America's Cup Roundup

Conner sees continuing presence for United States

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- Dennis Conner, the first American to lose the America's Cup and first to reclaim it, says the absence of an American yacht in February's Cup final is disappointing but won't deter the country's future participation.

For only the second time in its 152-year history, a match for the Cup will take place without an American contestant.

"As an American, and I think the name of my teams Stars & Stripes says it all, I certainly was rooting for the United States to have a good showing here," he said.

"While I'm somewhat disappointed, maybe more than somewhat, that the United States didn't do better I think it was good to have three reasonably strong teams here."

Switzerland's Alinghi will race defender Team New Zealand in a nine-race series, ensuring the next Cup regatta will take place either in New Zealand or Europe.

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That event will likely take place in 2005, meaning 10 years will have elapsed since a Cup regatta was held in an American port. It was won by New Zealand in San Diego in 1995 after being defended for 132 years by the New York Yacht Club.

In 2000 the last surviving American challenger, San Francisco's AmericaOne was beaten by Prada of Italy in a tight challenger final. Prada went to race Team New Zealand and lose 5-0.

On Sunday, the Oracle syndicate of software magnate Larry Ellison, also representing San Francisco, was beaten 5-1 by Alinghi in the deciding race of the latest challenger final.

Conner's own campaign, his ninth since 1974, ended weeks earlier when it was beaten 4-0 in a quarterfinal repechage by Seattle's OneWorld Challenge. OneWorld went on to lose to Oracle in the semifinals.

Four-time Cup-winner Conner said the respective failures of the American teams was unlikely to deter future U.S. participation in the world's oldest sporting event.

Ellison has indicated he will challenge again and Conner said he hoped to do so, for the 10th time, if he could manage funding. While Oracle and OneWorld were heavily backed by billionaires, Conner's all-American campaign for the New York Yacht Club relied on sponsorship.

Connor saw no reason to criticize performances of the latest U.S. challengers.

"I don't think it was that the U.S. didn't do a good job. It was just that Alinghi was better.

"It's sad not to have the U.S. in the final but hopefully we'll see Larry [Ellison] back. It's in my blood but talk's cheap and I have to go and raise the money. Until I have it I can't really raise my hand."

Conner said yachting would always struggle in the United States to win public interest and to attract corporate sponsorship.

"I think the U.S. likes this event but it's a big country with a lot of other sports. The Super Bowl and the college sports and basketball, football, baseball all take away from the sailing."

Conner said he would like to see the America's Cup be made up of sailors which represented the nation from which they hailed. He was proud to field an all-American crew but most syndicates in Auckland are multinational.

Alinghi has sailors from 15 countries.

"I think you can argue convincingly one way or the other but I think the rule should be looked at by the challenger and the defender," he said.

"I think it's a kind of nationalistic thing and I think it would be nice to see a team that really, truly represented a country as opposed to 15 different guys out of 16 people."

His view was opposed by Alan Bond, who mounted the Australian challenge that took the America's Cup from the United States in 1983. Bond's Australia II beat Conner's Liberty to end the New York Yacht Club's 132-year Cup tenure.

"I believe sportsmen should be recognized for their ability wherever the opportunity arises," said Bond. "While it is a national challenge it shouldn't be limited to such."

Bond: Australia may be back if Cup goes to Europe

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- Australia might challenge for the America's Cup if the next event is held in Europe, Cup-winner Alan Bond said Tuesday.

Australia was the first country to take the trophy from the United States, ending the New York Yacht Club's 132-year reign as its holder in 1983.

Bond led the challenge at Newport, Rhode Island which brought the trophy to Fremantle, from which it was reclaimed by the U.S. at its first attempt four years later.

Under Bond, Australia built the 12-meter yacht Australia II which had the world's first winged keel and which came from 3-1 down to beat the American defender Liberty 4-3.

Australia has managed largely piecemeal challenges since 1987 when Dennis Conner, who in bowing to Australia II had entered history as the first American to lose the Cup, won it back for the San Diego Yacht Club.

In 1995 the Australian challenger OneAustralia sank off San Diego during a challengers' race against New Zealand.

In 2000, although the Cup's presence in New Zealand offered Australia a geographical advantage over all challengers, there was only one Australian team.

Young Australia was poorly funded and used an old and battered boat sailed by a youthful crew led with a 19-year-old skipper. The crew lived aboard a floating crane.

There was no Australian team among the challengers contesting the current Cup regatta off Auckland, although Australians Peter Gilmour and James Spithill were skipper and helmsman respectively of Seattle's OneWorld Challenge.

Bond said a Cup regatta in Europe, which will take place in two years if Switzerland's Alinghi takes the trophy from New Zealand in February, might provide the attraction which lures Australia back to the event.

"It's very difficult for Australia to mount a challenge with the financial commitments necessary today," Bond said.

"You're talking $100 million plus so you need an individual who's willing to risk that money when the reward is to pass the trophy to a yacht club to hold for you."

Bond challenged for the America's Cup four times: in 1974, 1977, 1980 and 1983, following an Australian Cup tradition established by Sir Frank Packer.

Bond was jailed in August 1996 for a fraud involving the Manet painting La Promenade. He was sentenced to a further four years in 1997 after pleading guilty to illegally siphoning off 1.2 billion Australian dollars from one of his companies, Bell Resources, to prop up his ailing Bond Corporation.

The leniency of the sentence was appealed by the Australian government and was increased to seven years by the Western Australian Court of Appeal.

The High Court later overturned that ruling and reinstated a four-year term. Bond was released from prison in March 2000.

Bond said Tuesday the Cup playing field had changed in the past 20 years.

"The budget in 1983 was $10 million," he said. "We went a few million over the $10 million budget and that was in Australian dollars.

"But you have to look back on the fact that we'd had four challenges so we had a buildup of costs going back to 1967. We had a lot of equipment intact.

"And the team was a lot less professional then than it is now."

McCaw cool on future America's Cup campaigns

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- Craig McCaw's first America's Cup campaign may be his last.

The Seattle mobile phone pioneer whose US$80 million OneWorld Challenge was beaten last month in the Cup semifinals said he would not plan a new campaign until he knew how future Cups would be organized.

"The spirit of the America's Cup has to be about tough competition on the water and camaraderie off the water," McCaw said.

"Many current and former participants have wonderful ideas about how to change and improve the event.

"I would be happy to be part of the reform discussions that I believe are sorely needed but until I see some leadership in that area I would not want to proceed and in effect be endorsing the present situation."

McCaw attempted through OneWorld to combine his love for sailing with a passion for the environment. But his syndicate was unwillingly controversial, twice penalized for rules infringements and harassed for its use of former Team New Zealand sailors and designers.

The nationalistic group BlackHeart, which mounted a hostile campaign against New Zealanders sailing for foreign teams, locked on to OneWorld early, erecting billboards which ridiculed its activities.

After OneWorld was eliminated, BlackHeart's attention swung exclusively o the Swiss team Alinghi which is headed by former Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts.

The Swiss received letters threatening violence to New Zealand sailors and their families.

"While the atmosphere of the event has at times been difficult for us in Auckland we continue to love the city and the people of New Zealand and hope the racing can be completed in a way that honors the Kiwi spirit," McCaw said.

He thanked his partner in the OneWorld Challenge, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, for his support. Allen put an estimated US$10 million dollars into the team.

"[Allen] stepped up and stood behind the team when raising sponsorship dollars was difficult in the post-Sept. 11th environment and a struggling economy," McCaw said.

In a joint statement McCaw and Allen described OneWorld as "probably the finest group of men and women ever assembled for the purpose of winning the America's Cup."

"We are proud of the effort that each put forward in the face of adversity. We hope to be fortunate to sail with them another day."

Notebook: Coutts doesn't like microphones

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts will share tactical thoughts with television viewers during the America's Cup match in February, but only if he is forced to.

Coutts said Monday he will wear a microphone during Alinghi's races with Team New Zealand in the 31st Cup match starting Feb.15 if regatta organizers tell him he must.

The New Zealander who has helmed two Cup-winning yachts said he would much prefer to keep his thoughts to himself.

Four members of each 16-man crew wear microphones during Cup races to allow a world television audience to hear their comments and conversations.

Coutts chooses not to allow his voice to be heard and not because of shyness. By studying on-board conversations, it might be possible for one team to draw detailed conclusions about another's configuration and performance.

Coutts said the rules for the Cup match may compel skippers to wear microphones.

"I think that's in the match conditions and if it's a condition then I'll have to comply," he said. "But it is one of the things I personally choose not to be distracted by.

"I know that it may make the sport more interesting but I put it to you that I can't hear the quarterback calling the shots when the San Francisco 49ers run onto the field.

"There are certain things in sport that I think could be more private but if that's the decision of the organizers then I'll run with it."

Skirts in fashion again

The conclusion of the Cup challenger series and the start of preparations for the 31st Cup match has seen a return of the regatta's harsh standards of secrecy.

On Jan. 7 challenger finalists Alinghi and Oracle and defenders Team New Zealand were required to drop the skirts that had shrouded their yachts for several months and to reveal the secrets of their hull shapes, keels and rudders.

Having done so, the teams were able to go about their business over the past few weeks with few of their previous concerns about what their rivals might see.

None of the teams could change its boat while the final was in progress and secrecy became temporarily unnecessary.

With the conclusion of the match, changes can be made and Alinghi and Team New Zealand have once again raised their defenses and their skirts.

Alinghi took a day off Monday to recover from the celebration of its finals win over Oracle. On Tuesday it returned to the Hauraki Gulf and its program of testing with its race yachts SUI-64 and SUI-75.

"There's a lot of value in doing our own testing with 75 because we know exactly what the characteristics of that yacht are in each range of conditions," said skipper Russell Coutts.

"Then we can judge the performance of any changes we make to 64 and know what the effect of those changes are."

 

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