Defending the America's Cup

The pirate from Peachtree takes on the Aussies

At Manhattan's venerable New York Yacht Club, where tradition changes as slowly as the membership rolls, they say that if a foreigner ever wins their hallowed trophy, it will be replaced in its case by the losing skipper's head. Robert E. (Ted) Turner III, alias "the Mouth " Terrible Ted" and "Captain Outrageous," is not worrying. Nor are the club's blue-blazered elders. For if winds and weather--and the portents--are right, Terrible Ted this week will begin a successful defense of the America's Cup.

Potbellied and ugly as the auld mug may be, it is the Holy Grail of yachting. Twenty-two attempts have been made to wrest the 100-guinea pitcher from the U.S. at a cost of untold millions of dollars. But the cup has remained of the firmly in the possession of the New York Yacht Club ever since it was won from Britain's Royal Yacht Squadron in 1851 under the eyes of an astonished Queen Victoria. Now, in an attempt to break the longest winning streak in modern sports history, a new challenger from Down Under named Australia is squaring off with the 1974 U.S. defender, Courageous, skippered by Turner-- the Peck's Bad of Boy of yachting--in the waters off Newport, R.I.

Turner who works as hard at racing as he did in in building his Atlanta-based business empire (an outdoor advertising company, two TV stations, the hapless Atlanta Braves), has no intention of losing the trophy. "We came to win," he exhorted his ten-man crew last week, "and that's what we're doing, right?" Among the eagle-eyed yachting fraternity that swarmed into historic Newport for the best-of-seven series, there was nearly unanimous agreement. Despite obvious progress since their last challenge three years ago with Southern Cross, Australian Real Estate Developer Alan Bond and his team have apparently not yet caught up with the Americans in the complex art of designing, outfitting and sailing the 12-meter thoroughbreds that now vie for the America's Cup. Former U.S. Cupper Bob Bavier, who skippered Constellation to victory in 1964, was so confident that he was predicting a victory for the Americans in four straight.

Still, even optimists like Bavier, a member of the U.S. selection committee that picked Turner's dark horse Courageous over Ted Hood's Independence and Lowell North's Enterprise, conceded that the pirate from Peachtree Street might find himself in the first close America's Cup race in years. Since 1958, when the smaller twelves* replaced the giant J-boats of the '30s, no foreign challenger has won more than one race. But Australia is a virtual twin of Courageous--co-designed by Dutch-born Johan Valentijn who apprenticed under famed US 12-Meter Designer Olin Stephens, creator of Courageous. The low-slung challenger, which trounced rivals from France and Sweden to get a crack at Courageous, may well nearly match her in hull speed, and has a highly competent skipper in the respected Noel Robins, 41.

Damon Runyon, plainly at sea in the heady world of yacht racing, once complained that it was as dull as watching grass grow. Anyone who has ever touched a tiller or wheel obviously disagrees. At the starting gun in Rhode Island Sound this week, thousands of people will be watching in everything from little outboards to palatial cruisers with bars and quadraphonic sound systems. To a large degree, the turnout will be a tribute to Turner, who never misses an opportunity to make the action as lively on land as it has been at sea. Tall (6 ft. 3 in) and mustachioed, Turner, 38, looks like Rhett Butler and acts like Errol Flynn. During the cup eliminations, he flirted with every girl in sight, crawled pubs with his crew, got tossed out of chic clubs and restaurants for boozy behavior and turned Newport's bluebloods positively purple. Says he: "If being against stuffiness and pompousness and bigotry is bad behavior then I plead guilty."

The real issue, of course, was not Turner's behavior but how well he could make Courageous go. At times he sounds like an outright Bligh, bawling out his crew, barking out commands, yelling mocking words at opponents across the water. But he more than matches his tempestuousness with his intense concentration on detail, precise steering and even lavish praise for a job well done. A sailor since the age of eleven, he has successfully raced in everything from dinghies and the smaller Olympic classes to large ocean racers, and has the silverware to show for it; twice U.S. yachtsman of the year, winner of the prestigious Congressional Cup, and champion of the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit, he is a threat almost every where he takes his 61-ft. Tenacious.

Turner was particularly deadly in this summer's trials. Although probably no one but Ted and his fiercely loyal crew thought of Courageous as anything more than a sparring partner for Hood's brand-new Independence, a member of the same cup syndicate, Turner performed spectacularly in the final trials. Boosted by a splendid new set of sails designed by one of Hood's associates, Robbie Doyle, he piled up a surprising 4-1 record over his stablemate and a 6-0 mark over North's Enterprise.

Like other outstanding yachtsmen, Turner shows a chess player's cunning in his ability to anticipate shifts in the wind, sea conditions or an adversary's tactics. He is also willing to take risks. Says Bavier: "He's gutsy and daring, with excellent judgment. He has a history of calling it close and getting away with it." But not always; during a Labor Day weekend race at the helm of Tenacious, Turner cut one corner so closely that he had to turn on his engine briefly to keep the boat from slamming into a light tower. That illegal assist automatically disqualified him from a race that he probably would have won. What may seem like recklessness in competing against a whole fleet of yachts can pay off in match racing, like the America's Cup, where there is only one other boat. Under such circumstances, even the slower competitor can win by aggressively spoiling an opponent's air.

The trick is a tactic called covering. The boat that crosses the starting line first after the gun enjoys a flow of unobstructed "clean" air. By contrast, the trailing boat may find itself in the leader's wind shadow, unable to accelerate in the "dirty," or disturbed, air spilling off the first boat's sails. The only recourse for No. 2 is to break free by going on another tack, at the opposite angle to the wind. But if the lead skipper reacts quickly, he will also order his boat to come about, keeping the second boat in dirty air. The maneuver may be repeated dozens of times on a single leg as the second boat futilely zigzags to escape the trap.

Turner is a master at covering and tacking duels, and should make aggressive use of them if he gets off to a quick start--another of his strengths. Other skills could be crucial as well. When boats round a mark, confronting the wind from a different angle, they can either gain or lose precious speed by what new sails they pick from their inventory (about 20) or how fast they raise them. Particularly important: the foredeck crew's setting of the spinnaker--the flamboyantly colored but fickle sail used like a parachute to catch the wind from behind or beside. One important reason for picking Courageous as the defender was that it and its crew displayed superiority on every point of the wind and in every kind of air. Said Bavier: "She showed no weakness. She eloquently proved herself." At week's end Turner saw only clear sailing. Stopping off at a Chinese restaurant with Australian Rival Bond, he announced, "I'll show you how hot I am," and cracked open a fortune cookie. It read: "A precious possession will soon be yours." That may well be the way the cookie crumbles off Newport in the days ahead.

* Which are named not for their length--generally 65 ft.-- but for the complex formula in which various dimensions, such as sail area, ballast and beam, must always work out to twelve meters.

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