SAN DIEGO---There were few smiles after light winds and lumpy seas stretched the sailing envelope, not to mention agony and frustration, on the first day of the 90th Lipton Cup Saturday.

An exception was the local Southwestern Yacht Club's crew, who found themselves leading the West Coast's most prestigious interclub competition by one point over Balboa YC after four of seven scheduled races.

"We're all smiling," skipper Geoff Longenecker said. "We're so happy that we're duking it out with the best guys in Southern California. We absolutely did not expect to be in this position. We should not be in this position."

The 14 competitors representing clubs from the Mexican border to St. Francis YC on San Francisco Bay are sailing J/105s---35-foot sloops that use asymmetric spinnakers flown off retractable bow poles. Every crew member must be a member of the club for which he sails.

The defending champion is San Diego YC, which was in third place but 10 points off the pace. Although Southwestern has never won it, the Lipton Cup has been bounced around among three San Diego Bay clubs for the last six years since Coronado Cays YC lifted it from Balboa's five-year stranglehold in 1997.

Balboa has been trying to get it back ever since and seemed on the verge a year ago with a nine-point lead after the first day before self-destructing the second day. Cup

This time, led again by skipper Jack Franco and tactician Dave Ullman, the team sailed Ed Cummins' Bold Forbes consistently well with no finish worse than fourth (1-3-4-4).

But the Balboans were not pleased.

"It was a pretty bad day of sailing," Ullman said. "[Franco] did a nice job, but tactics were impossible to the point of being a crapshoot."

As it was, after a one-hour wait for minimum wind to race, the race committee barely managed four races on a one-mile windward-leeward course, twice around, and the second and fourth were finished a leg early at the windward mark.

For the first time during its current residence in San Diego, the event is being run outside on the open sea on Coronado Roads instead of inside South San Diego Bay, where there is less room but where the water is smoother and the wind often stronger.

The switch served up a choppy sea and fluctuating pockets of wind that varied from 3 ½ knots to a momentary 11, while the lumps always remained.

Franco said, "It makes for a long day. It always feels like the boat is completely stopped, but the guys always say the boat's going OK. It's like driving a bus. At least I have a tiller. I can't imagine what it's like for the guys driving with wheels."

However, Longenecker and his crew, after a quiet sixth-place start, found the formula to solving the difficult conditions with a 1-2-2 string the rest of the day.

"I think the key for us was to sail with the [wind] pressure," Longenecker said. "We'd even sail into headers as long as we had wind."

They also appeared to point better than anyone else.

San Diego, led again by Chris Snow, barely hung in the chase with a 5-2-11-3 string, one point ahead of Coronado YC's Scott Harris and three ahead of Bahia Corinthian's Mike Pinckney.

The lone all-woman team, representing the Women's Yacht Racing Fleet with Colleen Cooke as skipper, was in 11th place and within striking distance of several higher male rivals.

Standings (after 4 of 7 races):
1. Southwestern YC, San Diego, Geoff Longenecker, 11 points;
2. Balboa YC, Jack Franco, 12;
3. San Diego YC, Chris Snow;
4. Coronado YC, Scott Harris, 22;
5. Bahia Corinthian YC, Newport Beach, Mike Pinckney, 24;
6. Dana Point YC, Sonny Gibson, 26;
7. Santa Barbara YC, Kenneth Kieding, 29;
8. Newport Harbor YC, Phil Thompson, 33;
9. St, Francis YC, Rich Bergman, 36;
10. Long Beach YC, Scott Birnberg, 36;
11. Women's Yacht Racing Fleet, Colleen Cooke, 38;
12. King Harbor YC, Redondo Beach, Art McMillan, 39;
13. Pacific Singlehanded Sailing Assn., Chuck Spears, 45;
14. Lido Isle YC, Brian Dougherty, 48.