Stars & Stripes Gets Stripped, Badly Beaten

Dennis Conner absorbed a double blow in the America’s Cup today, and his soaring former protege, San Franciscan Paul Cayard, all but assured his AmericaOne will advance to the two-boat challenger finals.

Conner’s Stars & Stripes was stripped of an earlier win by an international jury for breaking the rules, then trounced on the water by Prada, a team it must overtake to stay alive in the Cup.

With seven races complete for the leaders in the 10-race series, AmericaOne tops the standings at 6-1 after easily beating America True by 1 minute 16 seconds Monday, and Prada is second at 5-2 after topping Stars & Stripes by 1:09. Stars & Stripes and Nippon are tied for third with three wins. Conner’s team still has four races left and Nippon has three. A string of wins and an unlikely collapse by one of the front-runners still could vault Conner’s team up to or past Prada or AmericaOne.

But that appears unlikely after Monday’s on-water toasting, in which helmsman Ken Read put Stars & Stripes across the line early despite being unpressured by Prada. The inexplicable gaffe put him 45 seconds back because Stars & Stripes had to recross the line and restart.

Sunday night, Stars & Stripes got bad news when it was stripped of an opening-day win over Nippon for breaking rules barring teams from building appendages such as rudders in countries other than their own or, for convenience, New Zealand. The rule follows nationality requirements that boats be designed and built in the competitor’s home country.

Conner’s crew used a new rudder made in Australia in the first semifinal race. Nippon, which lost, protested, and Stars & Stripes immediately changed back to an older one.

Meanwhile, all eyes were on AmericaOne, whose only semifinal loss came because of an unusual gear breakdown in the second race, and Prada, whose crew rallied from a shock when its mast snapped on the third day of racing.

The co-favorites did not disappoint. Cayard spotted a wind shift just before the start, sought and won the favored right side of the line and shot in front of crosstown San Francisco rival America True, whose loss Monday dropped its record to 1-5.

Next came silver and red Prada. Unflappable skipper Francesco deAngelis also won the right side of the line in close combat. Why Read accidentally slipped over the line when the two boats split was inexplicable.