AMERICA’S CUP DAILY REPORT : DEFENDER TRIALS : Conner Gets Approval to Modify Boat

Dennis Conner’s slow boat to nowhere will try a quick fix to get back up to speed, thanks to Bill Koch’s willingness to waive the rules.

“I don’t think anybody’s benefiting much from this kind of race program,” America 3helmsman Buddy Melges said after beating Conner by six minutes Tuesday. “We need to be pushed.”

Since making major modifications for this second round of the defender trials, Stars & Stripes also has lost to Koch’s tandem of America 3by 6:23 and Defiant by 4:16.

Normally, a boat couldn’t be altered except between rounds. But with three races remaining for Stars & Stripes in this round, Koch agreed to waive the rule.

There wasn’t time to fix it before today’s race against Defiant, but Conner’s crew will have Thursday and Friday to work before racing Koch’s pair Saturday and Sunday.

“We’re gonna put it back approximately the way it was before,” tactician Tom Whidden said. That would probably mean scrapping the radical underwater appendages installed after the first round, when Stars & Stripes was at least competitive.

Since then Stars & Stripes is believed to have been refitted with a radical, fore-and-aft-rudder steering system similar to what designer Alberto Calderon developed for the late Tom Blackaller’s 12-meter USA in 1986. The system was likened to learning how to steer a hook-and-ladder fire truck from the rear end: tricky at best, terrifying at worst.

For Conner, the main problem has been upwind, at least in the last two races. Off the wind, he has actually sailed slightly faster than his rivals.