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For Picker, 42, a prosperous architect from Newport Beach, Calif., Intrepid's showing was fitting answer to those skeptics who felt that he was not up to handling a tricky 12-meter. Though he was co-helmsman of Columbia in the 1967 cup trials, most of his experience is in ocean racers and smaller one-design boats. Nevertheless, Picker, the Star Class world champion in 1958, has proved his contention that the tactics he learned in small boats would serve him well in the America's Cup. A tall, totally bald man, he resembles the thin man's Mr. Clean only in looks. Unlike some skippers, he does not impose a curfew on his young crew, nor does he lead them in calisthenics. Even so, he had his charges outhustling the more experienced Valiant hands on nearly every tack. "Though we aren't No. 2 any more," says Picker, "we still have to try harder to uphold the tradition of Intrepid."
Over on Valiant, Bob McCullough is desperately trying to build a tradition from scratch. His boat is plagued by steering problems and a tendency to surge erratically in heavy seas. "We seem to be moving in spurts, and we don't yet know the reason for it," he says. Though he and Stephens modified Valiant before and during the trials, the 49-year-old skipper allows that more "substantial changes" still have to be made on the sails, the rigging and the hull. A seasoned competitor, McCullough is still very much in the race even though he no longer sounds like No. 1. "Maybe," he muttered after one defeat, "we went for too radical a design." Come Aug. 18, he will find out.