Dentist in the air as cup boat opens up

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Dennis Conner's dentist was catapulted through the air as the back of America's Cup boat Stars & Stripes crumpled like a tin can on the Hauraki Gulf yesterday.

The man who maintains Conner's trademark grin, 62-year-old Dr Merritt Barber, was sitting on the stern of the yacht as 17th man in the crew when the deck separated from the hull.

While Dr Barber was "a little banged up," the boat was worse off.

Conner has been given two days to repair the damage, or his chances of staying in Auckland for Christmas begin to diminish by the hour.

If the boat is not ready to race at midday on Wednesday, Conner will have to forfeit races. At nine points a pop, it could ruin Stars & Stripes' odds of surviving the cut for the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals in the New Year.

The Conner compound was covered in a cloud of carbon dust through the night as sailors helped boat-builders reconstruct the transom, which had opened like a scallop shell.

Dr Barber, nursing a cut hand, said there were no tell-tale noises while the boat was warming up for its race against Prada in calm conditions at noon.

"We were sailing along really well before the start, heading back to the startline, when there was a huge boom," he said.

"I was thrown three feet in the air, right back into the mainsheet blocks. Peter Isler [a tactician] grabbed me and I crawled in behind him because we weren't sure if the mast was going to come down as well."

Dr Barber, a financial supporter of the campaign, said the mood on the boat on the tow home was upbeat.

"The guys feel that they can be aggressive and go after it now - this isn't the end and they've got nothing to lose."

In an act of goodwill, the Swiss campaign - who folded yesterday - offered the services of their now unemployed boat-builders to Stars & Stripes, but Conner declined.

It was a rough day all-round for Stars & Stripes tactician Peter Holmberg, who became ill with food poisoning soon after the accident and was rushed to hospital when the boat docked.