Blackaller gives warning to rivals

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 44

Blackaller gives warning to rivals

NZPA staff correspondent Fremantle The skipper of USA, Tom Blackaller, has warned his America’s Cup rivals that he and his crew are beginning to learn to control their revolutionary 12-metre yacht. The San Francisco entry has two rudders and

a wafer-thin keel, and Blackaller said yesterday it was the only boat in the fleet without a winged keel. However, the yacht had earlier appeared to give Blackaller steering and handling problems. But after his defeat of his arch-rival, Dennis Conner, and Stars and Stripes on Sunday, Black-

aller said his crew and the boat were beginning to peak. “We are really happy with the performance of our boat today,” he said. “We are a little faster than Stars and Stripes now and that’s pretty remarkable for this revolutionary boat. “I think we are peaking at the right time so I

look for big things from USA.” Blackaller said that a number of changes were made before the second challengers’ round robin, which started yesterday. “We have been doing slight changes to the stability of the boat,” he said. “We have got the steering pretty well ironed out.”

Blackaller said USA was characterised by great bursts of speed. “It goes real fast,” he said. “It acts more like a Flying Dutchman sometimes. This is a very remarkable boat.” Blackaller’s victory over Conner extended his winning streak to eight, but he said he was not so

much, concerned with wins and losses in November as in trying to get USA to its best shape for December. “We are more concerned with optimising the boat, because the 12point (a win) round-robin in December will decide who gets into the semifinals.”