SAILING / RICH ROBERTS : U.S. Drought Now at 22 Years in Admiral’s Cup

The America’s Cup is not regarded as the World Championship of ocean racing, nor is the Whitbread Round-the-World race. That recognition goes to the Admiral’s Cup, and the United States just missed winning it this month.

Again.

The United States has not won it in 22 years.

The Admiral’s Cup, held in the United Kingdom in odd-numbered years, is a series of six races with national teams entering boats in each of three classes.

Before this year’s 605-mile Fastnet finale, the United States was in position to win the Cup in a tight battle with Italy and the United Kingdom, but all three were stunned when France--aided by 50-footer Corum Sapphire’s 40-mile victory--scored two firsts and a second to jump from fourth place to the championship.

Although 1984 Olympic silver medalist Steve Benjamin steered Irv Loube’s Bravura to first place among the two-ton boats, Champosa VII managed only fourth in the 50-footers and Vibes fifth in the one-ton class, dropping the United States to third overall behind Italy.

Rod Davis, the American expatriate who sails for New Zealand, coached the Italian team.

Sailing Notes

AMERICA’S CUP--Retrenching by the cash-poor America’s Cup Organizing Committee included a $500,000 loan from an “anonymous” director. Isn’t that Bill Packer, the Philadelphia oilman who backed the America II campaign in 1986-87? . . . Dennis Conner’s victory in the Etchells 22 World Championships at San Francisco last week was the equivalent of his going from a 747 to a stunt plane. The Etchells is a physically demanding 31-foot boat sailed by three people. Conner, 47, had fellow San Diego Yacht Club members Bill Munster and Norm Reynolds. Before making the America’s Cup a career, Conner won the world Star class titles in 1970 and ’77.

OLYMPICS--The Olympic Practice Regatta off Barcelona this month offered a better picture of this country’s prospects in 1992 than the Pan American Games, which had only five of the 10 classes and lacked the top-ranked Americans in most of those. In a stronger field in Spain, Ed Adams of Newport, R.I., and 1988 Olympic silver medalist Mark Reynolds finished 1-2 in Star boats. Other medalists: Kevin Mahaney of Bangor, Me., second in Soling; and Courtenay Becker of Rye, N.Y., third in Europe dinghy. In Cuba, U.S. sailors won medals in eight of nine classes, including golds for Ted Huang of Los Altos, Calif., and Lanee Butler of San Juan Capistrano, in men’s and women’s sailboard; Amy and Sue Lawser of Holmdel, N.J., in women’s 470, and Mat Fisher of Westerville, Ohio, with crewmen Steve Callison and Sean Fidler, in Lightning. All but the last are Olympic classes.

SLEDS--The Ultralight Displacement 70-raters (ULDB 70s) will continue their season series with the four-race Summer Sled Regatta Saturday and Sunday at Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club. Roy Disney’s new Pyewacket, third to finish last month’s Transpacific race, leads the 1991 series with three events remaining. Ben Mitchell will skipper the boat, because Disney is vacationing. Chance, Bob McNulty’s dark-blue Santa Cruz 70 that swept honors in the Transpac, isn’t among the nine entries. McNulty withdrew from the association when he put the boat up for sale a year ago. When it didn’t sell, McNulty decided he would race it to Hawaii, with Dennis Durgan as primary helmsman. Chance led wire to wire. Durgan caught a 20-pound mahi mahi one day, and the crew washed it down with four cases of wine.

EVENTS--The Los Angeles YC will hold an Invitational for the big, competitive J-35 fleet this weekend. . . . About 60 wooden boats from 14 to 84 feet--some dating to the 19th Century--will compete in the Schooner Assn. of America’s 18th annual, 16-nautical mile regatta Sunday through outer Long Beach Harbor, starting and finishing near at the Queen Mary. Ed Fabian’s 19-foot Eel, built in 1884, will lead an inverted handicap start. . . . All SCYA yacht clubs, Los Angeles Athletic Club and Riviera Golf and Tennis Club members are eligible for the 10th annual Inflatable Dinghy Competition at California YC, under way in Marina del Rey. Details: (213) 823-4567. . . . The Yacht Club Assn. of Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors’ annual Yacht Club Challenge is scheduled Sept. 7, with 10 clubs invited. Shoreline YC is the host.

NOTEWORTHY--Gene Carapetyan and Louanne Peck, who sailed 20,000 miles around the Pacific from 1988 to ‘90, will conduct “A Cruising Sailors Clinic” on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Golden Sails Hotel in East Long Beach. Admission: $20; reservations: (714) 552-9620. . . . Dawn Swan and Kent Miller of the South Bay Yacht Racing Club won the 59th annual Pacific Class national championship at Santa Monica last weekend. There were 10 of the 32-foot wooden boats. . . . Richard Satchell, an Ericson 27 sailor from the Navy YC in Long Beach, has received the U.S. Yacht Racing Union’s Rescue Medal for saving commercial fisherman Roy Pearson from his burning boat near Newport Beach in June. . . . Crown Isle, a marina with 78 slips for visiting yachts up to 140 feet, will open at Coronado on Oct. 1. Details: (619) 424-4000.