America’s Cup Trials : Americans in Trouble: Conner May Be Only One in the Semifinals

The 20-knot winds roaring up Gage Roads this week have nearly blown the Americans out of the water.

Only Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes was among the top four after the first four days of the third and final round of the America’s Cup challenger trials that will determine the four survivors for the semifinals after Christmas.

Conner was in third place, trailing New Zealand’s uncatchable Kiwis and French Kiss. Britain’s White Crusader was fourth.

But USA’s Tom Blackaller warned: “This thing’s not over yet. We’ll get the foreigners. If we don’t, Buddy (Melges) will.”

American foreign relations being what they are these days, all the country needs is a sailor insulting the world. So let it be clear that the San Francisco skipper was performing for the press, perhaps trying to take the sting out of a 36-second loss to Melges’ Heart of America Friday. A win would have put USA in a tie for fourth.

America II’s seven-second loss to French Kiss took it out of the top four for the first time in the trials, a situation too difficult for skipper John Kolius to contemplate.

“I haven’t really looked at it,” Kolius said. “I know we’ve dug us a pretty deep hole, and they started filling in the dirt over the top of us today.”

No foreign entry matched the New York Yacht Club’s preparations for this competition. The syndicate built three boats and spent two full seasons testing them in the fierce conditions peculiar to the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

But after early success--11-1 in the first round, 9-2 in the second--the graduating point system of the round-robins has allowed others to catch up.

The system, weighted to reward continued improvement, awarded 1 point for each first-round win, 5 in the second and 12 in the third. So it’s easy to see how French Kiss, eighth after the first round, is now solidly in second place although four others have better records overall.

Marc Pajot has sailed his white 12-meter with the bright red spinnaker to four straight wins in this round, piling up 93 total points, 11 more than Conner, whom he will meet next week.

America II, meanwhile, has gone 1-3, including losses to Melges and Conner.

Friday’s loss was partly bad luck, of which there has been an epidemic this week. The boats were never more than 22 seconds apart--five or six boat lengths--during the 24.5-mile race.

America II tore a jib on the first beat upwind to fall behind, then recovered downwind to take the lead, despite a broken end fitting on its spinnaker pole that forced bowman Robbie Young to swing out over the fitful sea to attach and detach the chute every time.

But the damaged pole ultimately did them in. Before jibing at the reach mark, Kolius had to steer wide of the buoy to keep the boat downwind so Young could perform his acrobatics. That allowed Pajot to slip inside and maintain a close margin to the finish.

America II had a spare, disassembled spinnaker pole below decks but also had to replace a broken mainsheet in the meantime.

“We didn’t have an opportunity to get (the spare spinnaker pole) on deck because we were busy with the other problems,” Kolius said. “We had a lot of things go wrong and still almost won the race. We’re still trudging along.”

Pajot said: “It was good fun for me.”

Melges’ victory also was sweet for the mellow, 56-year-old Midwesterner. A training series with Blackaller at San Francisco last summer ended bitterly with both sides claiming victory.

“We’re pretty thrilled with this one,” Melges said.

His Heart of America seems to be significantly faster in the third round since Melges added “tiplets” to his keel wings, but the improvements probably were made too late to get him into the semifinals.

He passed Blackaller on the second windward leg when a USA crewman had to go up the mast to close the luff zipper on the mainsail.

Kolius was asked about his chances now.

“A lot depends on what the other boats do,” he said.

Blackaller turned to Kolius and said: “You’ve gotta race us again.”

Melges, at the other end of the dais, said: “He’s easy, John.”

Blackaller to Melges: “Hey, you beat us in one crummy race.”

Melges: “That’s the guy that got me in 12-meter racing. He said, ‘Don’t ever sail on a boat that’s shorter than your age?’ ”

It was good old American give and take, but the last laugh may be all they have left.

America’s Cup Notes

Both the challenger and defender fleets have a day off today and will resume racing Sunday. . . . Much-beaten Eagle lost to once-beaten New Zealand by six minutes even Friday. That was no surprise, but the box score was strange. The Newport Beach boat lost only 23 seconds total to the Kiwi hotshots on the off-wind legs and the other 5:37 sailing upwind. Maybe Eagle should challenge New Zealand in the next Ensenada race. Eagle, by the way, has lost 6 in a row and 9 of its last 10. Its last victory was over Azzurra (3-24). . . . Dennis Conner, on Stars & Stripes, had no trouble with last-place Challenge France, which jumped the gun and had to restart 25 seconds late, losing by 10:48. . . . Canada II was two boat lengths in front of Italia at the last leeward mark when Italia’s bowman, Stefano Maida, followed the spinnaker pole into the water and had to be fished out. He injured his leg slightly, so Italia dropped out. . . . White Crusader crushed Azzurra by 3:57 to climb into fourth place. . . . Among the defenders, Australia IV trounced fourth-place South Australia by 7:31 and South Australia is considering dropping out. That would give last-place Steak ‘n Kidney a free pass into the semifinals, where it could be a serious factor. With wider keel wings, the Sydney boat is the most improved 12-meter in Fremantle. It would have beaten Australia IV Wednesday if its headsail hadn’t blown within sight of the finish line, and it had closed to within seven seconds of first-place Kookaburra III Friday when it ripped out another jib and lost by 1:52.