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SAN DIEGO – The first women’s sailing team in America’s Cup history isn’t discouraged by its 3-13 record after the first three round-robins of the defender trials.
“We’re just halfway, and we have a new toy,” America3 starting helmsman and tactician J.J. Isler said Friday.
That new toy is a multimillion-dollar racing sloop, USA-43, which will be christened on Wednesday and make its debut on Thursday against Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes to open the fourth round-robin.
USA-43 has gone out on a few testing runs, and the sailing crew gets its first voyage on the 75-footer on Saturday.
On Friday, the women’s team sailed its namesake yacht, America3, for the last time, and lost by 1 minute, 52 seconds to Stars & Stripes to conclude the third round-robin.
Stars & Stripes tied Young America for the lead in the Citizen Cup with 25 points apiece. America3 has seven points.
Victories in round four, which begins on Thursday, will be worth seven points. That round will determine seeding for the semifinals, as the top yacht enters with two points, the second-place boat one point and the third crew, likely America3, no points. Victories in the semis will be worth one point.
Three years ago, America3 and its male crew were unstoppable, eliminating Conner from the defender finals and then beating Italy’s Il Moro di Venezia 4-1 in the finals.
The yacht America3 became the benchmark for the current generation of America’s Cup yachts.
While every other syndicate entered the America’s Cup with at least one new yacht, America3 Foundation president Bill Koch, the skipper in 1992, held off building a new yacht until enough money had been raised from corporate donors. Koch spent $65 million to win the Cup in in 1992, but is spending about one-third of that this year.
Also, the delay means that America3 will have the latest design.
“Our design team had less of a hit or miss program than other design teams because we have the benchmark. That’s why so many boats out there look kind of like America3,” Isler said.
“It was interesting to see that they’ve been very competitive in these first three rounds, assuming they’ve made some appendage changes and sail changes,” Stars & Stripes navigator Jim Brady said of America3.
“But the hull shape was the base setting for most new generation boats,” he added. “They have a good design team, so if they come up with something good, they will be tough to beat.”
The women continued to struggle, losing their fifth straight race. They established a trend of winning the opening race of each series, then losing the rest of their races.
After winning the start by five seconds, Paul Cayard kept the wheel for the first three legs. Skipper Dennis Conner took over for the last half of the six-leg, 18.55-mile Pacific Ocean course.
Sailing through a mist, Stars & Stripes led by 43 seconds rounding the first mark.
“That put us into a controlling position and we were able to sail a fairly smart race,” Brady said.
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