Bookies Want No Part of This Fiasco

SAN DIEGO — If an activity is even remotely sporting, chances are that somewhere, someone is taking bets on it.

But America’s Cup XXVII has proved to be such a mess that even bookies want nothing to do with it.

“The America’s Cup?” asked Jeff Bauer, a booking agent for Harrah’s in Reno. “Someone here brought that up the other day, and we laughed. We have no odds on that.

“First, we don’t think there’s any interest. Second, we think it will be one-sided.”

But Bauer had a tip for the intrepid reporter: Try the Brits, they put odds on anything.

“The America’s Cup?” asked the booking agent from Ladbrookes Odds in London. “We won’t have any odds on that until teams are chosen for next year. Nobody here seems to know much about it. Have all the teams been chosen?”

The agent was told that only two “teams,” the United States and New Zealand, would be competing and that it was scheduled to start Wednesday.

“Next week? Well, we have no odds at the moment. I thought the race was next year. But here you are on the telephone saying it will be next week. Hmmm.”

It is a simple, pleasant question, one few San Diegans contemplate: What will the weather be like?

One lifelong San Diegan, Dennis Conner, will ask Chris Bedford that question Wednesday morning, 4 1/2 hours before the first race of the America’s Cup is to begin.

If Bedford is right, well, he’s supposed to be.

After all, he has a room full of computers, satellite reports and National Weather Service data. He also has wind-reading equipment on a buoy 3 miles off Pt. Loma.

If Bedford is wrong, no big deal.

He would only be jeopardizing the U.S. syndicate’s multimillion-dollar effort, the multi-multimillion-dollar plans for a 1991 Cup regatta here and the home country’s chances for a 26-1 record in the event.

“It’s a very anxious feeling,” said Bedford, the meteorologist for Stars & Stripes. “You definitely get nervous about it. It takes over your every thought. You’re always checking your numbers to make sure you didn’t screw up. But once the race starts, there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s meteorology.”

The bespectacled Bedford, 24, has referred to his job as a “yuppie war game” and “playing God.” This year, it could be more important.

Bedford’s predictions helped the United States bring back the Cup from Fremantle, Australia, 18 months ago. But that was a 12-meter Stars & Stripes. This one, a catamaran, reacts so quickly to wind shifts that it could send the crew overboard and damage the 90- or 108-foot “airplane wing” sail.

Add Bedford: San Diego’s offshore winds in September are predictably unpredictable.

“We’ve gone through a very interesting period,” said Bedford, who grew up in Northville, Mich. “Thursday, we had one of lightest wind days we’ve had this summer--about 2-3 knots. But Monday, it was 13-15 knots. There’s been a lot of variation in the breeze. Today (Wednesday) and yesterday it was back to normal, 7-10 knot stuff. The variability keeps me on my toes.”

Bedford, who, when not working for the Cup campaign is employed by Golson Technical Services in Syracuse, N.Y., would not say which type of sailing conditions will prevail Wednesday. But he did offer a probable report, based on data collected the last six years.

“The average offshore wind has been about 8-10 1/2 knots, and I’d say the average sea condition is 2- to 3-foot swell on 1- to 2-foot seas.”

Such winds, if they held from start to finish, would likely favor the United States.

A hurricane has formed off the Baja coast, which could make the sailing trickier for both sides, but especially the United States.

“That hurricane could bring a southerly swell up here,” Bedford said. “When we get a southerly swell up here and winds west to northwest, you can get a cross chop that can really cause problems. It makes the sea confused.”