Boat Cracks, Nearly Sinks During America’s Cup Race

New York’s Young America cracked open and nearly sank during a race in the America’s Cup challenger series at Auckland, New Zealand.

With Young America leading Japan’s Nippon approaching the final turn, the hull of the $4-million boat buckled just behind the mast after crashing through a series of five-foot waves.

Skipper Ed Baird ordered his crew to abandon ship. Team members who leaped into the icy waters of Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf were plucked to safety.

With the hull bent into a banana shape, some crewmen returned to the yacht with flotation bags and pumps and began cutting ropes and throwing sails and other equipment to waiting support boats in efforts to salvage as much as they could.

The crew frantically worked the pumps to keep the black-hulled yacht afloat as it was towed gingerly to port.

Only once in the 148-year history of sailing’s most prized trophy has a boat sank during competition--in 1995 oneAustralia broke in half and sank in about 90 seconds off San Diego.

With winds of around 20 knots and waves around a yard, conditions Monday were similar to those experienced when the Australian boat sank. Such conditions are not uncommon for America’s Cup races.

John Bertrand, oneAustralia’s skipper, said it appeared that Young America’s hull had not split below the water line.

“It would appear a compression failure through the deck, otherwise the boat would be at the bottom of the ocean now,” Bertrand said.

Young America’s $40-million campaign, representing the New York Yacht Club, will now have to rely on its second boat.

Boxing

The Muhammad Ali Boxing Act, endorsed by its namesake and aimed at reforming boxing, was passed by the House of Representatives and could be on President Clinton’s desk by the end of the week.

The legislation’s main goal is to protect young fighters from exploitation. And it encourages states to adopt uniform criteria for rating boxers--a proposal included even before a grand jury accused International Boxing Federation officials of taking bribes to manipulate rankings.

The bill would require state boxing commissions to certify and approve all referees and judges, a provision added after the outcry over the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis fight March 13.

College Basketball

UCLA is ranked 12th in the Associated Press preseason men’s poll that has defending champion Connecticut in the No. 1 spot. Stanford is ranked 13th.

Cincinnati, which has four starters back from a team that went 27-6, is No. 2, and Michigan State, which made its first Final Four appearance since 1979 last season, is No. 3.

Gonzaga is ranked 24th, the school’s first ranking.

Phil Ford, 42, North Carolina’s career scoring leader and currently an assistant coach and recruiter for the Tar Heels, returned to the team after a one-month leave to undergo treatment for alcoholism.

Tennis

Jeff Tarango upset second-seeded Vincent Spadea, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, in the first round of the $1-million Kremlin Cup at Moscow. . . . Jan-Michael Gambill was a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arnaud Di Pasquale of France, and Germany’s Jens Knippschild beat Magnus Larsson of Sweden, 6-4, 6-4, in the first first round of the Stockholm Open. Swedish junior Andreas Vinciguerra, 18, upset eighth-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Qualifier Maria Vento of Venezuela pulled off the first upset of the Advanta Championships, beating 27th-ranked Irina Spirlea, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Miscellany

Members of Italy’s sports and political worlds paid their last respects to Primo Nebiolo, the president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, filing past his casket at the Italian National Olympic Committee headquarters in Rome.

Nebiolo died of a heart attack Sunday at 76.

Meanwhile, Lamine Diack, the French long jump champion from 1957-60 and a member of the Senegal National Olympic Committee, was named temporary president of the IAAF.

Tiger Woods, who capped a sensational season by winning his fourth consecutive tournament last weekend, was named the winner of the Vardon Trophy for best scoring average, the PGA of America announced.