Strong line up for Congressional Cup

Rich Roberts preview the form for tomorrow top US west coast match race event

Three-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts will meet old colleagues and new rivals, some with similar aspirations, in the 41st Congressional Cup, presented by Acura, starting Tuesday.

For now, Coutts is effectively barred from AC competition by terms of his recent settlement with Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli. But Chris Dickson (BMW Oracle), Dean Barker (Emirates Team New Zealand), Philippe Presti (Le Defí 2007) and the Team Shosholoza sailors from South Africa crewing for the veteran Chris Law have their long-range sights set on Valencia in 2007.

Barker won the Congressional Cup in 2000, a few weeks after Coutts handed him the helm for the clinching race against Prada at Auckland. They enjoyed an amicable private reunion Monday morning when Coutts arrived, exchanging old memories and current events.

Coutts said later of his new lifestyle, "My wife [Jenny] says I'm more relaxed. It's funny, but for two weeks I wondered what I was going to do, and now I'm just full up with options. I'm at least as busy as I ever was. Life's good."

Coutts will once again be racing with Jes Gram-Hansen's Danish crew. They rank No. 8 after winning three of four events on the Swedish Match Tour, where he ranks second to Ed Baird, his possible successor at the Alinghi helm who won the Congressional Cup last year but is not defending.

Coutts did the Congressional Cup three times in 1990, '91 and '92 and won the Match Racing World Championship in the same Catalina 37s in 1992.

Dickson, 42, won in 1990 and '91 and has been trying to win the America's Cup for nearly 20 years. CEO and skipper for Larry Ellison's San Francisco team, Dickson says even the prospect of confronting his kid brother Scott takes lower priority. Scott is a longtime Long Beach resident who again won the right to represent the host club in his ninth Congressional Cup by winning the Ficker Cup sail-off last September.

"There are 10 teams in this regatta," Chris Dickson said. "We're one of them; Scotty's one of them. Our objective this week is to win, and to win we've got to make the semi-finals and to make the semifinals we're going to be after as many wins as we can possibly get. Every point counts the same, whether it's your brother or not."

Scott Dickson's response: "What he said."

They last faced off in the New Zealand Match Racing Championship, where Chris came out on top, although he was not the overall winner.

There also are some less familiar but formidable threats. While most of those above have been concentrating on AC campaigns, the following have been building their resúmés and international rankings in frequent match race regattas: Staffan Lindberg (No. 12) of Finland, Lars Nordbjerg (No. 9), Denmark, and the highest ranking competitor, Mathieu Richard (No. 4) of France.

The only American entry is veteran Chris Larson who is stepping up to the wheel after calling tactics for Gavin Brady and Terry Hutchinson for the last two years. Brady is not competing, but Hutchinson, now with Emirates Team New Zealand, will call tactics for Barker.

Larson recalled last year with Hutchinson when they rounded the last mark of the championship race with a 34-second lead over Baird, did a routine bear-away spinnaker set, and sailed into a wind hole as Baird went the other way to win.

"I still haven't seen the video but everybody says it was hilarious," Larson said. "We unfortunately did what you normally do. I don't think anyone ever gybe sets around the weather mark in any condition for any reason. He just reached back offshore and took the great circle route to the finish. That's when too big a lead is detrimental."

The Congressional Cup will be sorted out over five days of a double round-robin, followed by best-of-three semi-finals and finals. The 10 teams will rotate boats over a short windward-leeward course set next to the city's Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, where sailing is truly a spectator sport.

After a three-year involvement the Congressional Cup is no longer part of the Swedish Match Tour. As the new presenting sponsor, Acura will raise the purse to $40,000, up from $25,000 last year.

The winner will receive the traditional Crimson Blazer that has been worn by America's Cup winners Dennis Conner, Bill Ficker, Ted Turner and Barker.

Law, who won in 1994, has been training the South African team including designated helmsman Ian Ainslie.

Asked about his match racing background, Ainslie, 39, replied candidly: "None, more or less. I crewed for Chris [Law] last year in Denmark. We've been doing it at home in two small keelboats, but it's much better for us to learn faster against the very good guys . . . jump in the deep end. We'll be doing four regattas over the next months on the Swedish Match Tour. It will be a big learning curve."

Ainslie said the Law's advice has included "not to be too aggressive. His philosophy is to keep away from other boats because if there is a collision you can get a penalty against you even if you're correct."

Those penalties would be inflicted by a world-class array of on-water umpires in the event where the method of officiating was introduced in the late 1980s. Chief umpire is Gerard Bosse of France.

The principal race officer is Mike Van Dyke, who said the 4 o'clock deadline for starting races on the last day has been lifted to avoid a repeat of last year's one-race, sudden death championship final. Dealing with fickle winds, the race committee ran out of time. "We're going to do whatever we need to do to get it done properly," Van Dyke said.

The weather outlook was a bit uncertain with winds light to moderate early in the week but perhaps strengthening later.

The line-up, listed alphabetically with current ISAF international rankings (if applicable) and yacht clubs noted:

Dean Barker (n/a), Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Russell Coutts, (No. 8), Aarhus Sejlklub, Denmark.
Chris Dickson (n/a), Golden Gate YC, San Francisco.
Scott Dickson (No. 37), Long Beach YC.
Chris Larson (n/a), Annapolis YC.
Chris Law (No. 51), Royal Cape YC, South Africa.
Staffan Lindberg (No. 12), Aaland Islands YC, Finland.
Lars Nordbjerg, (No. 9), Skovshoved Sejlklub, Denmark.
Philippe Presti (No. 6), Union Nationale pour la Course au Large, France.
Mathieu Richard (No. 4), APCC-Voile Sportive, France.