AMERICA’S CUP DAILY REPORT : DEFENDER TRIALS : After Star & Stripes Wins the Start, Rest of First Race Is All Defiant
Buddy Melges sailed America 3’s Defiant to a decisive victory over Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes on Tuesday in the first race of the lengthy defender trials.
Defiant led at every mark on the eight-leg, 22.6 mile-course. Conner twice closed the gap, but Defiant pulled away at the end of the final upwind leg en route to a winning margin of 1 minute 34 seconds. The elapsed times was 3 hours 6 minutes 13 seconds.
Conner trailed by 41 seconds heading into the last upwind leg. Defiant appeared to hit a dead spot early in the leg, allowing Stars & Stripes to catch up.
About halfway up the leg, Melges had pushed Conner to the left side of the course, where Conner actually closed the gap. He was unable to take full advantage, and Melges tacked away and laid a perfect line for the mark, rounding it with a lead of 1:10.
Defiant is the newer of America 3’s two sloops. It was launched last July, 3 1/2 months after Stars & Stripes. Melges, a two-time Olympic medalist from Zenda, Wis., skippered Heart of America in the 1986-87 challenger trials at Perth, Australia. Conner, the defending America’s Cup skipper, is from San Diego.
The trials continue today with Stars & Stripes against Jayhawk, which will be skippered by America 3President Bill Koch.
Because America 3has entered two yachts and Conner only one, the boats have been slotted for scoring purposes. Defiant, in slot B for the first round-robin, scored one point.
Between series, a new yacht may be substituted into a slot, without a loss of points. Koch expects delivery of a third yacht by the second round and a fourth by the fourth round.
The four round-robins will lead to a best-of-13 defender finals beginning April 17; the 28th defense of the America’s Cup will begin May 9. The challengers will begin their trials on Jan. 25.
Stars & Stripes led by six seconds at the start, which was delayed by about 15 minutes until the wind set in. Melges fought off two tacking duels to take a 35-second lead rounding the first mark.
Trailing by 39 seconds rounding the fourth mark, Conner flew a larger headsail and made up 17 seconds on the beam reach, and trailed by only 22 seconds at the fifth mark. Melges increased his advantage to 41 seconds as Conner had a slow rounding of the sixth mark.