A Still-Mighty but Humbler Conner : After Reaffirming His Mastery in Earning Berth Despite Technological Shortfalls, Skipper’s Latest Master Stroke Includes Rival Boat, Getting Back to Basics
During the America’s Cup defender trials, Dennis Conner was asked how he had managed to get that far after a 2-7 record in the semifinals.
“Well, obviously,” he said, “it’s not our boat.”
A week later, there he was on the maligned Stars & Stripes, trailing Mighty Mary by 4 minutes 8 seconds at the last mark--sailing’s equivalent to a blowout.
But within an hour, the other two defender teams had been eliminated and Conner stood alone.
Two days later, PACT 95’s crew watched Conner sail its Young America away to meet Team New Zealand in the best-of-nine Cup Match starting Saturday. Conner had done it again.
Stars & Stripes probably wasn’t as bad as bowman Greg Prussia suggested a few days after it almost sank, when he leaned toward an on-board TV microphone near the end of another dismal defeat and muttered, “You know what really (stinks) about this whole thing here, America? That we didn’t give this . . . a proper burial when the keel fell off.”
So, how did Conner get this far?
The answer, says Jerry La Dow, Conner’s chief executive, is simple: Conner hasn’t forgotten that the America’s Cup is still a sailboat race, not the space race.
The vanquished America 3and PACT 95, La Dow says, “are more obsessed with the technological aspects than we are. We have other ideas about what goes into winning races.”
Now, Conner will add better equipment to his savvy crew.
It may be of some satisfaction to Pact 95 that at least their boat is still in the America’s Cup. Some design-conscious observers have said all along that underneath it resembles Team New Zealand’s formidable Black Magic.
John Marshall, PACT 95’s president, and Bruce Nelson, Young America’s designer, helped design Conner’s boats in previous campaigns. Marshall also was Conner’s mainsail trimmer in 1980 and ‘83, but he and Conner are philosophical opposites and split in ’92. Although they continue to highly respect each other professionally, they do not like each other. But Marshall and Nelson will disclose their boat’s secrets to a rival they do not like for the sake of the American defense.
It won’t take long for Conner’s crew to catch on. On that final downwind leg last week, as Mighty Mary allowed Stars & Stripes to sail off by itself in search of a favorable breeze, Paul Cayard, not Conner, steered the 80-foot boat like a safecracker. He felt the wind, listened to calm suggestions from Conner, tactician Tom Whidden and navigator Jim Brady and exhorted the crew, all the while squeezing the last gasp from every puff. His shirttail was out and his face was set in concentration and determination.
Conner doesn’t steer much now. He likes Cayard’s style.
“We’re not dissimilar,” Conner said. “We both came out of Star boats and from modest families. We’re both very competitive. We both like to win. He’s done a good job. He hasn’t let me down. He’s one of the sport’s talents.”
It’s possible Cayard will be in command of the next Stars & Stripes at the next Cup in 1998 or ’99.
“At a certain time down the road we’re not all capable of doing the things we once were,” Conner said. “I’m not the same person I was 25 years ago. My plan is to maximize my abilities and where I have any shortages to add some people to where someone else will eventually be in charge of the boat. And it’s conceivable that I wouldn’t even be on the boat.”
Maybe he started thinking about completing the transition from skipper to CEO about the time he met Louise Daintry Bell in a New York art gallery after the Cup in ’92. They were married last year, and occasionally Daintry serves as “17th man,” hunkered down in a yellow slicker.
Sometimes now Conner also seems like a passenger. He seldom raises his voice, which surprises those who know him only by reputation.
He can still sail. He won the Etchells class world championship at Newport Beach on his 52nd birthday last September. But he has a plan, as well as a model for his plan.
“I’ve been an admirer of Roger Penske’s,” he said. “He’s done a good job of keeping his love of motor sports alive while managing the racing.”
Conner has come to realize that his time and daunting persona can be put to more productive use breaking down corporate doors.
“It has to start with money,” he said. “Without money, how can you buy the technology? If the best sailor in the world doesn’t have a fast boat to sail, how is he going to win the America’s Cup?”
One way is if the opponents commit enough tactical blunders, as Mighty Mary did. But Conner can’t count on the Kiwis to leave any doors open, not when they’re 37-1. He needed a better boat.
He said many times, “We have a poor design.”
“We talked to everyone,” Conner said. “We talked to Bruce Nelson, Bruce Farr, a lot of designers. They’re all in the marketing business. If money had been no object, a lot of people would have had Bruce Farr.”
So Conner stayed with David Pedrick, but he warns, “Don’t be so quick to blame Dave Pedrick.
“That boat did not break in half because Dave Pedrick made a mistake. He’s just a member of the design team. It wasn’t Dave Pedrick who designed the keel. It was a structural engineer who does not work for Dave Pedrick.”
Conner is loyal to his friends and employees--as long as they remain loyal to him.
Whidden, the president of North Sails whom Conner calls “my tactician and best friend,” noted the transition in Conner at the news conference after the dramatic victory.
“Dennis loves to sail more than you can imagine, and yet he gave up the helm to Paul,” Whidden said. “Believe me, that was a big sacrifice for him. But he decided that it was best for the team to give the other guys a chance to realize their potential.
“We should remember that this is Dennis Conner’s campaign. He has done an excellent job of putting together a great bunch of people and being very unselfish. He deserves a lot of credit for stepping aside--not because he wouldn’t have done just as great a job but because he felt that the sense of team is really important.”