SAILING : Long Race Ends in Close Finish

A hundred nautical miles from Manzanillo on Feb. 9, the crew of Cheval listened to the 9 a.m. roll call and kicked back.

“Grand Illusion reported (a position) 12 miles straight ahead of us,” said Skip Allan, the navigator and alternate helmsman. “The nearest boat astern of us was 20 miles, so we were pretty (confident) we’d get second place.

“We were still lying around 40 miles out when one of our crew looked over with binoculars, and lo and behold, there was Grand Illusion, about three miles ahead and inshore of us.”

Grand Illusion had sailed into dying winds, allowing Cheval to catch up, setting up the ocean racing version of a photo finish in the 1,137-mile race from San Diego.

Hal Ward’s 67-foot Nelson/Marek, Cheval, would finish four minutes in front but lose to Ed McDowell’s 68-foot Bill Lee-built Grand Illusion because of the latter’s eight-minute handicap.

Cheval’s bad luck was that this was the last handicap race the ultralight displacement boats, or “sleds,” would sail. From now on, all of their competition will be from scratch.

The next four finishers were less than a half-hour behind, and the first 10 broke the record of 5 days 23 hours 59 minutes set by the 82-foot Sorcery in 1984. Cheval’s time was 5 days 7 hours 54 minutes.

“It was a soft record,” Allan said.

Sorcery was a heavy displacement boat. The sleds are sailing’s modern technology, built with flat bottoms to plane the waves and just enough displacement to keep them upright.

What made this Mexican race fast, Allan said, were two 12-hour periods of strong winds and the absence of any of the usual dead-air “parking lots” along the way.

The Manzanillo race had a tragic overtone. Stewart Kett, a prominent and popular Watsonville developer, was lost overboard off the Channel Islands while sailing his boat from Santa Cruz to San Diego for the start.

According to crew members, the Santa Cruz 50, Octavia, was running in 30-knot winds at 7 p.m. on Jan. 26, when a wave washed Kett out of the starboard side of the cockpit.

The crew immediately launched a strobe-equipped life pole and activated an electronic navigation device to mark the position. But the boat was making 14 or 15 knots, and in the heavy wind and darkness the crew needed a half-hour to drop the sails and turn around. By then, Kett was gone.

AMERICA’S CUP--Having given their final arguments to the New York Court of Appeals last week, San Diego and New Zealand await the decision of the seven judges, which is expected in 30 to 60 days. The issue is whether to disqualify the catamaran San Diego used in the 1988 defense or to uphold the 4-1 decision of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, which overturned Justice Carmen Ciparick’s order for San Diego to forfeit the Cup to New Zealand. This is the last legal stop. The next defense is scheduled in the spring of 1992. . . . Peter Isler, who was Dennis Conner’s navigator, is pushing his own campaign along. He not only has Bruce Nelson on his design team, he has scheduled a “Danish-American Challenge Cup” series of eight races off San Diego March 23-25. He and two-time Olympic gold medalist Valdemar Bandolowski will compete in 68-foot Nelson/Marek ULDBs. . . . Another San Diegan, Larry Klein, hopes to parlay his 1989 World J-24 and Etchells titles into a campaign, representing the San Diego Yacht Club. . . . Italy’s Il Moro di Venezia syndicate is scheduled to launch its boat March 11. The skipper is Paul Cayard of San Francisco.

MIDWINTERS--The Newport Bay outside classes were postponed when the bay was closed because of the oil spill last weekend, and since it is uncertain when the booms will be lifted, there will be no races this weekend. Bahia Corinthian YC canceled its classes, and Balboa YC will decide next week whether to try to sail next Saturday. . . . The Alamitos Bay outside classes were unable to get out last Sunday, so their Saturday results were final. Dinghies raced inside at Newport and Alamitos Bay. Big boats at Los Angeles YC and others at San Diego and Mission Bay already were scheduled for this weekend.

NOTEWORTHY--Larry Harvey of Los Angeles, with Dave Ullman calling tactics, sailed his Nelson/Marek 30, Babe Ruthless, to five consecutive first-place finishes and win PHRF Division G of the Audi Yachting Race Week at Key West, Fla. Harvey also won the event’s Audi Quattro award for overall dominance of a class. . . . The six-race Whitney-Los Angeles Times series for IOR and PHRF boats, respectively, is expected to draw up to 100 entries for the opening event--the Around Catalina race--next Saturday. There also is a Little Whitney class for MORC boats. . . . The Balboa YC’s annual “66” Series will open with the Mid-Channel race on March 17. Boats rated up to 224 PHRF are eligible, and the event has been broadened from three to four classes to encourage participation.