Father and Son Share a Passion for Sailing Ryan Conaty for The New York Times Jerry and Rome Kirby are believed to be the first father and son to win the America's Cup. Jerry raced in six campaigns from 1987 to 2003; Rome won this year. NEWPORT, R.I. - Listen to Rome Kirby, and it was clear by age 10 that he wanted to follow in the wide wake of his father, Jerry, and sail in the America's Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race. Listen to his parents, and it was clear quite a bit earlier than that. Jerry Kirby, a veteran of six America's Cup campaigns, remembers coming home from his races to find his young son breaking down videotapes of them. As Rome grew into a teenager, Jerry, a former N.C.A.A. hockey player, tried to push him toward other sports. But every time his parents nudged him toward something, Rome always circled back to the water. His mother, Kim, called sailing "his destiny." "I'd say, "Make sure you get your education; have a Plan B," " Jerry said. "And he'd say: "Dad, I have a Plan B. It's Plan A." " Plan A is working out. Rome, 24, the older of Kirby's two sons, was the only American on Oracle Team USA's crew in September when it completed an improbable comeback from an 8-1 deficit to retain the America's Cup. In doing so, he matched the feat that Jerry achieved in 1992, when he won the Cup as a bowman on America3. Some yachting historians believe the Kirbys are the first father and son to win the America's Cup in its 162-year history, which qualifies them as royalty in a city like Newport. That title that does not carry quite as much weight as it once did, even if it did earn one of them the supreme Newport privilege of a gold card that guarantees drinks for life at a local watering hole. "I think my dad has actually gotten more mileage out of me winning the Cup than himself," Rome said recently. I think he's enjoyed this one more. Jerry Kirby, 57, a successful builder and raconteur with a thick head of hair and a big personality, raced in six America's Cup campaigns from 1987 to 2003 after getting his first taste of the Cup as a boat boy for Intrepid when it won the Cup in Newport in 1970. Jerry did all this while maintaining a foothold in the construction business. His son has had the comparative luxury of being able to commit full time to professional sailing. The Kirby name has certainly helped soften the risk and accelerate the timeline, even if Rome said his father made clear that he would have to make it on his own. Geography surely had a say in both of their careers. Newport remains that rare American city where competitive sailing is mainstream. The America's Cup regatta departed, perhaps for good, in 1983 when the Australians finally wrested it away with their persistence and winged keel. But America's Cup Avenue continues to cut through downtown, and former Cup-winning yachts like Intrepid and Freedom regularly cruise Newport Harbor under charter. For Rome Kirby, it has always been this way. He got his start here at age 4, sailing with his father in the harbor. The Kirbys moved to San Diego for the 1992 Cup and later lived in New Zealand for extended periods when Jerry competed in the Cup challenger series in 2000 and 2003. They have also followed Jerry to the stopover ports on his around-the-world campaigns in the Volvo Ocean Race. "I raised my kids all over the planet," Kim Kirby said. Wherever they lived, Rome got the chance to observe sailing stars like Dennis Conner, Paul Cayard and Brad Butterworth at family barbecues and other gatherings.Despite his habit of swearing like a sailor, Rome is clearly the more understated of the Kirbys. Consider that his father at a similar age in the 1970s had a friend drive him far up the soaring Newport Bridge, then climbed up on the railing and leapt more than 100 feet down into the water to catch up with a boat that had left port without him on a race day. "They thought I was a suicide jumper," Jerry said. I would never do that again of course, but at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. My son is a lot smarter than I am. Read, who has long lived in Newport and is president of the sail-making company North Sails, is close to both Kirbys. He has long sailed with Jerry, hired him for the 2008-9 Volvo campaign and sailed with him much closer to home last month when he crewed for him as they broke the Around Jamestown Record in lower Narragansett Bay in Jerry's 32-foot catamaran. "The years," Read said, "have done zero to mellow him." Read has served as a mentor for Rome, sometimes bridging the communication gap between father and son. Read's hiring of Rome for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race - when Rome, then 22, was the youngest sailor in the six-boat fleet - helped open Kirby's path to Oracle, and to the America's Cup. Kirby worked as a trimmer for Oracle, but he was also, like most of the 11-man crew, a grinder: turning the handles to power the hydraulics that made the volatile catamaran and its wing sail work. The new boats are far different from the elegant monohulls and 20th century pace that Read and Jerry Kirby knew so well; the foiling 72-foot catamarans deployed in San Francisco generated speeds of more than 40 knots. With a new year approaching, Rome is ready for more even as he acknowledges that the all-consuming nature of the last regatta cost him. "I had a girlfriend for two and a half years, but I think the Cup got the best of it," he said.