Stars & Stripes Fixes Mast but Still Falls to Defiant
Remains of the shattered mast and mainsail piled aside, the Stars & Stripes crew, short on sleep but long on pride, sailed gamely but lost Wednesday to America 3’s Defiant.
They had labored until 1:30 in the morning to replace the mast they’d lost against America 3, the boat, the day before, and now they unfolded another mainsail from the bag labeled “M2”--there is no “M3”--as sail trimmer John Sangmeister crawled out on his hands and knees to polish the midnight blue section of the stern where it says “USA” in brilliant gold leaf.
Their Spanish neighbors cheered and whistled and waved as they left. The Stars & Stripes crew were angry that anyone would write them off just because their mast fell down.
“They’re pretty professional,” said Jack Sutphen, who used to sail America’s Cups as Dennis Conner’s sparring partner when Conner could afford a second boat. “You’ve got 12 of them that have been with Dennis a long time. They know if you break a mast it’s a roadblock, but it is not insurmountable.”
Sutphen was right. They almost pulled it off. Defiant, steered by owner Bill Koch the last five of eight legs, won by 23 seconds--about the length of a football field.
After starting 14 seconds behind in light winds of five knots, Stars & Stripes even led Defiant by seven seconds after a luffing match at the first, windward mark, where disaster had befallen them 24 hours earlier. Defiant soon regained the lead downwind but never shook Stars & Stripes out of her wake for the entire 20 miles.
For the first time, Stars & Stripes dropped into third place in the defender trials behind the two America 3 boats--just where Koch wants them in his stated goal to put two boats--America 3 and the fourth one yet to come--in next month’s defender finals.
Unless Stars & Stripes (6-12, 11 points) outsails Defiant (4-12, 12 points) Saturday, it will enter the March 28 semifinals down one bonus victory to Defiant and two to America 3(16-1, 36 points).
Or . . . Koch can assure himself of that edge by having America 3 throw today’s four points to Defiant.
“What went on the other day between the two boats (when America 3 won) proved the integrity of America 3 ,” helmsman Buddy Melges said, putting his arm around Conner at a press conference. “We would like to go out and just beat the hell out of Dennis on the race course, fair and square.”
Besides, tactician Dave Dellenbaugh said, “If you collude to advance your position, it could be a violation of the rules.”
Tactician Tom Whidden said, “We think there won’t be any shenanigans, and we trust them to that.”
Conner, arriving early and cracking jokes, said switching to his older mast and mainsail made no significant difference.
“In no way would I offer that as an excuse,” said the man who wrote “No Excuse to Lose.”
The challengers’ race of the day was no race at all. New Zealand (16-2), sailed flawlessly by skipper Rod Davis and the crew, smothered the wind of Il Moro di Venezia (12-6) at the start and sailed away to win by 5:01.
The day’s other results mathematically eliminated Sweden’s Tre Kronor (2-16) and both Australias--Spirit (6-12) and Challenge (1-17)--from the race for the semifinals, although Spirit broke a six-race losing streak by beating Tre Kronor by 6:42.
Espana ’92 (7-11) is alive but not well after losing to Nippon (15-3) by 4:13. The Spaniards need to sweep Spirit, Il Moro and Ville de Paris. The French clobbered Challenge Australia by 12:44.
The New Zealand and Nippon runaways set up a Saturday showdown for first place. They’ll take turns beating up on Tre Kronor and Challenge Australia in their other two remaining races. Today the Italians (12-6) will race the French (12-6) for third place.
In the semifinals starting March 29, each boat will race each other boat three times, so the standings don’t make any difference, except for morale, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of that on Il Moro Wednesday.
It was a subdued owner, Raul Gardini, who as the 17th man rode along to the Italians’ worst loss, sitting on the rail, always the gentleman, wearing a tie and natty coppola (cap) and quietly smoking a cigarette.
The Italians are not beating the teams they must beat to reach the finals. Against the rest of the apparent Final Four they are 0-2 this round and 3-5 overall.
“I don’t think we’re in trouble,” skipper Paul Cayard said. “It’s not like we’re out of options or out of moves. We’ve got some work to do to catch up--that’s for sure.”