AMERICA’S CUP ’92 : Conner Delivers Amid Fanfare

When Dennis Conner finally got his boat Sunday, faith and patriotism were rampant.

With the slick new boat Stars & Stripes suspended before a large U.S. flag, there were fireworks, the U.S. Marine Corps band, champagne, a thousand or so fans to see him off and old friend Malin Burnham to tell him all he had to do was defend the America’s Cup “for San Diego and the United States of America.”

But as Conner’s youngest daughter Shanna, 19, smashed a magnum on the bow of the first U.S.-built boat of the new International America’s Cup Class, he was all too aware that three foreign teams are horizons ahead. New Zealand, Italy’s Il Moro and the Nippon Challenge have had boats for a year and have been tuning and training in the bay with two boats each for weeks.

As if to underscore its edge, New Zealand dropped a third boat in the water Friday, and Il Moro flew its third boat into Lindbergh Field aboard a Soviet transport plane Saturday.

“The challengers have to be looked upon as favorites at this point,” Conner said. “(But) while it might appear the Americans are a long way behind in construction, we aren’t a long way behind on the learning curve.”

Conner’s security blanket is his Cup experience and a familiar crew of sailors including Bill Trenkle, John Barnitt, Jim Kavle, Scott Vogel and faithful tactician companion, Tom Whidden, the president of North Sails.

Because the new boats require five more crew (16) than the old 12-meters, new hands are coming aboard. The latest is John Bertrand of Newport Beach, who was to skipper the Beach Boys USA defense syndicate, which dropped out earlier.

Bertrand is an 1984 Olympic Finn silver medalist who plunged into this level of big boat racing as the late Tom Blackaller’s tactician at Fremantle in 1986-87.

These were just a few of the people who stayed up most of Saturday night at Conner’s compound to put the boat together for Sunday’s ceremony at the ferryboat museum Berkeley on the San Diego Embarcadero. The mast was dropped into place at midnight; the boom arrived at 6 a.m.

A few hours later, R.E. Staite Inc.’s “Big Red” floating crane snatched up the midnight-blue beauty and carried it suspended up the bay to the Berkeley, propelled by the little tug Sea Horse belching clouds of black smoke, and the christening went off with few hitches.

Can these guys perform under pressure? It was enough to reinforce the faith that, well, maybe Conner can catch up.

His most serious shortcoming isn’t time but the lack of a second boat as a benchmark for tuning. A second boat is simply a matter of money. They cost about $2.5 million.

While representatives of Cadillac, one of Conner’s three major sponsors, declined to commit to funding beyond their current $3 million involvement, it was clear they wouldn’t allow Conner’s campaign to die. Their marketing plans depend on it.

Not only will Conner and the boat be prominent in advertising, but Cadillac will market a limited edition “America’s Cup” model El Dorado next January, when the trials start.

Conner has said his boat may not be ready for the IACC world championships next month, but Cadillac executive Alex Morton said, “If we lose some advertising exposure, we’ll make it up later. We’re in this for the long run.”

Conner’s design team is standing by.

“We’re prepared to design and build as many boats as Dennis will let us,” Bruce Nelson said.

The design of a second boat must wait until the designers see how the first one performs, which will take two or three months. Add another six months for construction and it’s February or March 1992, well into the Cup trials.

But Nelson sees that as no problem because a defender, unlike a challenger, can switch boats right up to the title match in May.

For now, Conner is delighted to have one boat.

SDYC Commodore Sandy Purdon wished the boat “Godspeed . . . and if Godspeed isn’t enough, we wish her good old-fashioned boat speed.”