AMERICA’S CUP DAILY REPORT : CHALLENGER, DEFENDER TRIALS : Conner’s Mast Falls Along With Hopes

Dennis Conner’s hopes for defending the America’s Cup already were fading under America 3 rival Bill Koch’s overwhelming resources Tuesday when catastrophe struck.

Trailing Koch’s newer boat, America 3, by 35 seconds--or about six boat lengths--at the first, windward mark, Conner was halfway around the buoy in about 12 knots of wind when the block--or pulley--on the starboard running backstay broke. The $500,000, 110-foot mast snapped a third of the way up, toppled forward, cracked again as it struck the bow and splashed into the water.

Conner, struck on the head and back by flying hardware, sat calmly on the rail as crewmen went into the water to retrieve the sails. With the mast still hanging off the bow, the midnight-blue Stars & Stripes had to be towed backward into port, deepening the indignity.

Even as Conner’s star descended, Japan’s continued to rise in the challenger trials. Skipper Chris Dickson’s Nippon, a five-second winner over Il Moro on Sunday, survived a threatening backstay problem to defeat another member of the apparent final four, Ville de Paris, by 46 seconds. That left Nippon tied for first place with New Zealand, which it will meet Saturday.

It was only the fifth race for Stars & Stripes’ mast, which was installed for this third round of the defender trials. Scheduled to race America 3’s older Defiant today, the crew planned to work overnight to reinstall the original mast, which is heavier and therefore less efficient.

They also will have to return to their older, lighter--and less efficient--mainsail. The better one was shredded, further damaging Conner’s chances of catching up to Koch.

“If we’re looking for a bright side, the boat was going better than it has against America 3, and if we keep on target we’re still going to be all right,” Conner said. “Our guys are not going to let a broken mast bother them. We’ve been through worse.”