Conner Has Good First Day

It would take more than a blown-out spinnaker, two third-place finishes and a run-in with the Coast Guard to ruin Dennis Conner’s day.

Conner’s three-week-old boat came out second only to Japan’s big-yen Nippon Challenge on Wednesday in the first formal test of the new International America’s Cup Class.

With nine boats from six countries competing, the final race of the Pre-Worlds Regatta is scheduled to be sailed today, followed by the first IACC World Championships Friday through May 11 as a prelude to next year’s Cup defense.

Competitors on Wednesday sailed 10-mile, two-lap races around a windward-leeward course. Today they’ll sail the new Cup course featuring a zig-zag downwind leg.

Neither Conner nor Nippon, skippered by New Zealand’s Chris Dickson, won a race, but their crews showed consistency with two good efforts in different wind conditions.

In unofficial scoring after two of the three tuneup races, Nippon has four points, Stars & Stripes six, followed closely by Italy’s newest Il Moro di Venezia with seven.

France’s new boat Ville de Paris had sailed only five times before Wednesday, but Marc Pajot steered it to a surprise victory in the first race in winds of 6-7 knots, beating Nippon by 33 seconds. Those two sailed far to the right on the first upwind leg and took advantage of a 45-degree wind shift to run away from the others.

But in the second race, with winds reaching 17 knots, Pajot started poorly and dropped out early when a mainsheet block broke.

Italy’s new Il Moro, the third boat built by Montedison industrialist Raul Gardini for American skipper Paul Cayard, was sixth in the first race but won the second by 7.7 seconds over Nippon.

There were some mishaps. Spain, sailing a boat borrowed from New Zealand, snapped its boom before the second race, at about the time New Zealand broke its boom vang and America-3 owner-skipper Bill Koch discovered a disconcerting crack in the boom on his newer boat.

The crippled Kiwi boat sailed the second race to fifth place but the other two withdrew. All expected to return today.

Conner’s primary spinnaker, displaying the American flag and logos of his three major sponsors, tore apart at the top near the end of the first race but was not a factor in the outcome.

However, the only other spinnaker he had on board was noticeably smaller than those of his rivals and cost him speed downwind in the second race.

“Anyway, we’re happy with our first day racing,” said Tom Whidden, Conner’s tactician. “We’re encouraged because we were racing (well with) the boats that have been sailing for a year, and the crews that are as new as us weren’t doing as well.

“We’re about where we’d want to be at this point. If you just looked at our speed, I think we’re right up there with the leaders. I was encouraged that we were competitive in the breeze and in the light air, too.”

Conner was sailing back into San Diego Bay with his mainsail only when two Coast Guard dinghies and a cutter pulled alongside and ordered him by bullhorn to drop his sail.

“You’re supposed to be under tow in the channel,” he was told (IACC boats don’t have engines).

Stars & Stripes crewman Mick Harvey said they tried to explain that “where they wanted us to take our sail down it wasn’t safe.”

Once in the lee of Point Loma, Conner dropped his sail and hooked up to his tender Betsy for the tow back to his compound.

New Zealand’s day was disappointing. Davis Barnes, one of three qualified helmsmen on board, steered to a pair of fifth places.

Like everyone except France and Nippon, the Kiwis were caught on the wrong side of the course for the big wind shift in the first race. Then, in the scramble to jury rig their vang for the second race, they got into poor position for the start and were pushed over the line early and had to re-start 1 minute 10 seconds late.

Pajot said the French victory “was particularly reassuring, considering that the boat has been out only five times.”

The Italians were working on a dismal day when their two boats ran sixth and ninth in the first race. But Cayard sailed their new boat ITA-15 through a flawless second race with Dickson dogging his transom all the way, as John Koius brought their old boat, ITA-1, home in fourth place.

“We are especially happy (to be) able to get boat three ready in such a short time following our dismasting on boat two,” Cayard said.