AMERICA'S CUP GETS DEADLY IN WAMBAUGH'S `FLOATERS'.

Byline: Cassandra Smith Special to the Daily News

Title: ``Floaters''

Author: Joseph Wambaugh

Data: Bantam Books, 293 pages; $22.95

Our rating: Three Stars

Joseph Wambaugh has written about Los Angeles cops, border patrol cops, British cops, desert cops and now, in his latest book, ``Floaters,'' he deals with water cops - the San Diego Club Harbor unit patrolling Mission Bay.

In his 15th book, the cop-turned-writer weaves his colorful characters into a tale surrounding the America's Cup international sailing regattas. Yacht crazies have come to town to fawn over the international challengers to the U.S., the home of the cup for the past 7-1/2 years.

But no story by Wambaugh would be complete without murder, mayhem and the quirky cops who patrol the mean streets.

Meet Mick Fortney and his partner Leeds, who have been cruising the water for five years. Neither wanted to work anywhere else. Their uniform alone was a plus: cotton khaki, blue baseball caps and blue jackets that double as flotation devices. Weather permitting, they could even wear shorts. A typical day for these cops was eyeing leggy babes on pleasure crafts, rescuing boats that have run aground and hauling out the occasional ``floaters'' - dead bodies - that surface in the bay.

But all that is about to change as San Diego gears up to host a town gone crazy with sailors of every nationality and the America's Cup groupies - or ``cuppies,'' as they are called - who follow them around and treat them to drinks at the bars catering to team members.

No one was more worried about losing the cup than sailing enthusiast Ambrose Lutterworth, appointed Keeper of the Cup by the San Diego Yacht Club. He has traveled the world showing off the oldest sporting trophy on the planet, a baroque 27-inch chunk of silver that never travels as baggage.

Whenever Lutterworth travels, the cup is packed in its protective crate and sits next to him in first class. The San Diego Yacht Club charges the requesting entity $1,000 a day plus $125 for the Keeper, also covering air fare and per diem. The cup represents history and tradition, things America had devalued.

Unwilling to forego this lavish lifestyle, Lutterworth decides on an intricate plot to sabotage the apparent challenger to the American team and ensure his position as the Keeper. He offers $15,000 cash to Blaze Duvall, a red-haired beauty and outcall masseuse, to incapacitate the New Zealand crane operator who runs the travel lift. His plan is for the Kiwis' craft to be dropped when it's being lifted out of the water on the last day of the challenger trials.

Meanwhile, vice detective Norman G. ``Letch'' Boggs, a middle-age, twice-divorced cop, has spent more time watching confiscated porn flicks than any vice cop in the San Diego Police Department. He got the nickname Letch because his leer exposes oversize rodent teeth that have a lecherous quality. He is ``short, bald, lardy at the hips with the muscle tone of a bruised banana. He smelled worse than a Beastie Boys concert because he consumed more garlic than Sicily.''

But Letch has the instincts of a ferret and a memory like an IBM laptop. When he busts Dawn Coyote, a skinny junkie whore who works for the pimp Oliver Mantelberry, he makes a deal with her to testify against the pimp.

But when Dawn ends up stabbed to death on Blaze's apartment stairwell, the two worlds of the upper crust and lower depths collide. Enter detective Anne Zorn, whose moniker Anne of a Thousand Names hung on her because she was twice married and divorced.

Wambaugh is the master of irony, and he is always topical. So it's not unexpected when references to the O.J. Simpson trial and the football player's team of lawyers get a few one-liners in this novel. Since DNA played a major part in the double-murder trial and Wambaugh wrote the book on the first murder case to be resolved by use of the so-called genetic fingerprinting, ``The Blooding'' in 1989, it's not surprising that aspects of the Simpson trial get mentioned.

Readers who follow the America's Cup race know how part of the story ends, but like most things Wambaugh writes about, he does his homework and researches the subject well. And this novel is no different. ``Floaters'' is not the best book Wambaugh has written, but like all of them, it's colorful and full of wit and whimsy.

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Photo: Joseph Wambaugh chronicles murder amid the America's Cup yacht race in ``Floaters.''