Traditionally women have been far more likely to be invited onto the 75-footers that contest the Cup to pose for swimsuit issues than to actually crew. Boat captains viewed women as either too inexperienced for the technical tasks or too weak physically, compared with the strongmen who power the winches that maneuver the sails. But millionaire businessman Bill Koch, who in 1992 skippered the last America’s Cup champion to scant attention, thought that by co-opting one of the ’90s hot-button issues – gender – he could get Americans to take notice. “While this will enhance women’s athletics, it is no female lib thing,” says Koch, who will cheer from the shore this time. “Our only desire is to win.”
Win or lose, the America (pronounced “America Cubed”) entry has already proved to be an attention-grabber. Sponsors – from Chevrolet and Hewlett-Packard to Saucony and Lifetime Television – have backed the effort. And media – including suchnontraditional purveyors of yachting news as MTV, Gourmet, Glamour (another sponsor) and Southern California Dog magazine – have suddenly discovered the 144-year-old boating race. “This is great for everyone in the America’s Cup,” says Dennis Conner, who has skippered three Cup champions and whose Stars & Stripes is one of two American boats challenging America for the right to defend the Cup. (The defender races the foreign challenger in a best-of-nine series. Seven boats from five countries will start a simultaneous competition this week in San Diego.) “When interest goes up, if TV ratings are better, then my sponsors are happier, too.”
But no one’s happier than the women, who made the cut from more than 650 applicants. Koch recruited veteran sailors, as well as world-class rowers and weight lifters, to navigate the 18.55-nautical-mile course. “All I ever wanted was a chance to show what I can do,” says Susie Leech Nairn, 28, an aerospace engineer who left a NASA post to work the boat’s bow. “If I blow the chance, at least I’ll know it was because I wasn’t good enough.” Anna Seaton-Huntington, 30, an Olympic rowing medalist, left behind a new husband and her graduate degree in journalism to spin the winches. “How could I pass up the chance to be part of an athletic endeavor that includes the best in the world?”
While women everywhere may applaud the America effort, the crew – beyond “The Women’s Team” logo – is far more comfortable cast as jocks than as feminists. They do not bristle when the male coaches call them “girls,” respond to nicknames like Nairn’s “Bowchick,” boast about “kicking butt” and use salty language. During one calm, a few women were hoisted on their maiden trips up the mast to the cheers and laughter of their teammates. From 100 feet above the sea, the shouts of “holy s–t” reverberated across the bay. “I can see how the women’s thing is an issue for the media,” says Jennifer Isler, 31, an Olympic sailing medalist, “but it’s not for us.” Alison Hamilton, 40, a longtime sailor who does computer analysis for the team, admits to occasional dismay when the younger women seem oblivious to the hurdles they have so suddenly surmounted. “For those of my generation to get on a boat like this,” she said, “you had to marry the captain – or at least sleep with him.”
But the women, one third of whom are married and a couple of whom have small children, are hardly oblivious to the hidden challenges of competing with male crews. “I’ll bet none of those men are worrying about the laundry or making sure there’s milk in the fridge or Pampers in the cupboards,” says Ann Nelson, who has won more than 50 sailing titles. “I come home beat and there are two kids right in my face.” Koch sees other gender-based differences between this team and his last. The women easily embraced his credo that “the only ego is the ego of the boat,” he says, and it took them just one month to bond as a team, something it took his male crew 18 months to accomplish. But Koch worries that the women are reluctant to step up and lead for fear of offending their teammates. “Decisions that should be made in a nanosecond, they’d prefer to sit down for 10 minutes and arrive at a consensus,” he says.
The women insist that leadership is simply a matter of experience – a concern they may have rendered moot when they finished second to an Australian boat in the recent world championships on the same San Diego waters. “There were a lot of doubters on the outside and even a little corner of everyone’s mind on the inside that said, “Can we do this?”’ says Seaton-Huntington. “Now I really believe we’re going to win.”
To do that, America will first have to best their two American rivals, PACT 95, a group of top young sailors headed by Olympian Kevin Mahaney, and the legendary Conner, 51, whose crew boast 39 Cup championships among them. No one disputes that Conner is the supreme sailor and, all things being equal, would be favored. But all things are never equal in the America’s Cup. Each American team hopes its newly designed, never-raced boat will provide an insurmountable edge. “If any boat has even a 1 percent advantage, over the long haul it’s going to beat us,” says Conner.
The America’s Cup is the ultimate long haul, making the NBA playoffs look as brief as an Indy pit stop. The champion will not be decided until May. Koch disdains moral victories. When the women finished second in an early race, Koch halted their celebration with a blistering reprimand about “stupid mistakes.” “It went from giggles to tears,” he says. “We’re not here for a wonderful experience. We’re here to win.” Right now the only sure winner is the America’s Cup. This country just loves a good battle of the sexes.
