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Though some traditionalists would like to dismiss Chance as a brash upstart, at 30 he is actually a year older than Stephens was when he helped design the 1937 Cup winner. Ranger. And, like the old master, he is very much to the manner born. A product of Philadelphia's Main Line, Chance has been a water baby "since my mother dropped me overboard when I was two." His father won a yachting gold medal in the 1952 Olympics. Sisters Jan and Elli are top small-boat skippers, while Uncle Henry is a noted ocean racer. Brit Jr. began sailing tiny sneak boxes on New Jersey's Barnegat Bay, moved on to the E scows his grandfather imported from the Great Lakes. After three years of studying physics at the University of Rochester, he quit school to apply his test-tank theories in open waters. Success came quickly; his innovative 5.5-meter designs, for example, have so far won four world championships, as well as gold and silver medals in the 1968 Olympics.
As for 12-meters, it was only logical that the Intrepid syndicate decided to take a chance on Chance. He has been involved with the America's Cup since 1962, when he helped design one boat and crewed on another. Three years ago, he designed an advanced 12-meter, Chanceggar, to serve as a model for the unsuccessful bid of the French to win the Cup. At the time, there was talk that the New York Yacht Club, holders of the Cup, should prevent Chance from aiding a challenger. His reaction is typical: "My own attitude is that if the French had won the America's Cup, the New York Yacht Club could only have blamed itself for not ordering a new boat from me. Besides, designing Chanceggar provided experience without which we couldn't have improved Intrepid as much as we have."