Conner Up to His Old Tricks

Dennis Conner was at it again Saturday.

The hometown America’s Cup defender, who drew criticism last month when he donned a blond wig to impersonate the Swedish team and jumped into an informal fleet race of challengers’ boats, briefly joined a similar event Saturday. But this time the challengers were ready.

As the fleet of eight boats started the first downwind leg, Conner’s Stars & Stripes lurked a few hundred yards down the course, then set a full, white spinnaker and fell into the flow, although well to leeward to avoid interfering with their wind.

Conner’s purpose in the incidents has been to measure his boat’s performance against the others.

After a while several of the challengers’ chase boats were seen circling Stars & Stripes, and Conner broke away and didn’t return.

“I wasn’t impressed with Dennis’ act,” said Rod Davis, the American-born skipper of New Zealand’s new boat, which won the race that was shortened because of light winds. “But I guess the chase boats did a pretty good job on him. They just harassed him until he finally had to leave.

“It’s a bit over the top. The America 3 guys aren’t any better. They had a chase boat within a half-boat length of the race boats. It was really a pain.”