Conner Hopes S.D. Site Panel Will Put Cup’s Interest First

While the committee that will select the site of the next America’s Cup defense is stacked solidly with San Diegans, Dennis Conner hopes they’ll keep open minds.

“We’re all San Diegans, certainly, but I would hope that decision would be made on what’s best for the Cup and a successful defense, ahead of the natural sentiments of, ‘Well, it’s our hometown, let’s take care of ourselves,’ ” Conner said. “I’m hopeful they’ll put what’s in the best interests of the Cup ahead of all our sentiments.”

Conner is a trustee of the Sail America Foundation, which financed his victory at Fremantle, Australia, but the San Diego Yacht Club officially was the challenger. Technically, the America’s Cup is a competition among yacht clubs, not countries or individual sailors.

Sail America and the SDYC agreed in a 1984 contract that if Stars & Stripes regained the Cup, the club’s board of directors would form a 7- to 11-member defense committee from a list of nominees submitted by Sail America.

Sail America recently submitted a list of 17 nominees--9 primary and 8 alternates.

The club had the right to accept or veto individual nominees, but the contract stipulated that most of the committee would be members of the SDYC.

The club’s board chose six of its own club members, with the seventh from the Coronado Yacht Club. Most of them were from Sail America’s list of alternates. Most of the primary nominees were rejected.

A committee of local amateur sailors is not what Conner or Sail America President Malin Burnham had in mind. Apparently, they have no objections to the San Diego seven, since they did nominate them, but their list also included international sailing figures such as Buddy Melges, Gary Jobson and others with the expertise to produce a major international sporting event.

The defense committee chairman is Eugene Trepte, 61, a former club commodore who owns a construction company. The vice chairman is Chris Calkins, 41, who helped negotiate the contract with Sail America.

A source said there was an indication late this week that the club might expand the committee to give it a more cosmopolitan mix and the expertise Sail America had sought.

Conner, who was in Los Angeles this week to promote his new book, “Comeback,” said the situation is laced with politics. “And I don’t want to get on politics,” he said.

“I’m in a situation where, to make some official comment, I would really have to study it,” he said. “I’m not as informed as I should be on all the various aspects. The way the contract is, the San Diego Yacht Club basically can have any committee they want, because they could just keep vetoing our committee.”

Burnham has been publicly noncommittal.

“I think Malin’s position, which I concur with, is that it should be wherever’s best for a successful defense, and there are a lot of things that go into (that),” Conner said.

“It’s a tough question and that’s why they’ll hopefully have a blue-ribbon committee that will spend a fair amount of time studying it.”

Although Conner spoke cautiously, his Stars & Stripes tactician, Tom Whidden, whom he calls his best friend, was quoted in Sports Illustrated this week as saying: “I feel like we’ve been duped.”

Contacted in Connecticut Thursday, Whidden added: “I think San Diego would do a terrific job and it would be fine to have it there. But I would hate to have it appear to be too much of a rigged deal.”

The two foremost options seem to be San Diego and Hawaii. Winds generally are not as strong at San Diego, and therefore the sailing would not be as wild as at Fremantle or Hawaii.

Conner is believed to favor Hawaii, where his team trained and tested boats for the last campaign, but he hasn’t said that publicly.

“(But) the locals (San Diegans) definitely would like to see it there,” Conner said. “I can’t blame ‘em.”

Selecting a site has never been an issue in the 136 years of the America’s Cup. Since bringing the Cup home from England in 1851, the New York Yacht Club controlled the event and chose to sail it off New York from 1870 through 1920 before moving it to Newport, R.I., in 1930. When Australia II won it in 1983 for the Royal Perth Yacht Club, it moved to Fremantle.

Selecting a site is only one of the new defense committee’s responsibilities, which also include organizing and supervising all phases of the competition. Its functions were not specifically spelled out in the agreement, but the Cup suddenly has become an event of great public interest, requiring broader expertise.

Conner and Burnham apparently nominated people they considered skilled and knowledgeable in matters such as television negotiations, money raising and even determining if the competitors should sail 12-meter boats, as they have since 1958.

Another decision--also never a consideration until now--will be when to stage the defense. Most insiders seem to agree on 1991 but not on the time of year.

Dr. Fred Frye, commodore of the SDYC, had indicated earlier that he would favor holding the event in late winter into early spring.

“The most wind’s in March (at San Diego),” Conner said. “That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily best. Some of the best sailing is in light air . . . the finesse, the tactics. That’s what the committee has to look into.”

Conner said a summer event would be more practical at either site.

“You wouldn’t want it in Hawaii during the winter because the trade winds are not predictable,” he said. “You get Kona winds during the winter. Summer makes the most sense because it’s a spectator sport. People will come to see this.

“All my common sense says summer. The days are longer. You don’t want to be racing around out there in the dark.”

Wherever and whenever the next defense is staged, Conner said, “It can’t be the same (as at Fremantle), but that doesn’t mean it can’t be as good or better. It will just be different. We’re just scratching the surface. There’s tremendous interest worldwide.”