Too little too late?

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 38

Too little too late?

By

TOM BRIDGMAN

Of NZPA

Washington The New York Yacht Club discovered too late that the traditional America II was not speedy enough for the America’s Cup challenge. “We discovered our boat speed was average at best,” William Packer, vice-chairman of the America II syndicate was quoted in the “New York Times” yesterday. “After the race with Heart of America, we realised other people had made giant strides and we hadn’t.” At the beginning of the third round of races, America II was beaten by the then tenth-placed Heart of America. The next day Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes dealt it another defeat. Bill Langan, the 31-year-old designer of America II said he had misjudged the progress other challengers would make. Mr Packer said he did not blame the designer for what happened. “We felt that the New York Yacht Club had kept the America’s Cup for 130 years because we were better organised and we sailed better than anyone else. “We said, ‘as long as we are on level ground, we will beat them.’ We were wrong.” Mr Packer told the paper that the syndicate did not realise that others would come up with radical boats, such as the fibreglass New Zealand and the San Francisco yacht club’s twin-ruddered USA. Building a radical boat would have been too risky, he said. ”It’s a crap shoot, and that is what we didn’t want to get into. The only time you do that is when you are a tremendous underdog.” @ Taking the America’s Cup battle into the heart of the enemy, a New Zealander in San Diego is distributing car bumper stickers that proudly proclaim “New Zealand’s cup.” San Diego is the base for Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes challenge for the cup. “I have even sent some to Dennis Conner in Fremantle,” said Patricia Thornton, who runs a company called New Zealand Marketing Network in San Diego. “But I imagine they will get torn to shreds.” She got the idea for the car stickers after a recent visit to New Zealand where she could not find anything suitable to take back to give to friends. So she designed her own and has been giving them out as Christmas promotional gifts and to others that ask for them. The silver and red stickers have the words “America’s Cup” in small lettering crossed out, underneath that “Australia’s Cup,” in larger lettering and also crossed out, and then “New Zealand’s Cup” in the largest letters beneath that.