America's Crew Graduated From Gridders To Grinders

SAN DIEGO - Ever get the feeling that sailors, in their nice white pants, really aren't athletes?

Well, check America's roster and think again.

The America crew, which leads Italy's Il Moro di Venezia 2-1 in the best-of-seven America's Cup that resumes today, is well-stocked with muscle.

Ex-football players make up the bulk of America's grinders, the men who turn the coffee-grinder winches that mechanically trim the sails under thousands of pounds of load.

Being a grinder is kind of like being in the trenches in a football game, so that means they do other dirty work, like helping to retrieve doused sails and cutting away tangled sails or lines.

Larry Mialik was a tight end for the Atlanta Falcons and San Diego Chargers in the mid-1970s. After his playing career was over, he ran into some Heart of America crewmembers who were training for the 1986-87 America's Cup. Their skipper was Buddy Melges, now America's co-helmsman.

"They were still in the training phase, so I got to talk to Buddy, wound up getting a tryout and ultimately made the team," Mialik said. "That was the start of my racing career."

He's come a long way. Although he had been sailing recreationally since his college days at Wisconsin, Mialik had to survive a long training period with America's big crew to get to sail in the America's Cup.

Of the 16 crewmen aboard an America's Cup yacht, four are grinders. America's primary grinders, who have sailed in all three races, are Rick Brent, who was an All-America wrestler at Springfield College and a champion gymnast, and John Hufnagel, a general contractor from Los Angeles.

America rotates the other two positions to keep the sailors fresh. Rock Ferrigno, who is on Fairfield University's lacrosse, skiing and sailing teams and is a relative of Lou Ferrigno, who played TV's "The Incredible Hulk," and Mialik have sailed in America's two wins, while Peter Fennelly and Marty Stephan, both former college football players, sailed in Race 2, a 3-second loss that was the closest race in Cup history.

Among the other grinders are Art Price, a former tight end with the Falcons, and Chad VandeZande, another ex-football player.

Mialik, Price and VandeZande all played football for Wisconsin. VandeZande coaches there.

Mialik said it's difficult to compare the NFL with the America's Cup, because "one's a collision sport and one's a sport where you do everything you can do to avoid collisions."

"In terms of preparing physically, the conditioning process is similar," he said. "You have to be able to perform under potentially fatiguing conditions."

Grinders do the bulk of their work during tacking duels, when the yachts change directions sailing against the wind, and thus change the side of the boat on which the sails are trimmed.

"Depending on how the boat is turning or what you're doing tactically, they can be really exhausting or they can be tolerable," Mialik said. Sometimes there can be 30 tacks on a windward leg, other times as few as five.

Sailing has allowed Mialik to remain competitive at age 41, and he figures he has one more America's Cup campaign in him.

"I just love sailing," he said. "What an outstanding way to use your competitive desire. That whole sense of satisfaction you get from being part of a team and contributing in some fashion, those are hard rewards to find anywhere." --------------------------------

AMERICA'S CUP -- The boats: U.S.'s America vs. Italy's Il Moro di Venezia. -- Series standings: America led 2-1 going into today's race. -- Race 1: America won by 30 seconds Saturday after a bad start by Il Moro di Venezia. -- Race 2: Il Moro di Venezia won the closest race ever in a Cup match final series, edging America by three seconds. -- Race 3: The Italian boat let the Cup defender get out of range Tuesday and America won by 1 minute 58 seconds, about a third of a mile. -- Saturday: Race 5, ESPN (cable TV), noon.