For New Zealand, a Mark of Disqualification : Sailing: Kiwis disqualified for touching buoy. Nippon beats French after collision. Kanza stops Stars & Stripes’ streak.

Touching all the bases in America’s Cup races Thursday:

* On-the-water umpires disqualified New Zealand, taking away its thrilling, one-second victory over Il Moro di Venezia, for touching the buoy marking the finish line.

* Ville de Paris and Nippon Challenge collided during pre-start maneuvers, and Nippon sailed to a 2-minute victory over the French boat, which sustained a gash in its bow.

* Dennis Conner lost his touch, at least for a day, when his four-race winning streak against the America 3 syndicate came to a halt in a 42-second loss to Kanza in a fourth-round defenders contest.

Thursday offered the most mind-boggling America’s Cup racing to date. It also kept umpires the busiest.

In Il Moro di Venezia’s victory, New Zealand had trailed the Italians the entire race, before catching them at the finish for an apparent one-second victory. On the last leg, New Zealand picked up 10 seconds when Italy lost ground on the last three jibes.

But New Zealand was disqualified, given a “did not finish,” at the end of the race for hitting the mark.

The Kiwis were expected to protest the loss on the grounds that Italy hadn’t given them enough room to make it across the line. Instead, New Zealand protested that it hadn’t touched the mark, and had evidence to prove it. An international jury heard the case late Thursday and upheld the decision by the umpires, also reaffirming that on-the-water calls can not be appealed.

“No one wants to lose a race by one second,” said Il Moro tactician Enrico Chieffi. “Rounding the last mark, it is hard for the boat behind not to pass the boat ahead, and it is even more difficult for the boat in front not to get passed.”

New Zealand skipper Rod Davis said there were crew members looking on the side of the boats to ensure there was no infraction.

“There was no question in our mind that we didn’t hit the buoy,” Davis said. “But it’s a difficult situation. The umpires have to be in the position to see it.”

The Kiwis said the umpires weren’t.

New Zealand tactician David Barnes said, if anything, wave action as the boat neared the mark put the yacht out of reach of the mark.

“We believe we were pushed away from the mark,” he said.

Barnes added that crew members had gathered sail lines and cables to ensure there would be no contact by the boat or by any of the yacht’s apparatus, but wouldn’t specify what the umpires had called the Kiwis on.

“We’re confident there was no contact. Obviously it was close, we’re not saying it was a matter of feet, just inches,” he said.

There was no margin of error in the French’s collision with the Japanese, who entered the race with an 0-3 record in the semifinals.

During the pre-start maneuvers, Nippon skipper Chris Dickson had just turned onto a starboard tack and found Ville de Paris bearing down on him. The French boat tried to turn downwind to miss the Japanese, but rammed directly into Nippon’s transom.

But you’ve gotta play hurt. So Ville de Paris patched up its boat with duct tape and continued to the start. A bulkhead, three feet behind the bow, protected it from taking in too much water. For the second consecutive day, the French were assessed a pre-start penalty and had to make a 270-degree turn.

The false start put Ville de Paris behind 1:09 at the first mark, and it never recovered.

“It’s not too excellent to steer a boat like that,” French skipper Marc Pajot said. “Looking at the video, there was no time to avoid a collision. Too bad for the boat, too bad for the race.”