Super Spy Tells All in New Book

During the America’s Cup, Dennis Conner became the most popular American in Australia since Douglas MacArthur. He was the Aussies’ kind of guy, meaning that hardly a night went by that he wasn’t spotted at one of the Fremantle pubs, bending elbows with the natives.

Most people thought he was just thirsty, when, in fact, Conner was (shhh) spying for Stars & Stripes.

Conner wrote in his new book, “Comeback / My Race For the America’s Cup” (a condensation of which appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine last Sunday), that “the lack of espionage did us in in 1983.”

The book is the first time Conner has spoken out on his own initiative about his defeat in ’83. The slam-dunk he pulled on Kookaburra III in the ’87 finals was nothing compared to the way he slams Liberty designer Johan Valentijn, archrival Tom Blackaller’s “jealousy,” ’83 winner John Bertrand (“he quit while he was ahead”) and the New York Yacht Club, which “became my enemy.”

Conner’s sailing philosophy was expressed in the title of his previous book, “No Excuse to Lose.” In his new book, he made an exception.

Asked about that, he said, “There’s no question that our design team didn’t come up with as good a boat as the Australians (in 1983), but it wasn’t just Johan’s fault. No one else did, either. We didn’t understand that the game had changed, that you had to be into a high-tech design mode. I was at fault for not doing a better job of industrial espionage.”

Until it was too late, they didn’t know enough about Australia II’s winged keel. He wasn’t going to let that happen at Fremantle, so after sailing hours he would head down the waterfront to Lombardos, a popular upscale saloon on Fishing Boat Harbor.

“I enjoyed the people,” he said this week. “I had a very good working relationship with the people at Steak’n Kidney. Peter Cole, their designer, is one of the great minds of 12-meter racing.

“It wasn’t just a one-way deal. I shared my thoughts with them, as well. They told me how much they improved when they made their wings full width. At that time, we were still talking about what we should do with ours. They told me that it reduced their weather helm. It reinforced the information we were getting from our design team.

“Also, we sailed against them quite a bit, and they told us how fast we were compared to the Kookaburras. You know how sailors talk. They like to talk shop.”

Conner wrote in the book: “If loose lips sink ships, those guys were going down fast.”

In the book, surprisingly, Conner said he still was interested in hiring Valentijn for ’87 “because he’s creative.” But Conner wanted Valentijn to be part of his design team and Valentijn wanted to run the operation.

Conner also wrote that in all the years of his “supposed feud” with USA skipper Blackaller, “never once have I come back at him.”

“I haven’t been in the business of Blackaller baiting,” Conner said this week. “I basically have grinned and borne the abuse.”

They never allowed their feud to surface flagrantly in the joint press conferences at Fremantle, but the undercurrents, Conner conceded, weren’t bad for the event.

“It all adds to our sport. We didn’t have many personalities that people knew about. It gave them a personal feeling about who were the good guys and bad guys.”

For a long time, Conner had his own feelings about that. The bad guys were the press because “I didn’t feel I was getting a fair shake,” he wrote, “and (at Fremantle) I didn’t change my essential attitude about them.”

But this time, he conceded this week, “I got along a lot better with the press than ever before. In general, the press was good to me. They were fair.

“I’m growing up, and I had more confidence with the people I did speak with--the hard core. I trusted them. I knew they weren’t just out to write a bad story about me.

“From a skipper’s standpoint, it’s difficult to educate every single media person and be patient when you’re trying to win the event. But that is part of the event and you have to cope with it.”

The book leaves out his angry exchange with a New Zealand reporter at one of the daily press conferences after Conner implied that in building a fiberglass boat, the New Zealanders were trying to cheat. The reporter was trying to pin Conner down, and Conner cut him off.

But Conner did write: “There are still times I can’t keep my foot out of my mouth.”

Not this time. With Australian writer Bruce Stannard recording Conner’s thoughts, the book is not only a lively account of the Cup campaign but also a blueprint for competing in it in the high-tech era.

What also comes through is Conner’s intense loyalty to his team and his suspicion for outsiders, although with his success he seems less threatened by the latter than he once did.

Sailing Notes

Dennis Conner, who returned from a two-week return to Western Australia this week, has launched the Sail Australia Foundation to fund a water sports program for Australian youth. Kookaburra syndicate chief Kevin Parry gave him $50,000 to help get it started. “The Australian people were so nice that I started to think, ‘What can I do for them?’ ” Conner said. . . . Conner’s navigator, Peter Isler, has left for Cannes, France, to compete in the Grundig World Cup match racing series, which will pay $150,000 in prize money. . . . Isler is also scheduled to speak at a fund-raising dinner for Team California on May 15 at the Meridien Hotel near John Wayne Airport. Team California will sail in the Tour de France a La Voile starting July 10 at Dunkerque.