America S Cup

Where did she come from? New York town. Who was her skipper? Old Dick Brown. Because of the snow and the chaos it exacted over the past week, you might have missed a short item in Monday's Baltimore Sun sports section reporting that, after a long drought, the America's Cup, the oldest trophy in international sports, will return to the U.S. after it had been in European hands for the past 15 years. The trophy made its trans-Atlantic return after USA 17, owned by software tycoon Larry Ellison, swept by Switzerland's two-time defender Alinghi in waters off Valencia, Spain, last Sunday in the 33rd America's Cup competition.

John F. Kennedy once remarked that sailing was in the blood of every American, saying that "all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean. ... We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea — whether it is to sail or to watch it — we are going back from whence we came. " The only problem with the then-president's speech, made on the eve of the 1962 America's Cup races, was that a large percentage of the U.S. population had never been on a sailboat.

You can tell the men from the boys, they say, by the cost of their toys. Some of the most expensive toys in the world are on display these days off San Diego, competing for the America's Cup. Once the sailing trophy of the elite, the cup competition is now open to anyone -- anyone with tens of millions of dollars to blow, that is.There are essentially two kinds of sailors, those who cruise for the pleasure of it and those who find greater satisfaction in...

Where did she come from? New York town. Who was her skipper? Old Dick Brown. Because of the snow and the chaos it exacted over the past week, you might have missed a short item in Monday's Baltimore Sun sports section reporting that, after a long drought, the America's Cup, the oldest trophy in international sports, will return to the U.S. after it had been in European hands for the past 15 years. The trophy made its trans-Atlantic return after USA 17, owned by software tycoon Larry Ellison, swept by Switzerland's two-time defender Alinghi in waters off Valencia, Spain, last Sunday in the 33rd America's Cup competition.

Dennis Conner suffered another lopsided loss to sailing's version ofa tag team Sunday.Defiant, the America syndicate's older boat, beat him by 4 minutes, 16 seconds after its new boat had beaten him by6:23 Saturday.Worse, Stars & Stripes seems to be going slower than it did during the first round of America's Cup defender trials, when it could beat only the obsolete Jayhawk, now retired.The problem apparently is a new, complex steering system involving a forward rudder and perhaps a radical keel visible in close passes past spectator boats in thepre-start maneuvering.

Somehow the America's Cup competition always boils down to being about Dennis Conner.Whether you think Mr. Conner is the obnoxious Ty Cobb of sailing, as one commentator put it, or the loveable Babe Ruth of the sport, as a rival described him, the best-known U.S. skipper is front and center once again as the 29th contest for the most cherished trophy in sailboat match racing begins today.Twice in the competition to defend the cup against foreign challengers, Mr. Conner was counted out. His Stars & Stripes lost out to two other U.S. boats in the semi-finals, but in a back-room deal he was permitted to compete in the finals with a handicap.

Last Monday, the defender and challenger committees for America's Cup '95 agreed to make a number of changes in how the Super Bowl of yacht racing is run."We believe this agreement signals the beginning of a new spirit of sportsmanship between the defender and challenger syndicates," America's Cup '95 chairman Frank Hope Jr. said in San Diego. "From a racing perspective, the agreement is designed to make the elimination series a fair test of sailing and design abilities."But the agreement also will eliminate or further regulate some of the side-show activities that have surrounded the Cup for a number of years -- espionage, closed boating compounds, bidding wars for top skippers and crews, etc.The agreement also recommends a centralized location (Commercial Basin)

The America's Cup sailing competition enters its final stage this weekend, and as usual money is winning.An Italian syndicate and a U.S. megamillionaire have won the right to compete against each other for one of the most valued trophies in sailboat racing. Valued is the word, since winning it will cost anywhere from $65 million to $100 million."Our technology is better than the Italian technology," bragged Bill Koch, the Kansas oil magnate who financed the winning U.S. entry. He said nothing about superior sailing skills, which Mr. Koch conceded to the rival American skipper he just defeated -- only technology.

San Diego -- John Bertrand, the Australian who won the America's Cup in 1983, attempted to put the defender and challenger trials in perspective after his oneAustralia had lost a one-point race to Team New Zealand last week in the first round-robin race."

More than 1,100 sailors from around the world are in Annapolis for a three-day regatta that will decide local and regional bragging rights for 21 classes and serve as the tuneup for the J/24 world championships next weekend. The National Offshore One Design regatta, which begins Friday and takes place at the mouth of the Severn River and in the Chesapeake Bay, traditionally draws the largest number of competitors in the nine-event series that stretches from coast to coast. This year, 265 boats have been entered, with more expected before racing begins.

A Who's Who of competitive sailing will face off tomorrow and Saturday at the Inner Harbor for the renewal of the Senator's Cup. The regatta, which will be visible from the lawn at Fort McHenry, will feature six skippers - all of them America's Cup veterans - in one-on-one match racing in 35-foot sailboats. "Spectators will be able to see the sailing qualities and intensity of America's Cup action right from the shoreline. The races will be quick and closely fought," said John A. Pica Jr., a former state senator and founder of the event.

Good morning -- Sailing racers -- You might be staging great races, but with no U.S. boat, Americans aren't watching the America's Cup.

There is video footage taken when oneAustralia cracked apart and sank during the America's Cup race in 1995. There are national awards presented yearly to top sailors at fancy banquets. There is even a machine that simulates the experience of sailing - without the user ever getting in the water. The sport of sailing has no shortage of drama, history or gadgetry, but until yesterday when Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced that a Sailing Hall of Fame would be established in Annapolis, the sport had no single place to tell its full story.

"America's Sailing Capital," that would be Annapolis, right? Annapolis, as in the home of the Naval Academy, as in the only North American stopover on the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race, as in the home of author and broadcaster Gary Jobson, yacht designer Bruce Farr and more regattas than you can shake a spinnaker at. It says so right on the hand-carved, gold-leaf sign right at the Spa Creek bridge. No less than a city council proclamation in 1995 backs up the claim with legislative might. "If anybody can deny us this title, let them come forward or forever hold their peace," declared then-Mayor Al Hopkins after the vote.

ATHENS - Gary Jobson has a bad comb-over. And that's a good thing. Sixteen months after a diagnosis of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the Annapolis man known as sailing's greatest ambassador is back, providing commentary of the Olympic regatta for NBC. "I had scans just before I came over, and I'm clean. My stamina's getting better. I'm skinny, but I just about have enough hair to comb over," he said, laughing. Jobson is producing and hosting a 30-minute nightly Olympics sailing program for NBC, which is being broadcast at midnight on the Bravo network.

Gary Jobson's ship has come in. The Annapolis yachtsman, author and television commentator will be honored for his tireless promotion of sailing when he is inducted Oct. 16 into the America's Cup Hall of Fame. The selection of Jobson and Australian Alan Bond - both America's Cup winners - was announced yesterday by the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, R.I. They will join the 53-member Hall, which includes Dennis Conner, Russell Coutts, Ted Turner and the late Sir Peter Blake. "It's a huge honor," said Jobson, 52. "When I look at the list of members, I feel quite humble.

Gary Jobson is having a "good day," his first really good day in a long time. The sailing celebrity - America's Cup winner, ESPN commentator and producer - walks swiftly around downtown Annapolis on an afternoon as bright and sunny as his mood. He talks eagerly about the book he's writing about racing. And, he jokes about his thin, wispy tufts of white hair, telling a guest he's sporting "the hatched-chicken look," the result of chemotherapy. For the last few months, the sailing world has been without its mainstay as Jobson, one of the nation's most recognizable sailors, has canceled appearances around the country for the first time in years.