New Zealand Is Making It Look Too Easy : America’s Cup: Kiwis are unbeaten on the water. Young America regains defenders’ lead by defeating Mighty Mary.

Any time a team has a won-lost record of 34-1, which is not often, the multitudes are usually more curious about the loss than the 34 wins.

Team New Zealand, after Friday’s 2-minute 26-second victory over oneAustralia, has exactly that record in the America’s Cup challenger series. What’s noteworthy, however, is that the L was more like an L*. On the water, the Kiwis are unbeaten and now only two victories away from challenging for the America’s Cup beginning May 6.

About that lone L . . .

The International America’s Cup Jury awarded oneAustralia a victory on Feb. 2 because a member of Team New Zealand’s afterguard was supposedly illegally perched in the mast.

It ruled that he was searching for wind rather than performing a necessary task.

Of late, Kiwi skipper Russell Coutts must be tempted to send a crewman up the mast with binoculars and paraphrase the famous Butch Cassidy line: “ Where are those guys?”

No one has led the Kiwis at any mark since March 22, and they have led at 197 of 210 marks overall, including all 35 finish lines.

Friday’s race was typical. OneAustralia was actually over the starting line with a six-second lead, but Team New Zealand’s Black Magic 1 was ahead by a boat length four minutes later. The Kiwis built a steady and solid lead and then coasted to the victory.

“When we do get a nice lead, we certainly don’t want to extend ourselves,” said Brad Butterworth, a member of the afterguard. “It wouldn’t be smart to push as hard as we can and end up breaking something.”

All the Kiwis seem to be breaking is a record for America’s Cup series success, albeit this is a record that does not seem to be recorded anywhere.

The America’s Cup archives do not list historical won-lost records for anything but the Cup competition itself.

“But,” said Bruno Trouble, the media director and a former helmsman, “no one has ever done what New Zealand is doing.”

Team New Zealand has been so dominant that no one really seems to be paying it much attention, except for maybe 3 million countrymen who probably get little work done when the races are on live between 8 and 11 a.m. That the races are usually decided before their first cup of coffee is cold is of little matter to them.

The typical journalist covering the defenders and challengers simultaneously usually fills several sheets of a legal pad with notes and observations on the defenders. Whatever Team New Zealand is doing to whomever can usually be covered on a matchbook cover.

Ironically, the most dominant boat among the defenders is also the one attracting the least attention. PACT 95’s Young America, the leader once again after Friday’s 1-minute 24-second victory over America 3’s Mighty Mary, has been overshadowed by the off-the-water shenanigans between America 3’s Bill Koch and Team Dennis Conner.

The fact that Koch’s team is made up primarily of women has also diverted attention from Young America.

An offshoot of the off-the-water Koch-Conner controversy might benefit Young America, however.

The compromise allowing all three boats into the finals was ultimately altered to allow what might be called “restricted changes” during the so-called no-change racing period. Young America, given two days off this week, added wings to its rudder, an unprecedented innovation.

The loser of its first two races in the finals, Young America reversed its fortunes Friday and took a one-point lead over both Mighty Mary and the idle Stars & Stripes.

The newly appended rudder likely had less to do with the outcome than the fact that Young America established a lead and raced with sounder tactics and cleaner execution than it had Monday and Tuesday.