AMERICA’S CUP ’92 : Kiwis Find Success, Spy in the Water : Sailing: San Diego diver is caught lurking underneath as the New Zealand syndicate was preparing to launch its boat.

SAN DIEGO — Just a routine day for New Zealand: Catch a spy, win a race.

As they were preparing to launch their boat at 8:30 a.m. for Thursday’s race in the first round of the America’s Cup challenger trials, two Kiwi divers discovered an intruding diver about 15 feet underwater at their dock.

“He said he was ‘looking for lobster’--with a camera,” New Zealand diver Craig Kells said. “He found a couple of divers instead.”

He was forced to the surface, where crewman Denis Kendall placed him in a headlock until three Coronado police cars responded.

The intruder was identified as Amir Pishdad, a professional diver and U.S. Navy SEAL reservist who lives in San Diego and previously had been hired by the syndicate to clean the bottom of its tender, but not the race boats.

He was released at the site after questioning. His film was confiscated. He was not immediately available to comment.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand boat went sailing and was leading Nippon Challenge by 1:56 halfway through the race when the Japanese retired with a steering problem.

That left New Zealand, Nippon and Il Moro di Venezia leading the first round with 4-1 records.

There will be no racing today and the round will wind up Saturday and Sunday without the two Australian entries, which have put their boats in dry-dock for modifications.

Espionage, employing divers, helicopters, hounding chase boats and sophisticated telemetry have been blatant in the Cup since before competition started Jan. 14. Interest is focused on the secret keel and rudder configurations that can significantly enhance a boat’s performance.

Earlier, New Zealand had apprehended an intruder on foot in its compound on Coronado Island, and there have been other reports of divers around docks, although this was the first one known to be nabbed.

After being forced to surface, Pishdad was brought aboard an inflatable chase boat, where Kendall took charge.

Syndicate spokesman Alan Sefton said Pishdad told them he was not hired by anyone to spy on them.

However, according to a source, Pishdad said he had been offered as much as $12,000 by a syndicate to take underwater pictures of Cup boats.

The police did not detain Pishdad or write a report because the site was not posted for trespassing, and New Zealand declined to press charges. Pishdad left the premises voluntarily, carrying his air tank and other diving gear.

Film from his underwater camera, retained by the Kiwis, showed only above-water shots of their compound and boats from about 100 yards away. Sefton said they apparently were taken last Sunday, according to other boats in the pictures.

Kells, 25, and fellow diver Eldon Archer, 21, are native New Zealanders, as are the rest of the Kiwi security force. They routinely sweep the underwater area of the dock before the boat is lowered in by a crane each day.

“We’d just gone down and started checking underneath the dock and saw another diver down there,” Kells said. “The two of us swam up to him and hand-signaled him to swim up to the top.

“He actually went down to the bottom. He had his buoyancy compensator--his backpack--in his hand at the time, so there was no way he could swim away. So after asking him to come to the top--we asked him quite a few times, and he was trying to put his backpack back on again--we removed his mask, which sent him to the top pretty quickly.”

Syndicate general manager Peter Blake said, “He was warmly greeted by the crew . . . sat him down, gave him a cup of tea.”

Kells said Pishdad apparently had removed his tank so he could swim under the boat without revealing his presence with bubbles.

Pishdad’s wife, contacted at their home, said, “I don’t know anything except that he works for the New Zealand team. He’s been working for them for several months. He works on their chase boats.

“I imagine it’s some kind of a mix-up with their security. I have not spoken with him.”

She said Pishdad services about 200 boats in the San Diego area.

In Thursday’s abbreviated racing, New Zealand, skippered by Rod Davis, and Chris Dickson’s Nippon had a spirited pre-start duel downwind jibing series on one leg before the Kiwis’ speed turned he race into a yawn.

On the second reach--about where Nippon had trailed when misfortune struck Il Moro and Ville de Paris in two previous races--the Japanese first called their chase boats alongside, indicating they had a problem. They Dickson radioed the race committee that he was dropping out.

Dickson said he lost his steering when a part broke below decks.

“It’s about a $5 part, off the shelf, and a two-minute job to replace it,” Dickson said.

Unfortunately, they weren’t carrying a spare.

Spirit of Australia (3-2) had a competitive race with Espana ’92 (2-3), winning by 1:50, and Ville de Paris (3-2) trounced Sweden’s Tre Kronor (0-5) by 5:18.

Steady northwest winds varied from 6 to 10 knots.

The withdrawal of the two Australian boats from the remainder of the first round left Il Moro without a match Thursday.

The remaining boats still must sail the 20-mile course and finish within the 4-hour, 12-minute time limit to claim the single point.

The Italians’ first clue that Syd Fischer had pulled Challenge Australia was when they sailed past his compound and saw he hadn’t launched his boat for the day.

So they returned to the dock and gave some of the regular crew, including skipper Paul Cayard, the day off, as a makeshift crew sailed the course for the point. Incidentally, Il Moro was fastest around the course Thursday, finishing in 2:24:42.

With only two races each of the last two days, the most interesting stands to be Ville de Paris (3-2) against Il Moro on Sunday.