AMERICA’S CUP : Koch Increases Lead to 4-1 Over Conner

By Tuesday, Bill Koch could be the America’s Cup defender and Dennis Conner could be beached.

America3 made tremendous surges sailing into the wind on the third and seventh legs and went on to defeat Conner’s Stars & Stripes by 3 minutes, 31 seconds on Friday to take a 4-1 lead in the defender finals.

Koch, the multimillionaire president and skipper of the America3 Foundation, needs to win three more races to clinch the best-of-13 series. There is no racing on Monday, so two weekend wins plus one on Tuesday would end Conner’s underdog bid to reach his fifth straight America’s Cup match.

The final margin on Friday was lopsided because the wind fell off to three knots nearing the finish and Conner went off to the right side of the course hunting for a breeze.

Still, America3 improved to 12-4 against Stars & Stripes in this regatta, including victories in six of their last seven matchups. Conner’s only win in this round was a wire-to-wire effort on Thursday.

America3 covered the 20.03-mile course in 2 hours, 53 minutes, 23 seconds.

The race oscillated during the first three legs. Unlike in past races, though, America3 did a better job of covering Stars & Stripes’ wind.

After an even start in a westerly breeze of about six knots, Stars & Stripes took the lead early on the first beat to windward, only to see America3 go ahead about halfway up the leg.

America3 led by 10 seconds around the first mark. As Stars & Stripes approached the buoy, Stars & Stripes was set up to raise a gennaker as America3 did, but Conner noted that the wind had increased to 10 knots and called for a spinnaker. Spinnakers are better in heavier wind and are easier to move from side to side than gennakers as a yacht changes course while sailing downwind.

The move paid off when Stars & Stripes went ahead halfway down the leg and led by 16 seconds at the marker.

Conner headed toward the left side of the course on the next leg upwind, then tacked over to the right ahead of America3. With Buddy Melges at the helm, America3 took the left side, gained on each tack and finally went ahead. America3 led by 45 seconds at the mark, representing a turnaround of 61 seconds on the leg.

“We wanted him to go to the right and we wanted to go to the left,” Melges said. “The left side has been sweet the whole time we’ve been here.”

Koch steered America3 through the three reaching legs before Melges took the wheel halfway up the seventh leg into the wind. America3 gained a full minute and lead by 1:38 at the seventh mark.

Conner has sailed in the last four America’s Cup finals dating to 1980, winning three times and losing once.

Before that, he was the starting helmsman and tactician aboard Ted Hood’s victorious Courageous in 1974. He sat out the 1977 America’s Cup as he competed in the 1976 Olympics, where he won a bronze medal in the Tempest Class, and the 1977 Star world championships, which he won.

Friday was an off day for the challengers, whose series resumes on Saturday with New Zealand leading 3-1 and needing two more victories to eliminate Italy’s Il Moro di Venezia.