AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Stern on Stars & Stripes is Trimmed Back to Save Weight

Exclusive: Dennis Conner will have a second boat.

And the 17th crewman will be Elvis.

The notion that there will be a second, secret Stars & Stripes is all but buried with one look at the old one, USA 11, this week.

Know that beautiful blue transom with the gold-leaf “USA” lettering? It’s now leaning against one wall of the VIP tent.

The chain saw surgery was performed Sunday, leaving the lower part of the stern in an open “scoop” configuration to conform with the latter-generation IACC boats.

Operations manager Bill Trenkle estimates the modification will mean a net loss of about 60 pounds. The idea is to lighten the ends of the boat. They also hope to take something out of the bow, but not with a nose job to conform with the newer, snub-nosed configurations that seem to work better in the San Diego chop.

They considered it long and hard. With an aluminum 12-meter it would have been a cinch, Trenkle said, just like taking it to a body shop. But carbon fiber presents a problem.

“With the composite boat and the time, we didn’t have the option of changing the bow,” Trenkle said. “We’d have to change everything back to the mast. We’re gonna stick with the bow we have.”

Besides, Trenkle said, it would have cost about $300,000, and the boat is fine in smooth water, while computer calculations indicate that the difference a snub bow would offer in chop is “almost negligible.”

Meanwhile, if anyone with the initials “USA” is looking for a midnight-blue coffee table, Stars & Stripes is open to offers.

Stars & Stripes and Espana ’92 became good next-door neighbors while tenants of R.E. Staite Engineering. Their staffs and boat and shore crews gave each other rousing sendoffs to the race courses each day and cheered their victories when they returned.

Betsy, the Stars & Stripes tender, played Spain’s music on its p.a. because Spain didn’t have a sound system. They probably borrowed tools, a cup of sugar . . . but no boats.

With Espana ’92 eliminated from the challenger trials, that prospect was discussed as a way of giving Conner the trial horse he has lacked all along. He couldn’t use the Spanish boat in a race, of course, because it wasn’t built in the U.S., but he could use it to tune against before the defenders’ fourth round starting March 28.

But Espana ’92 skipper Pedro Campos doubted it would happen because the Spanish were anxious to pack up and leave.

Also, Spain got such heat from the other challengers last November when it planned to cooperate with Conner in the Cadillac Cup that it had to withdraw. There probably would be a riot this time.

Practically speaking, the challengers could threaten to withhold Spain’s $150,000 deposit, but a charter fee from Stars & Stripes would make up for a lot of that.