AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Il Moro di Venezia Undergoes Modifications for 2nd Round

Il Moro di Venezia’s boat will have a different look when the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials resume with the second round Saturday.

The boat, expected to sail Wednesday, has been in the shed on Shelter Island for what team spokesman Stefano Roberti called “modifications and adjustments.”

Following the lead of New Zealand, the stern has been spread open like a melon “just to save a few kilos (of weight) in cutting away material,” Roberti said, and the mast has been moved forward a foot “to have better balance on the helm and to add more sail area in the main.”

The Italians did not add a bowsprit or a forward rudder--but they spotted Stars & Stripes’ new forward rudder right away when the defender trials resumed last Saturday.

“We noticed it almost immediately,” Roberti said. “It’s very visible.”

On deck, keen observers also would have noticed that since the first round Stars & Stripes had added a set of slightly smaller steering wheels attached to their old dual helms, indicating a change in the steering system.

The difference with Il Moro’s modifications is that the Italians can test them on their older boats before applying them to No. 5.

Dennis Conner, with only one boat, must do his testing while racing and sometimes will pay the price if changes don’t work out, as he has in this second round of defender trials.

“We are now testing some more radical ideas regarding appendages (keels, rudders, etc.) on three and four,” Roberti said. “We’re more conservative in what we do with number five because we’re pleased with the boat.”

Il Moro also has been impressed with the newest boat of its Fisherman’s Harbor neighbor, America 3.

“If America 3 is so fast compared to Stars & Stripes, they definitely have a fast boat,” Roberti said, “maybe as fast as ours.”

It’s no secret that something was seriously wrong with Stars & Stripes in the losses to America 3 by 6:23 Saturday and Defiant by 4:16 Sunday.

“Dennis Conner and (tactician) Tom Whidden don’t normally miss a layline,” Stars & Stripes spokesperson Barbara Schwartz said Monday.

That happened once each day. Not only that, but when a sailboat lets its mainsail flap upwind as Stars & Stripes did it usually means the boat is out of balance--i.e., the rudder (rudders?) and the sails are trying to steer it in different directions.

The only way to ease the problem is to spill wind from the main, so the helmsman doesn’t have to hold the rudder off line like a brake to keep the boat going straight.

Not much can be changed before today’s rematch against the new America 3, but on Monday’s day off Stars & Stripes stayed at home while Conner and his designers discussed options with the new steering system.

They can scrap it after this round, give it more time to work out, go back to the old system or try something else.

Tom Ehman, executive VP of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, and The Times reporter thought the challengers’ international jury was too lenient in letting Nippon off the hook for flying its gennaker without a spinnaker pole in a first-round race against Il Moro.

While conceding that Nippon probably broke a rule, the jury said it didn’t affect the outcome of the race. Ehman warned of a dangerous precedent.

Graeme Owens of England, chairman of the CORC jury, said Monday, “The defenders have something to worry about if Tom Ehman is so ignorant of his own rules.

“It’s a standard match-racing provision . . . that the jury can come to that decision. It applies in all match racing and it applies to the America’s Cup. Tom should read the rules before he fires from the hip.”

So, perhaps, should The Times reporter.