AMERICA’S CUP : Conner Is Winner in Race Six
Buddy Melges has seen about everything in sailboat racing, but Dennis Conner showed the veteran America 3 helmsman a couple of tricks Saturday.
Conner’s bold port crossing of America 3 and subsequent sequence of three aggressive upwind turns, all on the first leg, gave him enough of a lead to hold off his newer and faster rival and win by 2 minutes 18 seconds as the wind died over the last 17 miles of the 20-mile race.
Stars & Stripes still trails, 4-2, in the best-of-13 defender finals, but Conner isn’t going quietly.
“Is there such a thing as an easy win against this boat?” Conner asked, looking over his shoulder at America 3 when he started to feel secure near the finish. “Actually, I’m only 31, but because of races like this I’m 49.”
New Zealand also pulled out victory off Point Loma, coming from 4:20 behind Il Moro di Venezia at the last mark to drift across the finish with the current 2:18 ahead--a crushing loss for the Italians, who trail, 4-1, and must win four in a row in the best-of-nine challenger finals to advance to the Cup match next month.
Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard and New Zealand skipper Rod Davis met with the jury after the race. Later, they were joined by their lawyers and rules advisers.
The problem is that, though New Zealand altered its sail-changing technique to conform to the challenger jury’s rulings concerning the use of its bowsprit after the first round in February, those rulings are in conflict with the match jury that will assume control May 9.
Beyond that, Il Moro spokesman Stefano Roberti said: “We feel that New Zealand is not even in compliance with the (challenger) jury’s ruling now. . . . (That) they’ve gone back to the way they used it in the first round.”
Conner and Melges settled their issue on the water Saturday. They sailed off in opposite directions at the start, and the fourth time they converged, Conner, on port tack and without right of way, drove close across America 3’s bow to take control.
A few minutes later Melges had caught up off Stars & Stripes’ windward hip, but Conner--now owning the right of way as the downwind boat--three times turned hard upwind toward America 3, forcing Melges away, slowing him down and putting him behind Conner, who led by 34 seconds at the first mark.