28 years after his infamous appearance on The Holmes Show, Dennis Conner speaks to Newstalk ZB's Rachel Smalley on his predictions for this year's America's Cup
Sailing great Dennis Conner predicts Team New Zealand will win the America's Cup and he says they'll do it after pulling off the "eighth wonder of the world".
Conner, a four-time America's Cup winner, told Newstalk ZB's Rachel Smalley there won't be an amazing comeback from Jimmy Spithill this time.
Spithill and Oracle Team USA trail Emirates Team New Zealand 3-0 heading into the Sunday's racing. The first team to seven race wins will lift the Auld Mug.
"They're in a great position to win this whole thing. I don't see Oracle [Team USA] coming back with the same miracle they did last time. Team New Zealand have done a wonderful job coming up with some very creative ideas - with the bicycles and with the control of the foils and wing done by a single person with both hands on the wheel and they've done a great job in the team support," Conner said in an interview with Rachel Smalley on Newstalk ZB's Early Edition this morning.
Listen live to Team New Zealand's races on Sunday and Monday on Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport
The 74-year-old said the fact Team New Zealand got back on the water so quickly after the dramatic pitch-pole while racing Team BAR during the qualifying playoffs is an impressive feat.
"They haven't made any big mistakes. They had a bit of drama when they messed up at the start and cartwheeled. To me that's the whole story of this America's Cup - how that whole team pulled together and got that boat out.
"The mast was in shreds and they put the new mast in ready to go the next day - that's the eighth wonder of the world. Very very very impressive to me. I think, as expected if Team New Zealand go onto win this cup that will be the big story in the event after the technology," he told Rachel Smalley.
Conner who for so long was public enemy number one in New Zealand, is adamant the regatta needs to return down under for the sake of its own future.
"I like what I'm hearing about the possibility of going back to a mono hull and not making it the same circus that we have [in Bermuda]," Conner said.
Before the regatta in Bermuda, all of the competing syndicates, except Team New Zealand, agreed to a blueprint for the next two editions of the Cup.
It would see the event take place every two years with a belief that entrant numbers will double. But Conner is decidedly against that.
"I think if Oracle wins, we could have another event every year and what would separate the America's Cup from just being another regatta?" he asked.
"It used to be something special and they've turned this into a completely different event."
Conner won the Cup in 1974, 1980, 1987 and 1988 and is widely regarded in sailing circles as the man who essentially took it from an amateur event to professional status.
He believes Oracle Team USA's move to take it to Bermuda has had a detrimental effect.
"Right now they [people] don't like it," Conner stated. "There's not many big boats in Bermuda, the hotels are empty, the TV ratings are bad and the whole thing, I think, will be an economic disaster for Bermuda."
Conner, who walked out on an interview with the late Sir Paul Holmes in 1989 and told NZ designer Bruce Farr to "get off the stage loser", wants the regatta back in New Zealand.
"People want to go back to what they saw in Auckland with a downtown event, the centre of the America's Cup, everybody having a great time, lots of people, lots of boats, lots of spectators and I see nothing but good to come out of it."
Conner also believes this could be the last time Sir Russell Coutts will be involved in the America's Cup. Coutts, who led Team NZ to its famous victory over Conner's Young America in 1995 in San Diego, before defending the Cup on the Hauraki Gulf in 2000, is head of the America's Cup Events Authority and Oracle Team USA.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he hangs up his sailing shoes and retires," Conner said.
Who is Dennis Conner:
• Tagged "Dirty Dennis" by his detractors and "Mr America's Cup" by his supporters, Conner,74, lives in California.
