AMERICA’S CUP / DAILY REPORT : DEFENDER/CHALLENGER TRIALS : Without Bowsprit, Kiwis Lose to France

Without a bowsprit after a jury’s ruling, New Zealand altered its technique for settingsails, but the Kiwis also made several uncommon errors in losing to France by 1 minute 21 seconds Saturday.

Skipper Rod Davis said: “We didn’t have a good day today, but that wasn’t because of the bowsprit. The bowsprit really affected only one thing. I had a problem with the starting line. We were over (early) by about the length of the bowsprit.”

On the defenders’ course, Dennis Conner ran Stars & Stripes into the stern of a spectator boat during tight pre-start maneuvering and was stuck in the fleet as America 3’s Defiant got away 32 seconds ahead.

Defiant helmsman Buddy Melges tweaked Conner: saying, “Dennis, who is the master of time and distance, missed on both.”

Although Conner closed to within 31 seconds midway of the race, Defiant won comfortably by 1:19, setting up a tempting scenario for Bill Koch’s team.

With victories counting four points, the America 3sailors will drop Stars & Stripes, with 11 points, into third place if their top boat, America 3(28), loses to Defiant (8) today.

Among the challengers, Il Moro di Venezia (12-3) went into first place with 37 points.New Zealand (13-2) fell into a tie with Nippon (12-3) with 34. France (10-5) has 29.

Il Moro, which meets Nippon today, had no trouble with Challenge Australia (0-15), winning by 8:03; and Nippon left dispirited Spirit of Australia (5-10) behind by 4:45.

Espana ’92 (6-9) beat Tre Kronor (2-13) by 4:39.