Nothing Magical About Team Conner : Yachting: America’s Cup almost New Zealand’s cup after Kiwis sail to 3:37 victory in Race 4.

Get a baggage tag ready for the America’s Cup.

If skipper Dennis Conner can’t conjure up some voodoo of his own against Black Magic 1, the oldest trophy in international sports will be swept away to New Zealand.

The swift Black Magic 1 carried Team New Zealand within one race of taking the America’s Cup from Conner, all but burying the mermaid boat Young America at sea on Thursday. The margin was 3 minutes 37 seconds, giving Black Magic 1 a 4-0 lead.

This is the worst beating a challenger has given a U.S. defender in 144 years. If this were a traditional best-of-seven finals, the Cup would be in Kiwi hands. But it was changed three years ago to a best-of-nine. Race Five is scheduled for Saturday.

“It’s unbelievable how easy it’s been,” Kiwi tactician Murray Jones said.

Conner needs to win the five remaining races, a virtually impossible task against what appears to be a perfect boat and a well-tuned crew that has lost only once on the water in 42 races.

A four-time America’s Cup winner, Conner also is the only U.S. skipper to lose the Cup. Now he’s in danger of letting it go twice in 12 years.

In 1983, he lost it to Australia II in Newport, R.I., ending the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year winning streak. This loss would come in Conner’s home waters, where he learned to sail more than 40 years ago.

Conner beat Kiwi crews in the challenger semifinals in 1987 and in the bizarre finals in 1988, and insulted them both times.

Black Magic 1, skippered by match racing star Russell Coutts, has led at all 24 marks in the finals. There hasn’t been much match racing, though, because of Black Magic 1’s speed.

Thursday’s race around six-leg, 18.55-mile course was in typical San Diego conditions: shifty wind of 5-10 knots and seas of 2-4 feet.

There was hope for Young America, but only for about 25 minutes. Co-helmsman Paul Cayard won the aggressive pre-start maneuvers and hit the starting line just as the gun went off, with a seven-second lead and more speed than Black Magic 1.

Young America got the right side of the course, and with it starboard tack right-of-way. It led by about two lengths the first time the 75-foot yachts converged, then by one length the second time they came together.

But there was more wind on the left side, and Black Magic was well ahead at the third crossing, 25 minutes into the race.

Young America then took the left side of the course, but apparently it didn’t help because Black Magic 1 led by 1:09 at the first mark. The previous biggest lead for Black Magic 1 at the first buoy was 39 seconds in Race Two.

Black Magic 1 piled it on during the next two legs, extending the lead to 2:49 at the halfway point. The biggest lead was 3:48 at the windward fifth mark.

If the Kiwis prevail, as appears certain, the next America’s Cup will be in Auckland, the City of Sails, in 1999-2000.

It would be a huge triumph for the little guy, which until Australia II and its radical winged-keel came along, never happened.

Trying to avoid collapses that plagued them in three previous America’s Cup regattas, the Kiwis built their program around the sailors. They include top match racers like Coutts, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, and ocean racers like Peter Blake, who set an around-the-world record last year.

And the sailors had input into the design of Black Magic 1 and its newer sister ship Black Magic 2, which dominated the challenger fleet during the four round-robins. Black Magic 1 was used from the semifinals on.

Young America, which belongs to defeated syndicate PACT 95, was built with technology from Boeing, Ford and Cray Research.

Conner again left all the steering to Cayard. Conner has steered on only two of the 24 legs.