As Winds Die, Conner’s Luck With Him Still : America’s Cup: First race of defender finals abandoned with Stars & Stripes trailing America 3.

What was that Bill Koch said about wishing he had his money and Dennis Conner’s luck?

He may be ready to make a deal.

The moon, the tides, the weird winds--all were at work Saturday on sailing’s Far Side, otherwise known as the seas west of Point Loma where the America’s Cup race courses are set.

Just when it seemed time was running out on America’s Sailor, the clock struck 12 for sailing’s biggest spender. The race was called when the wind died and Koch’s America 3, leading Conner by about 300 yards, failed to round the third windward mark within the 2-hour, 13-minute time limit as the best-of-13 defender finals got under way.

Koch said again, “I wish I had Dennis’ luck.”

Conner: “I’m sure he feels that way. I’ve always been lucky. I think luck is 99% skill. Today I got the 1%. But that race wasn’t over. I’m not giving anything away.” Conner, driven by a following current, mistimed his start badly and had Stars & Stripes well over the line at the gun. He returned to restart 46 seconds late.

“He’s over,” Koch was heard to say from America 3--and so, it seemed, was the race.

Stars & Stripes recovered to within three or four boat lengths, then fell back and was about 300 yards behind and going nowhere when the wind fell from 7 knots to 4 and finally died.

But Buddy Melges was unable to coax America 3 anywhere near the mark, let alone around it, before time expired for completing three legs of the 20.03-nautical mile course.

Even the Wizard of Zenda (Wis.), with a lifetime of light-air sailing to call upon, could make no headway into the same current that had foiled Conner at the start. First he sailed well past a right-angle to the mark, realizing his tacking angles would be much wider in the wisps, but on starboard tack the current still carried him well below the layline.

When he tacked back to port and headed back into the current, he was virtually dead in the water.

Finally, with 75 seconds remaining, he switched to a small, light drifter headsail but it was too late. Melges didn’t even have enough wind to tack the boat to starboard toward the mark again.

A committee boat tooted its horn three times to signal abandonment of the race, the cue for laughter on Stars & Stripes and gloom aboard America 3. Conner said to his crew, “Gee, we had him right where we wanted him.”

Somebody up there must like Dennis.

“God is an Irishman,” he joked the other day when winds also failed to blow as hard as predicted and he was able to beat Koch’s other boat, the wind-loving Kanza, in the sail-off that got him into the finals.

There were fears that many races would be lost in San Diego’s notorious zephyrs, but in three months of sailing this was the first of 146--challengers and defenders combined--to die for lack of air.

The forecasts called for winds of 6 knots building to 12, but when the start was postponed 50 minutes to 1:05 p.m. to clear the area of spectator boats, it was noted that the breeze was already fading. Both boats changed to lighter headsails before the start, and Stars & Stripes changed again during the race.

Conner led America 3 up to the line but, with plenty of room to maneuver and burn off extra time, he wheeled his bow into the wind and headed across, as starting helmsman Dave Dellenbaugh took America 3 the other way.

Stars & Stripes was nearly a full boat length over and, struggling back against the current in light wind, took longer than normal to recover and take up the chase.

The problem, in the end, was opposing winds. The first breeze arrived from the south, then swung west as a northwesterly fought for dominance. In the battle they both died.

“Where that happens it’s totally windless,” said Chris Bedford, Stars & Stripes’ meteorologist. “It happened to be at the windward mark today, which worked out well for us.”

Conner’s crew acted as if it had won.

“We made a nice comeback,” Conner said. “We were right on ‘em. That race wasn’t over even if they’d made it around in the time limit. He wasn’t around that mark and we were still coming on port (tack), and he had to go on starboard (to reach the mark). And when you go on starboard you really have trouble. You can’t get any wind (because) you’re (drifting) away from it. I’m not sure he would have beat us around the mark.

“There was a knot and a quarter of wind. Our boat speed was about the same, and that’s about what the current was.”