Kanza Puts Conner in a Crunch : Sailing: Penalty assessed Stars & Stripes after collision gives Melges important victory.

The issue was helmsmanship, but let the record show that Bill Koch had nothing to do with it.

Instead, it was Buddy Melges who steered Kanza in front of Dennis Conner, who drove Stars & Stripes into the side of the America 3 boat.

Who was to blame?

The on-water umpires couldn’t tell, so they said no one.

But they did say it was Conner’s own fault that Stars & Stripes then “creamed” the last windward mark buoy--tactician Tom Whidden’s description. Stars & Stripes’ subsequent compulsory penalty turn at the finish line tilted the race to Kanza by 57 seconds.

The result left Stars & Stripes’ magic number for advancing to the defender finals at two, like a carrot on a stick. Any combination of wins for itself or losses for America 3, the boat, which it meets today, will do it, but that might be an elusive achievement.

For one thing, Koch finally has decided whether he wants to (a) steer his boats or (b) win the America’s Cup. He steered only the three reaches in the middle of Tuesday’s 20-mile race and let Melges do the rest, and later said Melges would steer exclusively in light-wind races.

Then, wearing a shirt with a bull’s-eye on the back because “when anything bad happens I seem to get blamed,” he finally named a starting crew lineup.

Sorry, “pitman” Dawn Riley, the only woman sailing here, didn’t make the cut.

Koch also said he had exercised the option Conner owed him to modify America 3 during a round with a new keel and ballast change to speed it up in light wind.

Melges said, “We felt that Kanza was good, and the things we’re doing back in the barn to America 3 right now, he’s gonna have his hands full tomorrow, I guarantee you.”

The Stars & Stripes crew took the loss hard. They led until the wind built to 12 knots and Kanza flexed her muscle. It was touch and go approaching the final mark when the action got frantic.

Conner seemed in control tacking on the layline, but a strong current and wind shift left both boats unable to fetch, so each had to tack twice more. Melges, on the outside, got more speed on, and when Conner tried to squeeze through between Kanza’s stern and the mark he bashed Kanza five feet behind Melges’ position at the wheel.

Koch turned and waved Conner away.

“He seems to like hitting us back in that spot,” Koch said. “He’s done it several times.”

Then Stars & Stripes bounced off into the mark like a midnight-blue pinball, and the umpires took it from there.

“This race today wasn’t won by the sailors,” Whidden said, bitterly.

Tactical strategist John Bertrand said, “Normally, when they force you to hit the mark, you’re not at fault. We had these guys on Kanza totally confused. It was a really slick move we pulled off--a race-winning move.”

Tom Ehman, general manager of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee and an international sailing judge, noted while reviewing a videotape of the incident that the umpires “are not in position” to make the proper call. “(But) looking at the tape, I can’t tell you who’s wrong.”

Il Moro di Venezia (5-2) clinched a spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger finals starting April 19 by outsailing the French (3-4) by 1:28, after their first race was aborted on the second leg because of a race committee error.

New Zealand (5-2) came from behind to eliminate hard-luck Nippon (1-6) by 31 seconds but needs one more victory or another French loss to advance with the Italians. The Kiwis meet the French today.

The challengers’ races were delayed an hour, first because of unsettled wind direction, then for last-minute repairs to Il Moro and Nippon.

The Italians couldn’t raise their mainsail to start the race, so they sent bowman Alberto Fantini and a member of their shore crew up for an hourlong high-wire act at the top of their 110-foot mast to fix a damaged halyard system.

Later, The Great Fantini did an encore to fix a broken batten--one of the sail stiffeners--that has plagued Il Moro the past couple of weeks. If this keeps up, they might station Fantini up there permanently.

Nippon’s problem was less serious: a loose chainplate that holds the running backstay to the deck.

When the Italians and French finally got going, Ville de Paris starting helmsman forced Paul Cayard’s red boat over the line early. There was a second, recall gun, and Cayard had to dip back three times to restart before he dipped deep enough to clear the line completely.

Then 20 seconds later the committee also posted France’s blue code flag to indicate they, too, were over the line early. The French, thinking the signal was a trifle tardy, raised a protest flag against the committee and kept on sailing, and an hour later as they returned toward the leeward mark, with Ville de Paris leading, the committee decided to restart the race.

That time it was no contest.