AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Crewmen Kirby, Toppa Fulfill Vow They Made as Youngsters
SAN DIEGO — Most grown-ups don’t remember the promises of their childhoods, let alone fulfill them. But after 24 years, America 3 bowman Jerry Kirby and sail trimmer Mike Toppa did exactly that.
“One summer we made a pact,” said Kirby, who like Toppa is a native of Newport, R.I., and has sailed with and against his childhood buddy for more than two decades. “We decided that one day we were going to sail together and win an America’s Cup.”
They sailed together on Eagle in 1987 in Fremantle. The victory they accomplished Saturday.
“It’s even more special because we’ve been lifetime friends,” Kirby said, adding that Toppa almost bowed out of this challenge. At a wedding they both attended, Kirby convinced Toppa’s wife, and eventually Toppa, that joining Bill Koch was a good idea.
“I told him, ‘Hey, when you’re 80, you’re going to regret not doing this,’ ” he said.
Toppa may be feeling a lot of things this morning. Regrets aren’t among them.
With all the recent outcry for involving the public more in the next America’s Cup, the event’s equivalent of closing ceremonies apparently will be closed to the San Diego community.
According to the San Diego Yacht Club’s answering machine Saturday night, the victorious America 3 and challenging Il Moro di Venezia teams will be honored with a barbecue at the club at 10:30 this morning, followed by ceremonies at noon.
The event is open only to credentialed media and members of the club and their guests.
When San Diego received the trophy at the Royal Perth Yacht Club five years ago, the public was welcomed--and created one of the largest traffic jams ever in Perth for a last look at the Cup. It was quite a show.
France’s Yacht Club de Sete and Spain’s Monte Real Club de Yates de Bayona renewed their challenges for 1995 immediately after the finish of Saturday’s deciding race.
Nippon also is expected to return but under a different sponsorship than the Nippon Ocean Racing Club.
Other possibilities: Australia, in a unified challenge organized by ’83 skipper John Bertrand, and New Zealand.
Il Moro di Venezia is uncertain. Raul Gardini avoided committing himself at Saturday night’s press conference. If he did return, he probably would have to do it without the backing of Montedison, which became only a sponsor when Gardini was forced out of the Ferruzi family business last year.
“We’ll be thinking it over,” Gardini said.
Bill Koch, asked by Australian reporter Michael Koslowski if he planned to defend the Cup in ‘95, replied, “You should ask my son if he’ll let me do it again.”
Wyatt, 5, sitting on Koch’s lap at the press conference, shouted emphatically into the microphone, “No!”
Why not?
“ ‘Cause it takes too long,” Wyatt Koch said.
The subject of spying reared its ugly head again at the final press conference, when Koch tacitly admitted using divers to spy on rivals.
Koch said, “Every syndicate worth its salt here did use frogmen and did everything that was within the standards of ethics and legality.”
Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard said, “I guess we’re not worth our salt. I guarantee you we never hired anybody, nor did anyone from Il Moro di Venezia ever go scuba diving in the vicinity of anybody’s yacht.”
But Koch also said the so-called spy boat Guzzini was a dodge.
“All we have on board is some photographic equipment and some weather instruments. That’s all we ever had on board.”
In a Times survey of 29 international media members reporting on the Cup, only one picked the result precisely.
Robert Keeley of Yaffa Publishing in Australia had America 3, 4-1.
Nobody picked the Cubens 4-0--although three picked Il Moro by a shutout.
America 3 missed a chance at Cup history by not having backup pitman Dawn Riley sail in any of the five Cup match races.
Seven other women have done so, but Riley would have been the first in an active, hands-on position.
During the IACC Worlds a year ago, Koch described the designers of the new class as “idiots.”
Saturday he said, “I apologize for calling them idiots. I still think the boats are idiotic. Fun but idiotic. Fun, if you’re spending someone else’s money.”
“I can’t believe we won,” sewerman John Spence repeated as he circulated through the post-Cup press conference. No one was happier, or more delirious by A3’s victory than Spence, who did stop for a second to think about his future.
“I’ve never seen a happier group of unemployed people in my life.”
