Sides Agree 1st Cup Race to Be Sept. 7

SAN DIEGO — Races dates for the defense of the America’s Cup will be Sept. 7, 9, and 11 in San Diego, the Sail America Foundation announced Friday.

The New Zealand Challenge and Sail America, managing the defense of the Cup for the San Diego Yacht Club, agreed to the dates Friday after a series of phone calls between Michael Fay, the man responsible for the New Zealand challenge, and C. Douglas Alford, San Diego Yacht Club commodore.

The planned best-of-three series will begin on a Wednesday and end the following Sunday.

“The agreement between us and the New Zealand Challenge is good news for everyone around the world interested in following the America’s Cup,” Alford said in a statement, “especially since now there won’t be a conflict with the Summer Olympics.”

The original starting date was to be Sept. 19. The Olympics are scheduled for Sept. 17-Oct. 2.

“We had to pull it back from the Olympic date,” said Graeme Colman, publicist for New Zealand.

Officials for New Zealand and San Diego began meetings at Le Meridien in Coronado on Thursday. Two phone calls Friday firmed up the dates, Colman said.

“We appreciate the need that people need to know,” he said. “People from hotels to airlines to port authorities needed to know so they could plan.”

Colman said talks would continue Monday to iron out other details of the races between New Zealand’s monohull challenger and the multihull with which Sail America has chosen to defend the Cup.

“Rules and conditions for racing need to be sealed down,” he said, adding that the sides did not seem far apart on any issue.

Colman said Sail America had expressed some interest in adding to the number of races, “but at the moment, we’ve agreed to leave it at three.”