THE NATAL MERCL"RY. THPRSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1967.
The Toughest Test The two dozen men aboard the two crack 12- metre yachts to clash next month in the 21st Sport America's Cup challenge will face physical and In All mental pressures unparalleled in sport. Each of
wo rapier-hulled yachh. sails primed with the pulling the seven races has been described as playing T power of a tug. streak t hrough the Pacific. decks aslant, spray flying. executin1 movH and counter-move• chess at blinding speed--and the crew that can with the cool precision of the ballet. Smoothly co-0rd1nated as training to equip them for gai n even one second a mile wil l win, writes the wheels of a watch, the the relentless demands of ctews work to wring the last precision sailing. SIMON MARSH. foot of speed from the wind, Let me take you aboard amid the crash of rolling one of the sleek 12 • metre water and the flaring of yachts, with its 90-foot alu blinding spume ••• Austra minium mast and meticu lia's two flhest yachts are lously rolled RS,000 suit of competing for the honour of sails. Tension reaches near representing their country in s c re a m I n g point ten the America's Cup. minutes before the start Earlier this year the two lnr: gun as both boats contenders, Dame Pattie and manoeuvre each other a t This Is The Gretel were matched in an close quarters, striving to exhaustive series of tests, cross the line precisely which Dame Pattie won. with the gun. She will soon be showing The crew are feverishly her paces on the 24-mile tending the hu~e sails, trim· course otT Newport, Rhode ming the jib forward and Of Island, in preparation for Challenge The settling the mainsail aft. Sept.ember's 21st Instalment of th~ 116-year-old race which INTUITION exerts mental · and physical In the well, the navigator pressures unprecedented In crouches, never glancing at sport. the sea, elbows on his charts, The boat whose crew can eyes on compass and knot America's Cup gain even one second a mile meter. • can win the series. Near him, the helmsman Crewmen let out the main A ripple in the surface of holds the wheel with sensitive sail, others hoist the huge a sail can lose a yard, and hands; the slightest nudge spinnaker, a great nylon bal perhaps a race, a two-second will send the streamlined hull loon, twice the size of the lag in hauling down a spin yawing from side to side. His mainsail. It is the most naker and It will burst; the eyes are on the sails. treacherous and tempera edge of a sail falling into the If he edges too close to the mental sail on the ship. sea will be sucked under the wind, ripples will jar across Every down-wind yard ls keel and the boat will stop the canvas, and speed will an ordeal involving incessant dead. drop. fussing with the spinnaker, The prize at stake ls a No one talks to the pulling out wrinkles. Then potesque Victorian trophy hehnsman u n I es s it's all too soon it's time for worth less than R200 a nd urgent. Priceless seconds another " about tum." DAME PATTIE, Austral ia's 12-metre without even a proper depend on his Intuitive In the few seconds that bottom to It - as one skill. Nobody can teach the tumult lasts the crew yacht, is seen as she is about to turn at the winning crew found when that split-second evaluation feels that it has aged as they tried to fill It with of the feel of the rudder, many years- but there's no end of the first spinnaker run in the champagne. tut of the deck and the time to relax. strength of the wind on the America's Cup Chal lenger Trials held off cheek. DANGER BLU E RI BAND On the stem counter sits a the coast of Sydney. Gretel, her; opponent Yet it remains the Blue man whose sole job ls to keep The five-hour race Is Rlband of yachting which his eyes or binoculars glued fraught with \'Pry real in the trial, trailed half a mile behind. Britain and Australia have on the other boat to assess its dangPr. In the past there repeatedly, and always unsuc· tactics. Soon the marker, in· was violence too. In one cessfully, tried to dislodge dicatlng the "comers" of the race two yachts collided from its hallowed perch in :iguJar course comes into and the crews hacked at the New York Yacht Club. view. each other's rigging with A knives and axes. winning yacht must win -thin~ can happen when four out of seven races sailed the two boats, neck and neck, In 1937, when T. 0. M. Sop on alternate courses which lie approach the marker buoy as with's professional crew went south • east of America's fine as possible without actu· on strike, hastfly-recrulted yachting mecca of Rhode ally touching - which brings amateurs went down to de Island - one course ls to immediate disqualification. feat with hands cut to rib· leeward, the second to wind bons. And in 1927 two men ward. were knocked oft' the deck of One might think the cup UNEXPECTED Sir Thomas Lipton's Sham will go to the better boat. With the command "Lee rock III and drowned. but this does not necessarily ho," many things happen in a Even today the crews fin. follow. Pundits assess the few crowded seconds. Rig basic components of victory lshed emotionally and physic· ging whines, blocks flall, ally exhausted, their hands in this order: skipper and ropes and wires whip across burned by the ropes. crew, sails, then boat. the decks - everything is An America's Cup race caught up in sound and move But in the America's Cup has been eompared with ment. even the best boat. sails and playing a game of chess The mainsail slams over as crew are not always enough. at blinding speed. Each the helmsman spins the Wind and weather can swiftly move and counter • move wheel and the boat is under tum the most sclentlflcally re q u Ires lnstantaneoUB way on a fresh tack. planned race into a gamble. INTRE PI D, America's most likely defender of the cup in judgment. A hundred posslbllltlN , This too, Is the time for huncbell, chances and skllls in next month's races off Newport, Rhode Island. Her What sort of men crew the unexpected - the rip will be shaking like dice skipper, Emil COLUM BIA (left) and Constellation, two of the American yachts that have been com peting with Intrepid in trials to select the best craft to defend the cup. Columbia • defeated the British challenge by Sceptre in 1958, and Constellation successfully defended the cup against Britain's Sovereign in 1964.