Intrigue Around Cup Builds : Sailing: Divers reportedly chased away from compound of Dennis Conner.

America’s Cup intrigue heightened Thursday when two mysterious scuba divers were chased away from Dennis Conner’s compound, a day after his boat was rammed by a French chase boat off Point Loma.

The divers, who never surfaced, were spotted at 10:15 a.m., apparently timing their visit to the usual schedule when Stars & Stripes is dropped into the water by a crane.

However, syndicate spokeswoman Barbara Schwartz said the skirt hiding the secret keel had not yet been removed, and the intruders left behind what she described as “a sophisticated electronic marine measuring device.”

One diver was first seen swimming under the boat near the keel skirt by crewman Greg Prussia on the foredeck. Prussia probed the water with a long pole, then dived in, followed by Mark Keenan.

Moments later others saw the divers swimming into the adjacent Spanish compound, then disappear.

Harbor police were summoned but were unable to locate the intruders.

“It’s illegal to dive in the bay,” Schwartz said--and the Cup competitors particularly don’t like seeing divers around their compounds.

There had been unconfirmed reports of other diver sightings over the last several months, and the New Zealand syndicate, across the bay from Conner’s on Coronado, apprehended an unidentified intruder on foot a few weeks ago.

This time the intruders were filmed by Channel 39 and partially by an ESPN crew shooting for Monday’s one-hour show. Channel 39 showed its tape Thursday night.

Conner’s boat manager, Bill Trenkle, said he thought he knew who sent the divers but declined to identify the suspect.

“We’re on the trail,” Trenkle said. “We’re gonna expose his butt. These guys were very professional, and they had the right equipment. It wasn’t a prank.”

Trenkle also was on the boat Wednesday when a 28-foot power chase boat operated by the French syndicate ran into the 75-foot Stars & Stripes as several challengers were running a practice race.

A photo in a San Diego newspaper purported to show Stars & Stripes being pushed off the course by the French boat, which was carrying several photographers.

Not so, said Trenkle. Not only was Stars & Stripes not on the race course, “We were outside the spectator fleet,” Trenkle said. “The guys were coming in trying to get pictures.”

The boat was along Conner’s left side, and when Conner turned 90 degrees to starboard tack the boat rammed into Stars & Stripes’ port side, leaving a foot-long gouge at the edge of the deck.

“Dennis tacked and (the boat driver) wasn’t expecting it,” Schwartz said. “He had too much momentum to get out of the way. It was very much an accident.”

Jerry La Dow, executive director of Team Dennis Conner, said French skipper Marc Pajot apologized by fax Thursday morning, explaining that the driver of the chase boat was new.

A day earlier, Conner showed up for the first challengers’ race wearing a blond wig, flying a Swedish flag and with his identifying marks masked over to impersonate the Swedish boat, which is in town but not ready to sail.

Stan Reid, chairman of the Challenger of Record Committee, sent a note to new San Diego Yacht Club Commodore Fred Delaney protesting Conner’s interference.

“Stan thinks it was bad manners,” said CORC executive director Ernie Taylor, “and using the Swedish flag without authority is of some concern.”

Conner was leading the informal race by 1 1/2 minutes when he dropped out.