Stars & Stripes Taken Lightly Before Championships

Dennis Conner, about to travel to Sardinia, Italy, to compete in the 12-meter world championships, had been brought back to earth.

“I saw the betting odds the other day (posted by) some group in London,” said Conner, who reached a crest of acclaim with his America’s Cup victory at Fremantle, Australia, in February. “We were number four on the chart.”

Is this any way to treat sailing’s superstar?

“They have (New Zealand’s) KZ-7 favored, because it’s a good all-round boat,” Conner said.

No quarrel with that.

“No. 2 is Kookaburra II, then Australia III, with us and Harold (Cudmore, skipper of Britain’s White Crusader) tied for fourth.”

Conner was reminded that an international panel of so-called experts ranked the America’s Cup field just about the same way last fall, after the first few weeks of trials, before Stars & Stripes ambushed the lot.

“Right, but this is based on light winds,” he said. “We lost seven races, five of which were sailed in the same conditions that we’re going to sail in Sardinia.”

But, Conner also was reminded, his four November losses occurred because the boat was set up for strong winds that didn’t arrive, and he did beat Kookaburra III in the first race of the finals when the wind seldom exceeded 10 knots.

“With the help of a 60-degree wind shift,” Conner countered.

Conner is not trying to be an underdog. It’s just that his comfort zone is smaller than it was in the last days of the America’s Cup.

This will be a different event in two ways. The wind probably will be much lighter, and the trial rounds starting June 25 will be fleet racing among eight boats. There will be no match racing until the field is cut to four. Meanwhile, sailing against seven boats instead of one will require different strategy.

“We expect smooth water and light wind, less than 10 knots about 70% of the time and 18 knots with a moderate chop 30% of the time,” Conner said.

“We took a little (lead ballast) out (of Stars & Stripes ‘87) trying to lower our (wind) range. As you know, we’re suspect in light winds. In heavy winds, we’ll be fine. We expect to move to the front with KZ.

“In the light air we’ll scrap it out. We’ll have to sail well to make the final four, and then in match racing maybe we’ll have a better chance. The big challenge will be to try to make the cut.”

Conner will have 8 of the 10 crew members who were with him on S&S; ‘87: bowman Scott Vogler, mastman John Barnitt, pitman Jay Brown, grinder Henry Childers, tailer Bill Trenkle, mainsheet trimmer Jon Wright, navigator Peter Isler and tactician Tom Whidden.

Two crew members from Conner’s backup boat, S&S; ‘85, will man the other spots: grinder John Grant and tailer John Sangmeister.

Since he left Fremantle, Conner estimates he is away from home about 25% more than usual, making speaking appearances and keeping other commitments. He has had little part in the controversy involving the makeup of the Defense Committee that will select the site for 1991.

“I haven’t even been asked what should go into the event by the San Diego (America’s Cup) Task Force,” he said.

“They must feel they have it pretty well under control and don’t need any input. I guess they have a lot of experts. They don’t feel they need any help.”

Conner, of course, is acknowledged as the architect of the best Cup campaign ever. But, of course, his own San Diego Yacht Club doesn’t trust him to sail it in San Diego, if he has the choice. The club suspects that Conner might prefer Hawaii.

All Conner will say to that is, “Once we know the site, we can get started.”

Sailing Notes

12-METER WORLDS--Besides Stars & Stripes ‘87, the entries for the world championships are: New Zealand’s KZ-7, to be sailed by Chris Dickson’s backup helmsman, David Barnes, with America’s Rod Davis as tactician; Australia’s Kookaburra II, Peter Gilmour steering and Iain Murray, tactician; Australia’s Steak’n Kidney, Peter Thompson and Brad Butterworth; Britain’s White Crusader, Phil Crebbin; Sweden’s Entertainer 12 (formerly South Australia), Pelle Pettersson; Italy’s Sfida Italiana (formerly Italia), with Mauro Pelaschier piloting the merged Italia-Azzurra America’s Cup entry, and Bengal (formerly Australia III), which Colin Beashel will steer for a mixed Australian-Japanese crew. Kookaburra III and Australia IV were replaced by their backup boats, which are better in light air. Bengal will be Japan’s first outing on the 12-meter scene since Masakazu Kobayashi bought Alan Bond’s operation after the Cup defense trials. The event runs through July 11.

SPEED SAILING--The second U.S. Speedsailing Grand Prix in two weeks is scheduled at Long Beach Saturday. Unlike last week’s event, which was sailed on the open ocean, this one will be run around a rectangular course inside the breakwater starting at 11 a.m., with the featured race at 2. The event has about 25 entries ranging from 21 to 84 feet. The latter is Fred Preiss’ monohull Christine, which placed second by 2 1/2 minutes last week behind Kelly Pike’s 25-foot catamaran Carbon Copy from Laguna Hills. Christine weighs 70,000 pounds and Carbon Copy only 500. Constructed of carbon fiber, it is also entered this week. “This validates the concept of speed sailing,” said Scott Edlund, who promoted last week’s event. “Those boats performed equally well.” However, with 20-knot winds snapping spars and daggerboards and shredding sails, only five other boats from a fleet of 13 finished--all multihulls. Most will return for Georgs Kolesnikovs’ event. Three hot multihulls entered that didn’t sail last week: Rudy Choy’s 62 1/2-foot Longpre Automotive from Hawaii (AKA Aikane X-5 when it won the Newport-to-Ensenada race in May); Steve Shidler’s 48-foot Wind Warrior, which won the speed sailing event at Long Beach last year, and Jim Godbey’s Formula 40 trimaran, that was still being assembled Thursday after arriving in a container from Boston.

ADMIRAL’S CUP--Olympic silver medalists will be sailing two of the three U.S. entries in the Admiral’s Cup biennial International Offshore Rule competition July 30-Aug. 8 at Southampton, England. John Bertrand, the Finn class runner-up in ‘84, will steer Sidewinder, a Reichel/Pugh 45 from Fremont, Calif. Sidewinder finished a close second to Insatiable, a Nelson/Marek 45 from Lisle, Ill., in the eight-race trials at Newport, R.I., 90 points to 88. The third qualifier was Blue Yankee, a Judel/Vrolijk 44 from Stamford, Conn., skippered by Steve Benjamin, the 470 class runner-up in ’84. Insatiable is co-skippered by Bruce Nelson and Gary Wiseman. Nelson was one of the designers of America’s Cup winner Stars & Stripes ’87.

AMERICA’S CUP--Seven San Diego-based computer companies held a news conference Thursday at UC San Diego’s Supercomputer Center to boost the city’s selection as site of the next defense. They pledged their support in designing a new generation of light-air 12-meters. The site issue should move nearer resolution today when arbitrator Charles W. Froehlic Jr. announces his decision in the dispute between the Sail America syndicate and the San Diego Yacht Club.

CATAMARANS--A Soviet entry of skipper Yuri Konovalov and crew Sergey Kuzovov has entered the second Pacific 1,000 (mile) marathon July 21-Aug. 1. Konovalov and Kuzovov, who placed fourth in the Worrell 1,000 on the East Coast last month, are their country’s designated Olympic Tornado-class entry at Pusan, South Korea, in 1988. The Pacific 1,000 is run from San Diego to Santa Barbara, with overnight stops at beaches along the way.