Conner Tries Not to Keel Over : America’s Cup: Jury nullifies victory, so Stars & Stripes must beat Mighty Mary twice to gain finals.

Team Dennis Conner’s replacement keel was ruled illegal Saturday by the America’s Cup International Jury, which ordered that all victories earned with the controversial appendage be re-sailed.

In this case, all equals one.

Stars & Stripes’ defeat of America 3’s Mighty Mary Tuesday was nullified, thus taking the rivals out of the board room and onto the water today. A victory by Mighty Mary would put it in the defender finals against Young America; a victory by Stars & Stripes would force a sail-off Monday.

And exactly what was illegal about this replacement keel?

The jury’s announcement said the keel was seven millimeters shorter than the one it replaced. That is the equivalent of slightly more than a quarter of an inch.

With a race scheduled Saturday against Young America, Team Conner had to rectify the situation. It did so with a little dab of Bondo, the bubble gum-like glob that takes the dents out of 20-year-old fenders. Presto, the keel complied.

Indeed, this extra quarter-inch of drag was telling. Stars & Stripes lost to Young America by 52 seconds, when it needed a victory to tie Mighty Mary and make today’s race climactic. Without that extra drag, Stars & Stripes lost by only 44 seconds to Young America on Thursday.

In truth, the jury’s three-page summary conceded that the replacement keel, actually an outmoded model discarded in January, had no significant effect on the outcome of the three races in which it was used--Stars & Stripes losing two of them.

Team Conner, in fact, has been less than stellar in this defender series, starting with the first of four round robins in January. Saturday’s loss gave Stars & Stripes a 13-15 overall record.

The controversy began with an incident last Sunday, when the damaged keel caused the hull to warp and leak. Quick work kept the boat from sinking, but the real problems were only beginning.

The boat had to be repaired quickly for Tuesday’s race against Mighty Mary. Team Conner took the quickest route in search of permission, the America’s Cup Defense Committee, and continued, day and night, with the repairs. The boat made it to the starting line and beat America 3’s boat by 1:31.

However, America 3protested that Team Conner also took the most sympathetic route, since the Defense Committee is made up exclusively of Conner’s fellow San Diego Yacht Club members. Its protest argued that the replacement keel was not in the original keel’s position and quoted the Measurement Committee chairman’s disclaimer that the replacement was dissimilar to the keel it replaced.

Trust being a word unfamiliar in America’s Cup circles, skeptics--including the America 3camp--concluded that Team Conner was turning misfortune into fortune and making its boat go faster.

Paul Cayard, skipper of Stars & Stripes through most of the semifinals, came by the media room after Tuesday’s victory and noted that the two boats had met in the exactly the same on-the-water conditions in a race early in March. He was right. Stars & Stripes, sailing with the keel that later malfunctioned, won by 1:35.

“Big difference, huh?” he asked rhetorically.

The building frustration on Stars & Stripes, expressed by an anonymous crewman, was caught by an on-board microphone during the hopeless downwind run to the finish line Saturday: “You know what (stinks) about this whole thing, America, is that we didn’t give this (boat) a proper burial when the keel fell off.”

The keel did not actually fall off, of course, but the wheels seemingly have.