Conner Bows Out of World Championship : He Cites Risk, Resources; Japan Gets Spot in Semis

SAN DIEGO — With Dennis Conner in New York pitching sponsors, the first International America’s Cup Class World Championship officially has been reduced to what most suspected it was all along.

“This, after all, is just a practice regatta,” said Tom Ehman, executive vice president and general manager of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, which is staging the event as a prelude to the Cup defense in 1992.

Conner, sailing his satisfactorily fast new Stars & Stripes, placed third in the fleet-racing phase to qualify for the semifinals starting today but then withdrew, which he had said he might do.

“We would be placing our boat at a higher risk, which we cannot afford,” Conner said in a statement issued Thursday.

In the four fleet races, the new class has proven as fragile as feared, and Team Dennis Conner owns one boat, one mast and a limited supply of sails.

“We’re the only one in the top six (of nine competitors) that doesn’t have multiple boats,” said Tom Whidden, Conner’s tactician, “and, when you get into match racing, you double the stress.”

Conner flew to New York Thursday night to call on potential sponsors today.

Syndicate executive Jerry La Dow said, “We’ve got lists of appointments for him--one of the reasons we didn’t really plan long-term to do other things.”

La Dow indicated that the appointments were made before the IACC Worlds started. They could have been canceled, but at the risk of missing some badly needed funds.

Conner’s withdrawal instead will send first-place New Zealand, with David Barnes or Rod Davis steering, against Kiwi expatriate Chris Dickson’s fifth-place Nippon Challenge in today’s second semifinal at 12:30. Paul Cayard’s second-place Il Moro di Venezia (ITA-15) will go off 15 minutes earlier against his fourth-place backup boat, ITA-1, with sparring partner John Kolius at the helm.

If Davis steers New Zealand’s entry, not one boat will be skippered by a sailor from the country it represents.

The winners will meet for the title at 1:15 Saturday.

If New Zealand’s revenge for losses to Conner’s catamaran in ’88 and in the challenger finals at Fremantle in ’87 will have to wait, the match against Dickson should arouse some interest. It might make Dickson’s day to beat the boat backed by Sir Michael Fay, the syndicate owner who suggested they go separate ways after ’87. Fay arrived in town Wednesday.

If Dickson needed to be fired up, New Zealand skipper David Barnes provided the match Wednesday, before Conner’s decision to withdraw gave Nippon a reprieve.

“It would be disappointing if we had to race against Nippon when the top four (boats) were pretty well determined,” Barnes told New Zealand broadcaster Peter Montgomery. “The first four were head and shoulders above the rest of the fleet.”

The rivalry between Barnes and Dickson goes back to their dinghy days on 470s. In ‘86-87, Barnes, on the fiberglass 12-meter KZ-5, was the sparring partner for Dickson’s KZ-7.

Still, Montgomery allowed, the Kiwis would rather be racing Conner.

“Conner is Mt. Everest,” Montgomery said.

Apparently, nobody tried to move the mountain away from his decision.

“That presumes that anyone could ever push Dennis at all,” Ehman said.

But few were pleased that Conner won’t be competing, depriving the event of an American entry.

Said Jamie Reynolds, a producer for ESPN, which will telecast Saturday’s title race live, “How much interest can you generate if the hometown favorite isn’t there?”

There was some grumbling about Conner’s perceived arrogance in abandoning the event, but official comments were supportive.

“It would have been better for television,” Ehman said, “but (the ACOC) television show is a world-wide feed, so I’m really not too concerned about the American television.

“I’m very disappointed. The regatta is not as good for not having one of the four boats and not having an American boat in it. Actually, I’m pleasantly surprised that he sailed as long as he did. I wasn’t sure he was going to sail at all.”

Ehman said Whidden told him of Conner’s decision Wednesday night at the Worlds Ball and that he did not talk to Conner at all.

“I wouldn’t say he’s let the tournament down because I don’t think they have an obligation to make my regatta good,” Ehman said. “They have an obligation to successfully defend or challenge for the America’s Cup.

“The regatta would be better if Dennis was in it, but did he let me down? No.”

San Diego Yacht Club Commodore Sandy Purdon said, “I think it’s a very intelligent move. He’s either going to win or lose in a match race, which means you have to push your boat to whatever it takes. If you break something, it may take two months to get a new mast or a new boom before you can go sailing again.

“I don’t think he can be faulted. He gave everybody warning that he might not sail.”

Whidden said, “We’re very concerned about the public’s perception that we’re not supporting the event. We’re not spoiled brats.”

La Dow said, “Dennis is a hometown guy. It’s kind of hard to properly explain these things to the public. Our sponsors understand. This is a long haul. To push it any more at this point wouldn’t be wise.”

Conner blew out five spinnakers but suffered no other serious damage while learning that his boat is more than competitive with current IACC technology in all wind conditions, upwind and downwind. In those respects, it was a perfect regatta for him.

“That’s why we quit when we were ahead,” La Dow said.

Whidden said, “We were pretty fortunate to have the whole wind spectrum in the fleet races. We ended on a good note.”

La Dow said that rival Bill Koch of the America-3 syndicate had offered to loan Conner sails after the first day of the worlds, when damage to the boats was extreme.

The offer was declined, La Dow said, “But we have very good relations with America-3.”

But as four other boats sail out to compete today, the beautiful midnight-blue Stars & Stripes will rest high in its cradle next to the Chart House.

Is it already a museum piece? Will it ever race again?

Whidden said he and Gary Jobson of America-3 are talking about staging an informal series of races this fall, when Koch will have his second boat.

Conner will still have only one, but Whidden said, “We’ll have a second boat, for sure . . . maybe sometime in February.”

Whidden sized up the remaining fleet for this weekend.

“I think Paul Cayard’s gonna be tough to beat overall,” he said. “I’ll pick New Zealand (in the semifinals). Chris Dickson is an excellent match racer, but I think New Zealand has more speed, unless there’s a (strong) breeze.”