Guarding Against Indolence

What do the sons of famous men do? Nothing, usually. But when Peter Scott, C.B.E., M.B.E., D.S.C., got around to writing his autobiography, it took him four years and 500,000 words. The publishers promptly boiled it down to 679 finely printed pages--but Scott was only 51 at the time. Last week he was 55, and in Newport, R.I., he was busily filling up notebooks for a brand new chapter entitled The Colonies Revisited, or How I Sailed Away with the America's Cup.

If anybody ever had a chance to do just that (and nobody has in 113 years), it is Peter Scott, who will be at the helm of Britain's Sovereign in the races this week. And why not? He has done everything else he put his mind to. His father, Polar Explorer Robert Falcon Scott, died in Antarctica when Peter was two--but not before leaving a letter to his wife: "Make the boy interested in natural history; it is better than games. Above all, he must guard, and you must guard him, against indolence. Make him a strenuous man."

Destroyers & Dinghies. Scott has not had an indolent moment since. He has been, at one time or another--and usually simultaneously--a successful author (eleven books), artist (exhibitions in London and New York), and TV commentator (covering the Royal Wedding). A British navy commander in World War II, he served on destroyers and gunboats, took part in the raid on Dieppe, designed the camouflage scheme that was adopted by the British Admiralty for all ships on duty in the Atlantic. Today, a world-renowned naturalist, conservationist and ornithologist, he is a councilor of the London Zoo and keeper of the world's greatest collection of exotic ducks, geese and swans at his own Severn Wildfowl Trust.

With all that, Scott still finds time for games. A champion sailplane pilot, he set a British record in 1960 by soaring to an altitude of 18,300 ft. He won a bronze medal in sailing at the 1936 Olympics, and he is a three-time winner of Britain's Prince of Wales Cup for international-class 14-ft. dinghy racing. But when Owner Tony Boyden asked him to take the helm of his America's Cup challenger Sovereign this spring, Scott complained that he was "out of practice." He had not sailed in topflight competition since 1956. On the other hand, that just might be a blessing. "Sailing a 12-meter is jolly well different than sailing a dinghy," he said. "So I'd have to start from scratch, anyway."

A Ruddy Bligh. In last month's elimination trials off Newport, Scott surprised U.S. yachtsmen with his pluck and precision. Balding, ruddy-faced, he bossed Sovereign's eleven-man crew like a budding Captain Bligh, beat Kurrewa V, the favored British boat, six times in eight races. Experts found plenty to criticize in Sovereign's construction: her untapered, top-heavy mast, her primitive rigging, her poorly cut sails. But they had nothing but praise for Scott. "I've known Peter Scott for a long time," said Bob Bavier, who will pilot Constellation, the U.S. defender. "He's liable to be real tough."

Last week, sporting a newly tailored mainsail and a genoa borrowed from Kurrewa, Sovereign looked tough indeed. Bavier was worried enough to spend a day practicing starts against Old Master Bus Mosbacher, who skippered Weatherly to a cup victory in 1962; taking the wheel of American Eagle for the first time, Mosbacher beat Bavier to the line four times in a row. Perched on the deck of a nearby cabin cruiser, Scott watched the scrimmage with interest. Back on the dock somebody asked him: "Don't you ever take a day off?" Answered Scott: "I'll think about taking time off when I've got the America's Cup in the locker."

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