Conner Takes a Left, Wind Takes a Right : America’s Cup: America 3 moves ahead, 3-0, in defender finals. New Zealand leads, 2-1, in challenger finals.

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature, and off Point Loma it’s not even very smart.

She pulled some more tricks out of her bag Wednesday when Dennis Conner lost for the third time and Il Moro di Venezia threw a victory over New Zealand to the winds.

The Italians were ahead by 1 minute 42 seconds at the first mark, but then they failed to stay with--or cover--New Zealand in the capricious breezes and let the Kiwis go their own way, find better wind and steal a 34-second victory. That gave them a 2-1 lead in the America’s Cup challengers’ best-of-nine finals.

By guessing wrong on the wind, Conner lost by 4:20 and sailed into a 0-3 hole against America 3 in the best-of-13 defender finals.

It was Stars & Stripes’ worst defeat since losing to America 3 by 6:23 and 6:00 during experiments with a goal-post keel in February.

Already giving up speed to Bill Koch’s newer boat, Conner must rely on his wits. But if a man who has been sailing these waters all his life can’t figure them out, what hope does anyone have when “Catalina Eddy” comes around?

“Catalina Eddy,” Stars & Stripes tactician Tom Whidden explains, is a light southerly breeze.

Conner: “It was one of those days when the ‘Catalina Eddy’ was fighting the sea breeze.”

For the first few minutes “Eddy” teased Stars & Stripes onto the left side of the course.

“We got off to a nice start, and within five minutes we had about a 500-foot lead and thought, ‘Wow! This is gonna be great,’ ” Conner said.

Then “Eddy” turned and left Stars & Stripes in the lurch. Conner said the wind swung 50 degrees in America 3’s favor, giving the boat a short-cut to the windward mark.

“At one point it looked like we’d need our binoculars to see him,” Conner said.

Koch, who steered the last six legs with the big lead, said his brain trust thought the right side would be better all along.

“We saw the wind filling in on the right, and a persistent shift to the right and a stronger breeze consistently on the right,” Koch said.

“We didn’t necessarily not like the right,” Whidden said, “but when we came off the line there was a lot more pressure to the left. If America 3 knew that’s what was about to happen, they did a better job than we did.”

Conner: “Not to correct Tom (Whidden), but I remember it as more of a variable than a persistent shift. (Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul) Cayard got ahead the same way that Bill beat us--on that right-hand shift--and then I’m guessing he covered the right on the second (upwind leg), forcing the Kiwis off to the left, and when the wind went to the left they got by over there.”

Wrong, Conner was told. Cayard blew it by sailing to the left.

“What do I know?” Conner said.

Il Moro tactician Enrico Chieffi said: “It was a very difficult race to cover the other guy . . . quite impossible to do that.”

He explained that in light winds, such as Wednesday’s six to nine knots, one of these 75-foot boats will give up two lengths and maybe better wind to follow the tactical book and cover a trailing boat, “and he will be back to you pretty soon. (But) by the time we tacked, we saw it was not a very good move (not to cover).”

“That’s the dilemma out there,” said Simon Daubney, New Zealand’s mainsail trimmer. “We were pretty happy when we got that opportunity to sail around Il Moro.”

Conner should be so lucky. America 3 may need to win only three more races. After the first race was abandoned last Saturday when the wind died at the second windward mark, the Defense Committee decided not to use either of the lay days scheduled last Tuesday or April 27, but to use the reserve day May 3, if necessary--in other words, if America 3 and Stars & Stripes are tied at 6-6.

But if another race day is lost, it will become a best-of-11 series.