Conner’s Boat in Question

Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes won on the water but lost in the committee room today after having been found guilty of using an illegal rudder in one of its previous America’s Cup semifinals.

The decision means Stars and Stripes, now in second place in the six-team semifinals, could have points stripped from its total. That would harm its chances of being one of the two teams to sail off for the right to face Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup.

AmericaOne, which leads the standings, beat Le Defi Francais by 1 minute 16 seconds, the identical time by which Prada beat America True, while Stars and Stripes had a close encounter with Nippon, winning by 10 seconds.

An Australian-built rudder was used on Stars and Stripes in the first race of the semifinals but has not been used since.

The America’s Cup arbitration panel ruled today the use of a rudder built in Australia breached article 19 of the cup protocol, the regulations governing cup racing.

Those rules require appendages to be built either in the home country--the United States for Stars and Stripes--or the host country, New Zealand.