AMERICA’S CUP DAILY REPORT : DEFENDER TRIALS : Conner Benefits From Defiant’s Woes

If technology is alive and well in the America’s Cup, so is the human factor.

That was clear Wednesday when America 3lost to Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes by 2 minutes 15 seconds in the third round of defender trials.

The difference was people, not speed. People still sail the boats, and in a close race, Conner’s people did a better job than Bill Koch’s this time. All the carbon-fiber, liquid crystal and secret high-molecular polymers in the world are just so much flotsam when a spinnaker pole breaks and a sail change goes awry.

The day--sunny, with a brisk westerly breeze of 12 to 14 knots--started out fine for America 3. It led Stars & Stripes in a toe-to-toe fight up the first, windward leg. Then its race started falling apart. First the spinnaker pole snapped.

Said Buddy Melges: “Our afterguy (control line) didn’t get to the pole quickly enough, and Melges didn’t turn the helm down quickly enough, and the trimmer maybe didn’t ease out the sail quickly enough, but the pole broke quickly enough.”

Translation: Because the afterguy failed to move the pole away from the headstay before the big sail filled, the carbon-fiber pole broke in two from the sudden pressure.

Conner led by only two to three boat lengths at the next three marks. Then, at the first reach mark, his crew was especially slick in dropping one gennaker while raising another as Stars & Stripes slipped around without missing a beat.

Defiant, trailing by three lengths, tried a similar move, but it was disastrous. The shackle on the genoa headsail opened and the head of the sail slipped out of the sail track and fell into the water. Then, the gennaker they planned to lower wrapped itself on the mast.

The flub resulted in a 58-second gain for Conner on that leg, and the race was his. “It was really unfortunate because it ruined a great race,” Melges said.

Said Conner: “Those of you who have watched the crew work on Stars & Stripes the last few days would concede that it’s starting to look like the Stars & Stripes crew work you’re used to seeing out there.”