Eagle’s Options Are Limited, and Conner Wins Easily

Dennis Conner’s easy three-minute victory over Eagle in the America’s Cup challenger trials off Perth, Australia, Tuesday might have exposed the Achilles’ heel of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s effort.

“I think we got caught in the spending crunch,” Eagle project specialist Bill Crispin said.

The wind was a light six knots for the start of the race so Conner, sailing Stars & Stripes of San Diego to a 3-0 record, selected a light-medium main sail, anticipating that the wind would increase.

Eagle skipper Rod Davis, now 1-2, had to choose between a light and a heavy main because that’s all he had. He picked the light, and as the wind freshened on its way to 14 knots by the final leg, Conner continued to build his lead. Conner gained 2 minutes 38 seconds of his final margin on the four upwind legs, where a main sail’s shape is most important.

Headsails can be changed to suit conditions during a race, but changing a main sail takes too much time.

Crispin, in charge of Eagle’s headquarters at Newport Beach, said Eagle has an inventory of about 30 sails, all paid for. The Eagle effort is about $2 million short of its $8.5-million budget and is trying to pay as it goes.

Conner’s budget is $15 million, and he has about 150 sails, according to a syndicate spokeswoman in San Diego.

A main sail costs up to $20,000, a headsail about $12,000 and spinnakers $6,000-$8,000. But headsails wear out faster--usually after about 200 tacks, and Eagle made more than 90 tacks just in Monday’s losing race against French Kiss.

Eagle hopes that its current sail inventory, which is geared toward heavy air, will work better when the strong Australian summer winds of 20-30 knots arrive in November.

“We don’t want to go into deficit spending,” Crispin said. “But we’ve been talking to our backers, telling them that we need to buy more sails.”