AMERICA’S CUP : No Wake for Conner in This Race

America 3’s Bill Koch went along for the ride as the 17th man on his Mighty Mary Sunday. From his perch on the stern of the boat, he would have an excellent view of archrival Dennis Conner figuratively and perhaps literally sinking in Mighty Mary’s wake.

This, after all, was to be the day Mighty Mary’s 15 women (and Dave Dellenbaugh) joined PACT 95’s Young America in the America’s Cup defender finals.

Not only did it not happen, it did not happen in a biggest and most embarrassing of manners.

Conner’s Stars & Stripes delivered its most lopsided victory since it defeated America 3’s previous boat by 5:47 on Jan. 14.

Stars & Stripes’ margin of victory was 4:49, and that was the closest the race had been since the second of six legs.

Consequently, the two rivals will square off one more time. Conner drew even with Sunday’s victory, when it was do or die for him, and a Tuesday sail-off will be do or die for both.

For Conner, this race represented a remarkable turnaround in the seven days since Stars & Stripes nearly sank because of a damaged keel. The program seemed in complete disarray, its brain trust preoccupied with parrying America 3’s protests about its replacement keel and its crew struggling with a seemingly overmatched boat. The losses piled up, four in a row and six out of seven in the semifinal series.

Stars & Stripes had, in fact, won a second race in the semifinals, but America 3’s protest caused that victory to be nullified. Sunday’s race was a re-sail of that race. But for that successful protest, Sunday’s race would have been the sail-off and Conner would be in the finals.

Sunday’s race was virtually over before it started. Dellenbaugh, Mighty Mary’s lonesome Dave, is responsible for steering the boat over the starting line. He did that prematurely Sunday, forcing his boat to reverse gears and restart. Paul Cayard, Stars and Stripes’ skipper, had something to do with Dellenbaugh’s dilemma, forcing Mighty Mary into an inescapable position against the line.

By the time Mighty Mary got back across the starting line, Stars & Stripes was 53 seconds ahead. The worst previous start in the defender series was a 25-second deficit by Stars & Stripes against Young America in January.

With such a cushion, Team Conner never found itself in the quandary that prompted it to take daring and fruitless gambles Friday against Mighty Mary and Saturday against Young America. It lost considerable ground in both races when it went off on remote tangents in search of either a miracle or friendly winds.

If Stars & Stripes seemed off by itself Sunday, it was simply because Mighty Mary could not get close. Stars & Stripes crossed the America 3boat three times on the first upwind, each time by a substantial expanse of ocean. From then on, the two boats might as well have been on separate courses.

From Koch’s perspective on the stern of Mighty Mary, it was no way to spend a Sunday afternoon. His closest companion was America 3’s seemingly ever-present red flag, protesting changes allegedly made by Conner’s team when it was repairing the keel.

Late Sunday night, however, America 3withdrew its latest protest.