Conner Is Skipper, but Boat May Change for America’s Cup Finals : Sailing: Interpretation of rules varies, but defender might choose to put Stars & Stripes in dry dock.
Stars & Stripes, in various incarnations, has been Dennis Conner’s America’s Cup boat since the mid-1980s. It was a 12-meter in his Australia crusade to retrieve the Cup in 1987, a catamaran in defense of New Zealand’s maverick challenge in ’88 and one of the newly configured 75-foot America’s Cup class boats in ’92.
The current version, the 1995 Cup class 75-footer, has become a miracle worker.
It must, however, be developing an inferiority complex.
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s astounding rally from a deficit of 42 boat lengths to beat America 3’s Mighty Mary and advance to the America’s Cup finals against Team New Zealand, Conner observed wryly, “I don’t think anyone in touch with reality looks forward to defending the Cup with this boat.”
What’s a boat to do? It wins a magically memorable race and its master talks as though it’s a rubber ducky.
What could happen is that the historic boat will go the way of other historical vessels--to a museum. According to rules established by the America’s Cup trustees, though the Kiwis have a different interpretation, Conner can choose from among the three boats in the defender finals.
“That’s my understanding,” said G. Wytie Cable, chairman of the defense committee. “The trustees issued a decision on this near the end of March and that decision, in our opinion, gives our defender the right to pick from any defending yachts in the finals.”
Thus, Conner might be allowed to sail Bill Koch’s Mighty Mary from America 3or John Marshall’s Young America from PACT 95. He could also choose Stars & Stripes.
Of course, Conner’s relationship with those opposing syndicates could come into play. Team Dennis Conner has bickered constantly with Koch’s group, especially after Koch and Marshall teamed to try to oust him from the defender finals, albeit their motive at the time was self-preservation.
“I’d like to help in any way I can,” Koch said, “but I haven’t been asked.”
And Marshall?
“Stars & Stripes has earned the right to defend the Cup,” he said, “and we’re 100% supportive.”
Rhetoric or reality? Meetings are planned, at which such terms as in any way and 100% could well be redefined.
The popular notion has been that Stars & Stripes was the slowest boat in the defender series. Team Dennis Conner’s record was a middling 20-18, worse than PACT 95’s 24-12, better than America 3’s 12-26. But more important, Team Conner was 6-2 in the defender finals, the others both 3-5, hence his presence in the best-of-nine Cup finals starting May 6.
Has Stars & Stripes really been that slow or has the Conner camp, stealing from Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz’s football playbook, said it so often it has become accepted as gospel?
After Stars & Stripes defeated his boat Wednesday, Koch said: “Stars & Stripes has shown it’s probably the best team . They haven’t got the best boat. They’ve probably got the weakest boat. They call it their jalopy.”
So even Koch, not one to lavish praise on Team Conner, confirms the mediocrity of the boat that won the defenders’ role.
As might be expected, Team New Zealand is not buying into the theory quite so readily.
“Stars & Stripes clearly is fast and is being sailed very well,” said Peter Blake, the Kiwis’ syndicate head. “We’ll have to be right at the top of our game to have a chance of winning. Having said that, there is nobody that New Zealand would prefer to beat for the America’s Cup than Dennis Conner. There is a bit of history to that but, most of all, Conner is regarded as the master campaigner at this level.”
The history dates to Stars & Stripes knocking a supposedly superior New Zealand boat out of the challenger finals in 1987 and then disdainfully disposing of a renegade challenge in 1988.
The Conner-Kiwi relationship will hardly be hearts and flowers, not between now and the finals and not during the competition itself.
“Stars & Stripes,” Blake said, “will find Team New Zealand considerably less charitable than those they have been dealing with in the last few weeks.”
Charitable? Koch threw so many protests at Team Conner that the America’s Cup jury probably spent more time hearing evidence than the Simpson jury during the same period. And then those other syndicates tried to gang up on him.
Team New Zealand certainly figures to be competitive on the water, if its 37-1 racing record through the challenger series is any indication. However, the Kiwis have met Conner with far superior records before--1987, to be precise--and lost. And there is no objective way to compare boats coming out of the two series.
The Kiwis will be equally combative when it comes to what happens off the water.
Just let Conner try to race one of the other defender’s boats.
“We don’t think they can do that,” said Alan Sefton, spokesperson for Team New Zealand. “We’re not going to preempt anything, because all we’ve heard are rumors, but we’re going to keep our aerials up and see what goes on.”
The Kiwis, for now, are concerned with rules of the regatta now being formalized, specifically the defender’s desire to allow changes to the winglets, rudder and trim tabs during the competition. Sefton said Team New Zealand is very opposed to such changes.
“America’s Cup is complex,” Stars & Stripes helmsman Paul Cayard said, “and you fight it off on all fronts.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
America’s Cup
* When: Starting May 6.
* Where: San Diego.
* Format: Best-of-nine series.
* Opponents: Team Conner vs. Team New Zealand.
* TV: ESPN.