Sport: Stand By to Repel Raiders

The U.S. again sails out to defend the America's Cup

It is now June of the third year, and millionaires once again are at play on the high seas off Newport, R.I., a harbor town that smells strongly of salt water and money, the yachtsman's favorite aromas. Seven small navies have arrived from five stubborn countries, the largest assault force in 132 years, and are fighting it out among themselves for the right to challenge for the America's Cup, a symbol of U.S. ingenuity, or treachery, or both, that is bolted snugly, smugly, or both, to a heavy oak slab in the West 44th Street rumpus room of the New York Yacht Club.

The trophy, a pitcher homelier than Warren Spahn, was captured by Commodore John Cox Stevens' schooner America for blitzing 15 British boats in a race around the Isle of Wight promoting London's Great Exhibition of 1851. The N.Y.Y.C. insisted that the first challengers sail in solitude against a fleet of defenders and, in the interest of good seaworthy construction, travel to the site on their own bottoms. From 1870 until 1930, the race was set in Lower New York Bay, around Sandy Hook, where local knowledge was crucial. Though the visitors' hardships have gradually, very gradually, lessened through the years, the America's Cup still stands alone as the paragon of all home-course advantages. In 24 competitions, held every three years since 1974, the U.S. has never come close to losing the trophy.

This year the rule restricting the challengers to materials obtainable and technology available in their own countries has been rescinded, which may have helped bring about the record turnout of foreign entries: three Australian, one French, one Canadian, one Italian and one English. "The more the scarier," frets Commodore Henry H. Anderson Jr. of the N.Y.Y.C.'S Cup Committee. Not that a realistic chance of victory has ever been central to the quest.

Baron Marcel Bich, 68, the ballpoint pen and pantyhose tycoon from France, who spent $10 million over the past four campaigns, has given up at last. In Newport, where the race has been conducted since 1930, Baron Bich is remembered fondly for his distinctive white costumes and for the day he sailed off in the wrong direction at the starting line and disappeared into a fog bank. Now the old Frenchman's craft, France 3, belongs to Moviemaker Yves Rousset-Rouard, who has her back in Newport for another try. The hardiest dreamer left is Alan Bond, 45, an Australian entrepreneur from Perth, whose fourth adventure this summer will bring his tab to $9 million. Bond's boats have garnered the honor of challenging for each of the past three America's Cup series. Again this summer, of the three Australian entries (Advance and Challenge 12 the others) that began round-robin trials last weekend, Bond's Australia II is favored to be the one to face the defender in the best-of-seven series commencing Sept. 13. Australia II is a vessel of intrigue: her secret keel is shrouded when she is lifted out of the water.