Sailing: They’re Here

“The British are coming!” cried an alarmist. “We invited them,” replied the New York Yacht Club. And sure enough, there they were last week, slicing through the swells of Rhode Island Sound—two of the handsomest, most dangerous twelve-meter yachts to visit U.S. waters. Some time between now and the start of the America’s Cup races on Sept. 15, the Royal Thames Yacht Club as challenger will choose either Sovereign or Kurrewa V to wrest away the ugly “auld mug” that has been in U.S. hands ever since the competition started 113 years and 18 fruitless challenges ago.

The last British challenge was in 1958, when Sceptre arrived with little testing behind her, went down, 4-0, before the U.S.’s Columbia. So bad was the drubbing that Britons sourly nicknamed their boat Spectre. But this time, Her Majesty’s sailors are going at it U.S.-style: with two new boats, plenty of money, and a series of selection trials every bit as rugged as those for Constellation, American Eagle and other would-be U.S. defenders.

Double Trouble. All through the months of May and June, Sovereign and Kurrewa V tried their sails against each other in home waters off the Isle of Wight. Now they are off Newport, learning the tricky tides and winds on the 24.3-mile Cup course itself. At the end of the first week, two things seemed obvious: either twelve could give the Yanks trouble—and the Royal Thames is in for a devil of a job deciding which boat that shall be.

After 23 races—19 at home, four off Newport—the blue-hulled Sovereign leads the light-green Kurrewa by only the narrowest 12-11 margin. In the first of last week’s races, sailed in a steady twelve-knot wind, Sovereign breezed home ahead by a quarter of a mile, showing superior speed to windward, where most yacht races are won. But next day, with the wind up to 20 knots, Kurrewa seemed to have it in the bag until a clew pulled out of the jib, and her crew took a horrendous six minutes clearing the mess. Sovereign won her third straight race when Kurrewa lost 65 seconds by being recalled for a premature start. Then it was Sovereign’s turn to bumble. Holding a neat five-length lead with only three miles to go in a rough, whitecapped sea, Sovereign spilled one of her foredeck men overboard. Kurrewa took the lead while Sovereign went fishing, poured back wind into Sovereign’s sails the rest of the way, and won by 40 seconds.

The Twins. If there is little difference in the won-lost records of the two boats, there is even less in their design. Both were drawn by Scotland’s David Boyd, 61, whose first twelve was Sceptre, and who is now a sadder but wiser man. Their hulls are the product of months of tank tests, are virtually identical.

Where the contrast is sharp is in the crews. Sovereign Owner Tony Boyden, 36, a multimillionaire industrialist who is pouring $300,000 into his Cup project, believes previous British challengers have foundered on lack of disciplined training. Boyden included a couple of rugby players on his eleven-man crew for added muscle, gets everyone up at 6 a.m. every day for calisthenics, insists on “the finest, fittest crew that ever put to sea in a twelve-meter.” His skipper is Peter Scott, 54, a balding, stocky jack-of-all-outdoors, who is one of Britain’s leading ornithologists as well as one of its top glider pilots and sailors. Calm and analytical, he is known as a sharp tactician and a man who brooks no nonsense from his crew.

Kurrewa, on the other hand, is a much more relaxed venture. The boat is jointly owned by Australian Stockbreeders Frank and John Livingston and English Tile Manufacturer Owen Aisher, 64, who manages the crew. Aisher scoffs at organized physical training, believes in a bare minimum of ordering about. At the helm, he has Colonel R.S.G. (Slug) Perry, 55, a career army officer with a long record of blue-water sailing in Britain. His forte is getting the start, and his tactics are more aggressive than Scott’s.

Both men handle their twelves well by U.S. or any other standards. But last week Sovereign’s crew was the quicker in bringing their boat about, averaging seven seconds to Kurrewa’s ten. Sovereign’s royal blue also sparkled on several shipshape jibs. If Sovereign does have an edge—and there are likely a dozen trial races to go—it may lie in Helmsman Scott’s more studious temperament, which seems to lead him to a better choice of sails, as well as less reluctance to change them if the winds prove him wrong.