America’s Cup Trials : The Fremantle Doctor, a Very Ill Wind, Blows Conner a Lot of Good
Waves driven by 28-knot winds knocked boats around like punching bags, swept over decks and forced people to hang on for their lives in the America’s Cup trials Wednesday--and that was only in the spectator fleet.
It was even rougher among the competitors. America II had to fish two crewmen out of the drink, several other boats had breakdowns or blown-out sails, and underdog Steak ‘n Kidney suffered a broken heart on the verge of the biggest upset so far.
The Fremantle Doctor has officially arrived, bringing with him the southwest summer blasts that turn the Gage Roads channel between Rottnest Island and the mainland into one of the world’s wildest wind tunnels.
It’s the kind of weather that tests men’s resolve and challenges their equipment. Dennis Conner’s kind of weather.
The San Diego skipper had been saying all along that his Stars & Stripes 12-meter, a disappointment last month in light winds, would prove itself in blows above 15 knots. The doctor was just what Conner ordered. Plenty of wind was the right prescription.
In 25 knots Tuesday, he out-sailed Canada II by 3 minutes 46 seconds. In Wednesday’s 28 knots, with gusts to 32, he was running away from a more serious rival, America II, by a similar margin when the New York Yacht Club boat dumped crewmen Robbie Young and Charlie Santry on the last downwind leg.
The sailors, picked up by a chase boat, were in the water for less than a minute, but according to the rules, skipper John Kolius had to drop his spinnaker so he could return to retrieve them at the point where they fell in.
By that time, Conner was out of sight, en route to a winning margin of 13:04. The victory left him in second place among the 12 challengers with a showdown against New Zealand scheduled today.
Conner, with 20 wins, 5 losses and 70 points, is the only skipper to have beaten Kiwi hotshot Chris Dickson, 24-1 with 90 points, in two months of sailing here. And Conner, the man who lost the Cup in 1983, seems unruffled by the prospect of meeting his strongest rival again.
In fact, Conner, after a shower, had not a hair out of place when he met the press after Wednesday’s victory.
As the wind continued to whistle outside, he said coolly: “I don’t think the conditions today were anything that most folks weren’t out there prepared to handle.”
He conceded, however, “It’s easy for a winner to say that.”
That was after:
--Steak ‘n Kidney, which had won its first race only Tuesday, snapped a headsail halyard while leading defender runner-up Australia IV by 30 seconds on the last leg, then ripped its rehoisted sail totally in two and limped home a loser again by 2:46.
--Australia IV broke its boom vang--the block and tackle device that pulls the boom down--and its second upper batten, preventing it from trimming its main sail properly.
--Kookaburra II’s backstay broke loose at the start, although the crew repaired it under way and held off hapless South Australia, which lost its headsail on the last leg and finished 14:59--about 2 miles--behind in the 24.5-mile race.
--Britain’s White Crusader broke its boom while abreast of French Kiss at the first leeward mark, then lost its headsail overboard and finally dropped out when it saw its cause was hopeless.
--Azzurra, comfortably leading Italy’s stronger entry, Italia, two-thirds into the race, broke its mainsail headboard and finished 14:41 behind with only its genoa headsail.
--Challenge France, now the fleet fiasco with Courageous IV in dry storage, lost two headsails in an 11:29 loss to San Francisco’s USA.
--Newport Beach’s Eagle, close behind Canada II, ripped its headsail on its first tack, later lost a spinnaker that fell into the water and finally broke its spinnaker pole while crewman Mike Pentecost was up the mast repairing another problem with the main sail. All of that led to a 6:16 defeat. On the way in, Eagle’s chase boat ran out of gas.
In the day’s only race in which neither boat broke and everybody stayed aboard, the Kiwis continued to sail their merry way, bouncing carefree over the waves, defeating Buddy Melges’ Heart of America by 3:27--no disgrace for the latter.
Conner built his three Stars & Stripes boats to withstand such conditions, testing and tuning for nearly a year in the rough waters off Hawaii. But he still chose not to punish S&S; ’87 any more than was necessary Wednesday.
“When we noticed that America II had (a problem) and took its spinnaker down, we took our spinnaker down and played it safe,” Conner said.
The loss, in the wake of Tuesday’s upset by Melges, left America II barely clinging to the critical fourth place (behind New Zealand, Stars & Stripes and French Kiss) with 56 points, one up on White Crusader and USA.
Mainsheet trimmer Tom McLaughlin said: “We felt good about the way the boat was going, but obviously we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Asked if the syndicate had been tinkering too much with its interchangeable keels and spars and if the boat was getting slower instead of faster, McLaughlin replied: “It’s possible. We’re concerned.”
