who move around the world, searching for races, sponsors and cash purses.

Among the competitors in this year’s Congressional is Brad Webb, a 22-year-old bowman for the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron team led by Australian Neville Wittey.

“Last year, I did 24 regattas in seven countries,” including New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines and the United States, Webb said.

Webb, who hopes to get “a ride” as a crewman in the next America’s Cup, scoffs at the notion that sailboat racing is a sport for the rich. He bought his first dinghy with money raised by delivering newspapers and washing cars, he said.

Still, sailboat racing remains for many a sport with limited interest and restricted access.

Constantly changing wind and water conditions mean that no two races are ever the same, which makes the sport difficult to follow.

“Sailing is like playing a tennis match where the lines keep moving and someone is moving the net up and down all the time,” said Cayard, who sails for the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. “Things are constantly changing and the [finish and start] line isn’t always where you think it is.”

Much the way the need for ice and cold weather limits entry into ice hockey, the need for water, wind and boats serves as a barrier in sailing.

“If you need to buy a boat, that draws a pretty big line” between those who can sail and those who can’t, Perry said. “There is a big difference between buying a soccer ball and a sailboat.”

There are no black or Latino crew members in the Congressional Cup this year, but women have begun to make their presence felt.

Madrigali, part of an America’s Cup syndicate out of the San Francisco Yacht Club, has three women working his Congressional Cup crew this year. The women sailed on America3 in the 1995 America’s Cup.

As for the future of the Congressional, its place in sailboat racing seems secure. The yacht club is trying to find sponsors to raise cash purses for future races. But even without purses, predictions are that the race will continue to lure those who want their names engraved on the big silver cup with other legendary yacht racers.