Yachting: Conner thumbs nose at critics

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Dennis Conner's big, bad, bulletproof boat is making steep waves in this America's Cup.

Four months ago, before it all began, critics scoffed at Stars & Stripes - it was built too late, it was too wide and would be too slow to hack the pace with the sleeker challengers in the Louis Vuitton Cup.

But this is Conner we're talking about. He has the knack of pulling out critical wins when he has to. So far, his trusty crew have delivered, putting Stars & Stripes in top spot after the opening two races of the challenger semifinals.

In its giantkilling win over Prada yesterday, Stars & Stripes was the only boat of six that did not suffer noticeable damage as the winds on the Hauraki Gulf whipped up over 30 knots. It is also the only unbeaten boat thus far.

Odds-on final favourites AmericaOne gave up victory over fellow San Franciscans America True when they could not raise a headsail, and Nippon hung on through halyard problems to beat winless Le Defi France.

Tom Whidden, Conner's best friend and tactician through seven cup campaigns, explained why Stars & Stripes survived amid others' turmoil.

"Because we started late, we made our boat a bit more bulletproof than some of the others," he said.

"We have a strong mast, a good strong boat and we made our sails extra strong. We may not have the lightest gear out there but we feel pretty confident about it."

The boat, which appeared to have had some underwater alterations overnight, is faster than it was in the round robins. But its crew have also made some astute calls on the racecourse that have put Stars & Stripes into the lead.

For the second day in a row, Stars & Stripes got it right off the line. They wanted the left, on the advice of Whidden and navigator Peter Isler, and it was up to helmsman Ken Read and strategist Peter Holmberg to get the left.

Straight away there was a windshift - to the left - and the blue boat was away and laughing.

Downwind, Luna Rossa made up ground, getting to within 10s at the bottom mark.

But disaster struck the Italians twice in a matter of minutes. Stars & Stripes took off to the left again, taking little interest in Prada's position, and made the winning gain. Then Luna Rossa's boom vang, which holds the boom down, broke in two places, and it eventually lost by 1m 7s.

AmericaOne were hurting last night after losing a race they had in their grasp. After a series of lost sails and broken spinnaker poles on both boats, Paul Cayard's new boat USA61 lost its handsome lead when the jib halyard snapped.

That led to the plastic headfoil disintegrating, leaving AmericaOne unable to hoist a headsail. They sailed the rest of the course half-naked, with America True grabbing their first point with a 2m 23s victory.

A downcast Cayard said: "The losses are extremely critical. Every point is very important and we don't really know where its going to end up in the end.

"The good points were that the boat was going really well and we've got eight races left."

Nippon scored their first win in a close tussle with the French. Asura was comfortably ahead across the start-line, and looked well in control, until the jib halyard broke at the end of the second run.

The two boats were side by side upwind until Sixieme Sens could no longer live in the wind shadow. Le Defi rounded the top mark badly and came home 38s in arrears.