'Mouth of the South' at the Helm

The skipper, Ted Turner, entered every contest mouth-first. The boat, Courageous, was secondhand. The oddsmakers, having surveyed the competition--two new 12-meter yachts constructed for the 23rd defense of the America's Cup--had consigned the captain and his Courageous to third place. But last week, after two months and two rounds of preliminary races--with a final one beginning Aug. 16 still to go --Turner's tenacity and cunning helmsmanship brought Courageous home to Newport, R.I., leading in the trials to select a boat to represent the U.S. hi the Cup. So far, Turner, a sly Southern fox in the elegant and exclusive New York Yacht Club's domain of America's Cup racing, has outsailed his rivals, Sailmakers Ted Hood of Independence and Lowell North of Enterprise, in the competition leading up to the best-of-seven series for the world's oldest international sporting trophy.

Fire Storm. Running on nerve and verve to make up for used sails and older design, Turner, 38, has transformed his four-year-old boat into a front runner, a conversion he hoped would prove contagious when he invited his Atlanta Braves baseball team to watch him race. Courageous had been sailed to the 1974 Cup victory by Hood, who this year planned to use it (with Turner as captain) for tune-up duty as Independence's sparring partner. But Hood reckoned without the cocky skipper's fierce competitiveness. "Everything I do is a war,"

Turner says, and he has carried the fight to Hood and North with a vengeance.

Turner's reputation as the "Mouth of the South"--whether on land, at sea or hi Bowie Kuhn's hair--has tended to obscure his extraordinary sailing skill. He began to sail when, as a boy, he was too small and uncoordinated to excel at any other sport. "I didn't have a lot of natural athletic ability," says the immodest man modestly, "but this was a game that took nerves and brains and heart. And I had a lot of heart. I could hang in there." Hang in he did, and over the years, Turner emerged as one of the most widely experienced and successful sailors in the world, winning in a variety of boats under every condition. As a skipper, he is a fire storm of energy, ranting, cursing, praising, excoriating. On the waters of Rhode Island Sound off Newport, he has driven his crew to a razor-sharp edge. Conservative in his tactics when in the lead, he will stop at nothing when he is behind. The final race last week against Enterprise was typical. Trailing at the final buoy, Turner drove his crew through 19 tacks on the last 2 1/2mile leg. Each of the grueling changes in direction and shifts in the set of the sails was perfectly timed by Turner and flawlessly executed by the crew; at the finish, a 17-second deficit had become a 43-second triumph.

Enterprise, the latest effort of Olin Stephens, the master 12-meter designer, has been gaining on Courageous (also a Stephens design) as the matches have progressed. Its San Diego-based skipper, Lowell North, 47, suffered from lack of experience in Atlantic waters during the June matchups. An expensive --and unsuccessful--experiment with new sailcloth cost North additional precious tune. Poor crew coordination and tactical blunders--committed as North turned over the helm to scamper about the deck fiddling with fittings and adjusting the rigging and sails--worsened matters.

Frigid Sorties. North relies on read-outs from on-board computers and the advice of two additional helmsmen --one for upwind legs, another for downwind--in devising racing strategy. Says North: "I do things more by what seems to be right by testing and not by how it feels. I'm an analytical sailor." But his restlessness on board and his penchant for consulting everyone on tactical decisions rattled his sailors. Enterprise Crewman Andy MacGowan explains: "The problem with North's style is that things happen so fast in a race. You haven't got the luxury of time." Still, North seems to have settled down in recent weeks, and the crew is, at last, becoming cohesive: Enterprise's execution, marked by sloppiness and uncertainty in the early going, has become much crisper and quicker. As a result, during July Enterprise won seven races for an overall match record so far of eleven wins and twelve losses to Courageous'14-7.

The mystery of the 1977 America's Cup has been Ted Hood's Independence. At 50, Hood is the Renaissance man of sailing; he designed, cut the sails and outfitted Independence, the first man in history to control every aspect of a 12-meter from drawing board to helm. Hood has decades of Cup experience --including a dramatic last-minute takeover of a struggling Courageous and a four-race sweep of Australian contender Southern Cross in 1974--and his considerable knowledge and skill were poured into the lovely rake of his boat's hull and the complex curves of her sails. But Independence has been a lackluster performer, winning only seven races while losing 13, despite a full year of sea trials, including frigid sorties in the dead of a most bitter winter.

Perhaps Hood spread himself too thin; perhaps the hull design was too conservative; no one, not even Hood, can explain the boat's poor performance. Despite their lengthy trials, Independence crew members appear inexperienced, tangling themselves in tricky maneuvers and performing routine tasks with little dash and less speed. Unlike North, Hood stays at the helm, and unlike Turner, he does not use it as a soapbox, never shouting at an erring crewman. "I'm slower and more easygoing," Hood explains. "I never gamble unless I'm sure the odds are 3 to 1 in my favor. I'm more of a percentage sailor."

After the last round of August trials, the New York Yacht Club's selection committee will choose one of the three boats and its skipper to try to preserve America's unbroken hold on the Cup since the first race was held in 1851. By then, a challenger from among Australian, French and Swedish aspirants will also have been selected. Hood is the sentimental favorite to repeat as American defender, and North--fiercely bidding to crack Hood's domination as a sailmaker--has captured the fancy of the technicians. But come September 13, it could be Ted Turner's favorite person --himself--who has the American helm when the finalists sweep past the starting line.

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