GOVERNOR’S CUP:Plenty of work for Cup chairman in his first year

Paul Loubet started his day the same way he has for much of this week.

Make sure everybody is happy before, during and after the 41st annual Governor’s Cup.

Pay attention to details, because there are plenty in the oldest youth match race regatta in the U.S.

He has 100-plus volunteers to help with everything you can imagine, from providing the out-of-town sailors and umpires with housing and meals to telling the media what to write about to repairing boats to providing nightly entertainment to making sure the scores are updated daily on the chart that welcomes you when you enter the Balboa Yacht Club.

One more thing for the event’s first-year chairman, constantly check the BlackBerry.

Loubet’s missed a lot of work because of a bunch of teenagers.

But the calls and messages can never be avoided because working for a real estate investment trust, Loubet has to make sure he’s on top of his game.

“I build shopping centers,” said the 47-year-old Newport Beach native. “I’m negotiating a lease right now.”

In a couple of minutes, Loubet will learn he has to negotiate with a repairman. None around on Friday afternoon to deal with, the regulars from the Balboa Yacht Cub are gone to a racing event, the Transpacific Yacht Race.

Destination: Hawaii.

Loubet wishes he could get away.

News of one of the loaned 12 keelboats, costing above $30,000 each at face value, getting damaged during one of the races hit him almost as hard as the two boats colliding.

Becky Lenhart, the race administrator of the U.S. International Junior Match Racing Championship, pulled Loubet aside. The news left him shaking his head.

“The most important thing, it’s just like when you’re in a car accident, is everybody OK?” he said, later finding out that everyone on board was well. “The boat will be fixed. We got insurance.”

Or blame the Daily Pilot for the crash.

Of the two boats colliding during the five-day racing event, which wraps up today with the semifinals and finals starting at 1 p.m., he said the paper has prominently featured both in stories.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is the latest. The day before Coronado Yacht Club smashed into the Long Beach Yacht Club, but no need to worry, like the Australia and Southern Yacht Club of New Orleans accident leaving Australia without a sailable boat.

The repair crew fixed Long Beach’s boat. Duct tape did the job on the hull.

“It’s like the cover of Sports Illustrated,” he said of the paper’s jinx, which is not as infamous as the magazine’s. “It’s like an omen. Don’t talk to Newport [Harbor].”

Nice try, but Nancy Mellon hunted down the regatta’s leading three-man crew of Michael Menninger, Cole Hatton and Chris Segerblom.

Quite a site, because Mellon, responsible for public relations, at 79, moves as fast Loubet does.

Maybe that’s why the three Newport Harbor members looked alarmed, as if Loubet warned them about speaking to the media.

They talked, and Mellon listened to catch what they said. She’s always intrigued by a young sailor’s adventure on the water — even if the boat doesn’t move fast.

“I hope people will understand,” she said, trying to convince anyone who will listen that speed isn’t important.

To her, building relationships is and so is seeing the yacht club come together for a special event like the Governor’s Cup.

This is Mellon’s fourth year volunteering, and the retired kindergarten and first-grade teacher has her favorites.

“I always love the kids from Down Under,” she said of the Aussies. “They have a different perspective and they’ve come a long way for it.”

The Annapolis Yacht Club from Maryland is another darling of hers. Why? She’s a 1949 graduate of the University of Maryland. Loubet on the other hand chimed in, telling how he attended numerous colleges on the West Coast.

“I tried to hit all Pac-8 schools,” he said, “and when they made it the Pac-10, I gave up.”

One thing is for sure, Loubet won’t quit until his week ends tonight.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.