SAILING : Semifinals Prove to Be One-Sided

SAN DIEGO — When New Zealand crewman Dean Phipps went up the mast, observers wondered if he was looking for migrating whales or trying to locate Nippon Challenge, the distant rival in Friday’s semifinals of the International America’s Cup Class World Championship.

Actually, the Kiwis had a rigging problem, allowing Chris Dickson to make up 6 1/2 minutes and provide the only thing approaching excitement in the first match-racing tests of the new IACC boats.

Once confident that the mast wouldn’t fall, Rod Davis steered the New Zealand boat to a 2-minute 9.4-second victory--a photo finish compared to the other semifinal.

Paul Cayard blew away Il Moro di Venezia sparring partner John Kolius literally by a mile in three laps around the new 22.6-mile America’s Cup course.

Dennis Conner wasn’t there to see it--he was in New York seeking sponsors--but he predicted it.

Even Tom Ehman, the executive director of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, joked at an afternoon preview of clips from the upcoming movie “Wind,” filmed in windy Fremantle, Australia, with 12-meters, “Too bad we didn’t have some racing like that today.”

The winds were a light 7-10 knots, with a deep swell--typical off San Diego--and Dickson said that “made the racing boring not only for (observers) but for us.”

Kolius said. “We started keeping an eye on the Kiwis (in the next race), hoping they wouldn’t pass us.”

At least the boats should be more evenly matched today, when Davis and Cayard will meet for the title at 1:15, 15 minutes after Dickson and Kolius start the consolation race.

When the new boats were conceived, Conner reasoned that faster boats would not mean more exciting races but more lopsided races because, he said, “One boat is usually going to be faster than another,” and any speed differentials would be magnified.

Better to stick with the old, sluggish 12-meters, he said. The races would be slower but closer. San Diego Yacht Club Commodore Sandy Purdon, a racing sailor, agrees.

“These boats are a little too lively for match racing,” Purdon said Friday. “They certainly are very exciting for fleet racing, but as we saw today they need to prove to us, in my opinion, that they’re the right boat for an America’s Cup match race.”