Americans say Cup race is unfair
NZPA-AFP San Diego Just weeks before New Zealand challenges the United States for the America’s Cup, an opinion poll has revealed that most Americans view Dennis Conner’s catamaran as unfair. Michael Fay, head of the New Zealand challenge, said it was “ultimate proof of the American public’s sense of fair play,” but he was accused of being a “whiner.”
A Gallup poll showed that 53 per cent of the 1050 adults questioned thought it unfair for boats of radically different design to race each other.
Thirty-four per cent said it was fair and 13 per cent had no opinion. The poll also said 45 per cent think only boats of similar size and design should compete for
the America’s Cup.
Fay went to court to block United States skipper, Dennis Conner, from using a 60-foot catamaran against his 130foot monohull sloop. He said twin-hulled boats were inherently faster than monohulls and Conner’s defence of the Cup was unfair. A New York judge rejected the case, but the poll has added new fuel to Fay’s contention. “I think it’s the ultimate proof of the sense of fair play of Americans,” he said.
“They don’t believe the catamaran should be out there representing America in a fair defence of the America’s Cup. “I think they, like us, feel it’s a mismatch.” Lesleigh Green, a spokesman for Conner, called the poll mislead-
ing and accused Fay of trying to win the sympathy of the American public. “In the entire history of the Cup, I doubt we have seen such a whiner and complainer as Michael Fay,” he said. “He doesn’t want to race and he’ll be whining all the way to the starting line (on Sept 7).” Fay countered that, the poll simply vindicated him in the eyes of Americans.
“The American people know about the controversy and the proposal to race a catamaran against a monohull, and this is simple proof that they don’t go for it,” he said.
But Fay had said he was prepared to return to court after he lost the race to protest and ask that Conner forfeit the Cup.
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Press, 15 August 1988, Page 21
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358Americans say Cup race is unfair Press, 15 August 1988, Page 21
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