AMERICA’S CUP ’92 : Stars & Stripes Still Flying After Duel : Sailing: Conner’s triple play ensures at least a sailoff in the defender semifinals.

SAN DIEGO —  Give the race, the reprieve and the roses to Dennis Conner.

In the waning days of the defenders’ trials, today’s showdown between Stars & Stripes and America 3 was being billed as the headliner of the America’s Cup semifinals.

But Friday wasn’t exactly leftovers.

- The Race. You could hear the cheers and sense the collective sigh of relief on board Stars & Stripes after Dennis Conner steered Stars & Stripes to a 1-minute, 11-second victory over Kanza.

- The Reprieve. The victory ensured Conner of at least a sailoff against Kanza on Monday. With two racing days remaining in this round, Conner, a three-time Cup winner, could guarantee himself a spot in the defender finals with a victory over America 3 today.

- The Roses. In light, shifty winds that weren’t always what they appeared to be, Conner contested a tactically sound race. Conner refused to be sucked into a tacking game that Kanza taunted Stars & Stripes with on more than one leg, instead answering with a lazy cover or simply sailing with the shifts.

Conner’s camp relished the moment only briefly. Stars & Stripes could spare itself a shootout at high noon Monday with a victory today. So preparations for the rubber match began as soon as the brief celebration ended Friday.

“Every race at this point is critical to us,” Conner said. “If we lose two races, it’s like, see you in 1995. It’s hard to think of anything more important than beating America 3. Tomorrow or the next day, or the season’s over. I think that says it all.”

Actually, if Conner wins today, the round is history, and Kanza and Stars & Stripes would advance. But a Conner loss would keep Kanza and Stars & Stripes tied with five points apiece, and force America 3 , with three points, to win Sunday against Kanza and create a three-way tie.

But the chances of kid sister Kanza not beating America 3 Sunday are slim. Conner merely smiled when the possibility was even mentioned.

Conner was not smiling, however, when asked to comment on the remarks Malin Burnham made to ESPN Friday. Burnham, the president of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, mentioned the possibility that if the two A3 boats were in the final, it might be wise for Stars & Stripes to do some of the sailing.

“It’s not my position to comment on that,” Conner said. “Malin may have the view of that, and the yacht club and Gene Trepte as (chairman of) the defense committee, but ultimately that’s Bill Koch’s call.

“Talk is cheap, and liquor is expensive, and he has the liquor. It’s in his hands. He might be pressured . . . but I don’t think the rules provide for anything other than Bill Koch to do whatever he chooses.”

Earlier in the week, Koch chose to take himself off the “A team” afterguard--which Friday was on Kanza--so he was unavailable.

Certainly Koch, who took his share of heat for his driving abilities, couldn’t have done much worse than Dave Dellenbaugh, the starting helmsman.

Dellenbaugh was so eager to start the race at the right side of the course that he seemed to forget sailing’s golden rule.

You have to go back to Sailing 101 to find it, but Rule 36 in yacht racing requires any boat on port tack to give way, or jibe to the boat on starboard tack. A minute before the start, Kanza jibed away from the start line onto port tack. In dying winds she couldn’t squeeze past Stars & Stripes, which was on starboard tack.

Kanza had to go back and do a 270-degree turn at the start line.

“We got caught up at the starting line on port tack,” said Kanza navigator Bill Campbell. “They had the opportunity to put us in a foul situation which they did.”

The penalty was the only good thing Stars & Stripes got out of the start.

“The bad news was they got the right side of the course and the wind continued to come in from the right side,” Conner said.

During the first windward leg, Kanza, with Buddy Melges in the driver’s seat, made significant gains on Conner, which had the crew on Stars & Stripes mystified.

“We didn’t really know what was wrong. They obviously came from well over a minute behind, to back in the race and you could made a case that they were ahead,” Conner said. “That was the toughest time of the race.”

Tough enough that Conner and tactician Tom Whidden could be seen exchanging words. At one point, Conner even told Whidden that if Stars & Stripes “tried to cross, and we blow it, we’ve lost the race.”

But Kanza took them off the hook by tacking away to the right, thinking the wind would continue to go that way.

Throughout the last half of the leg, Conner worked the shifts well, then got a puff of wind to work in his favor. His lead at the end of the leg, 1:59, was close to what it was at the start.

“In a perfect world, with a start like that, you’d be gone,” Conner said.