Conner Stays Alive; New Zealand in Finals : America’s Cup: Stars & Stripes gets key victory over Young America.

Dennis Conner, a man blessed with success in the face of failure, and New Zealand, a country whose sailors have been cursed with failure in the face of success, took big steps toward a common goal in Thursday’s America’s Cup races.

Conner’s Stars & Stripes, two losses away from mathematical elimination in the defender finals, defeated PACT 95’s Young America by 45 seconds to move into a tie for first place with the losing boat.

“We’re staying alive,” an anonymous voice said as Stars & Stripes crossed the finish line.

“We’re doing a little bit more than staying alive,” another said.

Team Conner’s theme song is the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” and it blares each morning as Stars & Stripes leaves its America’s Cup compound on San Diego Harbor.

Team New Zealand’s 2-minute 13-second victory over oneAustralia thrust it into the America’s Cup challenger’s role after years of frustration and days of waiting. It will meet the defenders’ survivor beginning May 6.

New Zealand dominated the challenger trials in 1987, as it did this year, but lost in the finals to Conner’s Stars & Stripes. It had a 4-1 lead over Italy in the 1992 challenger finals, but lost a race in the protest room and never won again. In between those efforts was an abortive and litigious challenge in 1988, which failed miserably when New Zealand’s 120-foot sloop lost what amounted to a mismatched match race against Conner in a catamaran.

No team has dominated as Team New Zealand did this year. The Kiwis won their first 35 races on the water, losing one in the protest room, before oneAustralia upset them Saturday. On the brink of success and yet haunted by past failures, they sat through three days of bad weather en route to winning their fourth and fifth races to wrap up the best-of-nine series.

It is an interesting coincidence that Conner, the Kiwis’ nemesis in 1987 and ‘88, is once again the man trying to climb off the canvas. On this occasion, he has more than the Kiwis standing in his path. He has to work his way through a quagmire of mathematical possibilities to get past Young America and America 3’s Mighty Mary in the defender finals.

Conner, in the gerrymandered defender finals only through the largess of his two opponents after a miserable 2-7 semifinal series, stretched his record in these finals to 4-1 with Thursday’s victory. A Mighty Mary victory today, however, will create the third three-way tie and put Stars & Stripes one loss from elimination.

Young America was in position to take a two-point lead over both Stars & Stripes and Mighty Mary on Thursday, but it gambled and lost on the first leg. Young America went on an extended run to the right and let Conner have the left by himself. Given the benefit of a wind shift, Stars & Stripes built a 1:16 advantage Young America was never able to erase.

Conner had to know it was his day when Stars & Stripes blew a spinnaker rounding the second windward mark only to see Young America, rounding a minute later, lose a golden opportunity when it tore its spinnaker. It gained 34 seconds but might have taken the lead but for its misfortune.

It still was not a gimme for Stars & Stripes as the final downwind leg began. It led by 35 seconds, but Young America had gained 37 and 38 seconds on the previous two downwind runs. A replay of the last race between these boats, Stars & Stripes’ one-second victory, appeared possible.

However, Team Conner would take no chances. Stars & Stripes protected its lead with conservative strategy.

“Boys,” tactician Tom Whidden told the crew, “what we’ll do is jibe every time they do.”

OneAustralia actually led after the first leg of its race with New Zealand, but the Kiwis enjoyed the kind of downwind run Young America needed. They went past on the left, rounded the mark with a 21-second lead and then watched as the Aussies’ spinnaker got jammed under the bow and had to be cut loose. The race, and series, was over.

When the defenders met reporters, Stars & Stripes’ Whidden had a joking suggestion the Kiwis might consider taking seriously: “Maybe all three of us should go to the Cup and sail every third day.”