(2 of 3)
Hard fought though they were, the preliminaries have little bearing on which of the three slender sloops will be selected to defend the cup for the U.S. That will be decided in the final trials off Newport, R.I., beginning Aug. 18. Nonetheless, the races afforded yachting fans their first look at the sleek new fleet of U.S. 12-meters. The differences are subtle, for under the restrictive and complex formula for the 12-meter class,breakthroughs are carefully measured in inches and ounces. The U.S. boats: VALIANT is the early favorite for the simple reason that her designer, Olin Stephens, has already created three 12-meter cup winners—Columbia in 1958, Constellation in 1964 and Intrepid in 1967. His latest design is a beamy, white-and-gold sloop that stretches 63 ft. in length. Broad in her forward sections and slim in the stern, she has been dubbed "the tadpole." Valiant's keel is smaller than the old Intrepid's, her trim tab larger. A Stephens innovation for 12-meters, the trim tab on the aft end of the keel helps to reduce drift to leeward and can be used as an auxiliary rudder in tight turns. Valiant's reverse transom rolls down more smoothly toward the waterline, reducing excess weight in hull and deck. As with Intrepid, Valiant's ten-man crew work their winches below deck, thereby lowering wind resistance as well as the boat's center of gravity. Valiant carries 1,750 sq. ft. of sail, less than usual for a 12-meter. Under the cup formula, the reduced sail area allowed Stephens to build a bigger boat; theoretically, at least, the longer the waterline, the faster the boat. INTREPID should probably be rechristened Son of Intrepid. Designer Britton Chance Jr., 29, has altered the 1967 cup winner so much that it is virtually a new boat. According to one rival designer, Chance "performed a hysterectomy on her keel," radically shortening and reshaping it in an effort to give the boat more "lift" to windward and help it perform better in lighter winds. The bow and stern remain the same, but the afterbody has been made fuller with the addition of plastic molding. Intrepid's center steering wheel has been replaced by two wheels on either side of the cockpit, allowing the skipper to vary his vantage point. In addition to the two-wheel drive, Chance plans to add a lighter boom partly made of a new space-age material called carbon-fiber. HERITAGE is the first 12-meter designed, constructed, sponsored and skippered by one man. He is Charles Morgan Jr., a Florida yacht-builder and an experienced ocean racer. Though his do-it-yourself venture extends to cutting his own sails, he likes to call his 62-ft. 6-in. sloop the "people's boat," a reference to the many Floridians, including Boy Scouts and housewives, who have contributed money for her construction. She is, by Morgan's description, "a big mamoo," beefy in the middle and stubby at the ends. Like the other contenders, Heritage has a deck that is as clean as a dance floor; her rig, says Morgan is "bendy as a buggy whip." Though his ship is distinctly a long shot, Morgan says that nothing is going to stop him from "fulfilling my wildest dream."
Not even his susceptibility to seasickness.