AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Notables, Notes to Be Featured at Cup’s Opening Ceremonies

Opening ceremonies are scheduled Friday night, 5 to 8 p.m., at the Broadway Pier, climaxed by fireworks.

The Navy band and the 16-member Wayne Foster band will perform. The America’s Cup will be on display. ESPN commentator Jim Kelly will be master of ceremonies.

Admission is free, and food and beverages will be available.

The ceremonies are sponsored by the San Diego Unified Port District and the city of San Diego. More festivities will follow at the adjacent International America’s Cup Centre.

Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard will turn 33 on May 19.

If the match goes seven races, that’s the day of the deciding race.

With Dennis Conner and Stars & Stripes eliminated, only one person is in position to be part of the winning team in the last regular America’s Cups.

Robert Hopkins, the Il Moro di Venezia navigator and technical coordinator, was on Conner’s design team at Fremantle in 1987.

“I’ve picked the teams luckily so far,” he said.

Hopkins, 33, from Manchester, Mass., was recruited by Cayard in early 1989, so he acquired the necessary two-year residency to sail on the boat--although that wasn’t the original plan. He didn’t go aboard as navigator until the second round in February.

“I knew I would sail every day, as I did with Stars & Stripes, but I assumed it would mean getting off at the 10-minute gun and watching (the race) from a rubber duck (chase boat),” Hopkins said.

“(But) with all the numbers and measurements and the computer side, it got to be such a time-consuming thing that it was a waste of a good sailor’s talent to have him do it. So instead of having Enrico Chieffi do it with his head in the boat all the time, it was better to put Enrico in the tactician’s job with his eyes up the course.”

Hopkins is seen constantly “shooting” the rival boat with a laser gun linked to an on-board computer.

“(It’s) a laser plus a compass, so we have a range and bearing and can figure out everything from there . . . can we gain more by going higher (into the wind) and slower versus lower and faster?”

Like Cayard, Hopkins speaks fluent Italian. He learned “on the job. I bought a tape and listened to it on the airplane. Then I found a college student to teach me in the morning in the office for six months. And the guys taught me all the rest of it on the boat.”

Two other Americans, John Kolius and Steve Erickson, joined Il Moro too late to sail on the boat. Kolius, who skippered America II in ‘86-87, has been the trial boat skipper, while Erickson is a coach.

Erickson is Cayard’s Star crew. They won the world title in ’88 and will team up for this year’s worlds at San Francisco. Kolius is thinking ahead to the next America’s Cup.

“I’m not a big fan of not sailing on the boat, that’s for sure,” Kolius said.

Next time he might do as Cayard did: seek a role overseas.

“I’m a sailor. That’s how I make my living. That’s all I’ve ever done. I’ll probably go wherever I can get involved. If it has to be someplace other than the United States, that’s what I’ll have to do. I’d much rather sail in the United States. I think (Cayard) would, too, if he could have.”

This time Kolius hasn’t had the pressures of a skipper but, he said, “Being out of the spotlight doesn’t make up for not being able to sail on the boat.”

America 3 boss Bill Koch plunged into Cayard country this week to speak to 250 members of the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco.

Commodore Jim Kennedy presented Koch with an Il Moro di Venezia flag “on behalf of friends and supporters of Paul Cayard.”

Koch accepted it, noting, “Another one of these.”

He could always fly it from one of the flagpoles in front of his compound o Harbor Drive. For the second time, somebody stole the America 3c,8.5 banner this week.

Cayard grew up sailing on San Francisco Bay and has represented the club during his career. Now that he’s representing Italy, St. Francis Yacht Club staff commodore Robert Keith said, nothing has really changed.

“I think the people here realize that it’s become a commercial sport,” Keith said. “We also recognize that there’s an entry level into the America’s Cup and you have to go outside to get help.”

In other words, Il Moro couldn’t have come as far without Cayard.

However, Keith said, “We would like to think that next time Captain Cayard would be wrapped in the American flag.”

If Koch would back him the way Raul Gardini has, Cayard might prefer that, too.

Of all spectator boats, the media boat Gold Rush has the closest access to the races because it really has working press on board.

However, it’s also more expensive: $500 a day, compared to $150 to $300 for others.

Spectators also may purchase a series ticket for $2,750. If the match goes six or seven races, they’re money ahead. If it goes five or fewer . . . well, life and the America’s Cup are both a gamble.