It’s a Day to Bump ‘n Run on the Water : America’s Cup: Koch beats Conner by 4:33 after the boats collide in the pre-start sequence.

Was it the America’s Cup or the Daytona 500?

Dennis Conner crashed into America 3, New Zealand collided with Spirit of Australia, and Ville de Paris’ crew spent one leg patching its spinnaker pole with duct tape, just like the good ol’ boys of NASCAR.

It didn’t do the French (5-3) any good. They already trailed Chris Dickson’s Nippon (7-1) and lost the featured race on the first day of the second round of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials by one minute 42 seconds.

On the defenders’ course, both boats protested after Conner’s collision with Bill Koch’s America 3 in the pre-start sequence, but the umpires ruled no foul.

“We felt that Stars & Stripes jibed too close,” Koch said.

Conner disagreed: “We felt we had the right of way after sailing on starboard tack for 11 seconds, while America 3, on port tack, attempted to cross (our) bow.”

It became irrelevant when the wind shifted and that start was aborted, although Conner thought the late postponement cost him “a one-minute lead across the starting line.”

Once they got off the line it was no contest. America 3, with Koch steering after Buddy Melges handled the start, took the shift to the left, gained control and won by 4:33.

That was better than previous losses to America 3 by 6:23 and 6:00, but might have sobered hopes raised by Stars & Stripes’ victory over Koch’s older Defiant last week that a keel change had made it competitive again.

Conner called the postponement, the collision and America 3’s edge on the wind shift “the triple whammy.”

The rebuilt Spirit of Australia (3-5) lost to New Zealand (7-1) by 12:12. They also collided before the start--New Zealand on port tack, Spirit on starboard, which normally has right of way. But the umpires ruled that Peter Gilmour didn’t give Kiwi skipper Rod Davis room to keep clear. They didn’t call him “Crash” Gilmour at Fremantle for nothing.

“We accepted the decision . . . copped it on the chin,” Gilmour said.

Then Davis squeezed Spirit toward the committee boat and Gilmour had trouble gaining headway again. He crossed the line 58 seconds behind--and still had to do his a 270-degree penalty turn.

Other challenger winners were Il Moro di Venezia (6-2), with owner Raul Gardini on board for the first time, over Sweden’s hapless Tre Kronor (1-7) by 13:32, and Espana ’92 (3-5) by 5:46 over winless Challenge Australia, which finished about one meter quicker by the tip of its new bowsprit.

The wind varied from a light 3 to 9 knots but, more importantly, swung from west at the start of the early matches to southwest, then back to northwest. Boats that were closer to the new wind direction--either by luck or cunning--grabbed advantages that made much of the difference.

Dickson, for example, forced Ville de Paris starting helmsman Marc Bouet to the right at the start and caught a left-hand shift to lead by 55 seconds at the first, windward mark. Then, as the wind went back to the right, he picked the best side downwind to increase his lead to 4:16.

French skipper Marc Pajot played that game, too, and closed to 37 seconds at the last mark, while his crew tried to fix the carbon-fiber spinnaker pole that had snapped near the end of the previous leg.

They splinted it with clamshell sections and taped it down, but Pajot chose not to risk using it for fear someone might get hurt if it broke again.

So while Nippon used a full spinnaker on the run to the finish, Ville de Paris used a smaller, masthead gennaker tacked to the bow and lost distance while having to sail higher on the wind.

The victory left Nippon tied for first place with New Zealand. More significant, it was Nippon’s first untainted victory over a legitimate contender, following foulups by Il Moro and Ville de Paris in the first round that allowed the Japanese to come from behind.

Stars & Stripes races Defiant today. The best challenger race figures to be Il Moro against Ville de Paris. New Zealand and Nippon will meet Tuesday.