Even the Sheep Are Happy as Conner Led to Slaughter

Few New Zealanders consider the America’s Cup sailing races off San Diego a sport, and even fewer understand its arcane rules. But they have embraced Peter Blake’s Black Magic with a fervor usually reserved for their rugby heroes.

Live television coverage of “The Slaughter on the Water,” as the headline writers here call it, has stopped the nation each morning as the seemingly unstoppable Team New Zealand has raced to a 3-0 lead in the best-of-nine finals against the profoundly loathed Dennis Conner and Team Stars & Stripes.

Annoyed that office workers are ignoring their work to watch telecasts, which begin here at 7:30 a.m. and usually end around 11 a.m., firms have banished television sets from the premises. Crowds form on sidewalks and in malls to watch sets in store windows.

Airline passengers on flights within the country are routinely advised by the pilot of race tactics and wind shifts, as are taxi drivers by their dispatchers. Judges interrupt trials for updates. According to wire service reports, one surgeon interrupted an operation.

Even some ministers began their sermons with a report on the race on the first day of the finals Sunday, when, a Television New Zealand spokeswoman said, a quarter of the nation’s 3.5 million people watched. Only a rugby match last year between New Zealand and Australia had a larger audience.

Rugby’s World Cup begins next week in South Africa, and if New Zealand has as much success there as it has had at San Diego, political observers speculate that the government might call for early elections to take advantage of the buoyant mood.

In the America’s Cup, the victory--considered so inevitable by most Kiwis that a ticker-tape parade already is being planned in Auckland--is doubly sweet because it comes at the expense of Conner, known here as “Dirty Dennis.”

Most New Zealanders regard him as a cheat who would do anything to win, disregarding his accomplishments and unparalleled record.

At an Auckland shopping center this week, the anti-Conner mood was evident as lines formed to sign felt-tip pen messages on a six-foot-high good-luck card being packaged for the New Zealand crew.

“Rip ‘em apart,” wrote 86-year-old Warwick Lindop. Asked to elaborate, he said: “I don’t like Dennis Conner. He’s a bad sport.”

The people here will never forget the times Conner has insulted their sailors. In 1987, he insinuated that they were cheating by building a 12-meter boat of fiberglass called “the Plastic Fantastic.” The next year, at a news conference after turning back New Zealand’s challenge, he said to Kiwi boat designer Bruce Farr, “Get off the stage, you loser.”

Given most of the credit for thrashing Conner is Blake, Team New Zealand’s leader. New Zealanders have even started wearing red socks, just like the lucky ones worn by Blake.

A gift from his wife Pippa, Blake has worn them every day that he has sailed. The only time he was not on the boat, Black Magic suffered its lone loss in four months, to oneAustralia in the challenger finals.

Manufacturers report that they sold 100,000 pairs of the official red socks within a 10-day period, good news for Team New Zealand because $5 of each $10 pair goes to the syndicate.

Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard, the Queen’s representative, was photographed lifting her skirt to display her red socks, and the national rugby team, the All-Blacks, broke with tradition by wearing red instead of black socks. The crew of the navy frigate Wellington has been ordered to wear them.

“They say the sheep are even wearing red socks (in celebration),” said Bob McNeil, a reporter for TV3 in New Zealand.

That might not be true, but Dame Catherine has also put them on her dog’s paws.

* The Associated Press contributed to this story.