Speculation Ends as Conner Switches Boats : America’s Cup: Stars & Stripes will be left at dock in favor of Pact 95’s speedier Young America.

SAN DIEGO — Dennis Conner will leave Stars & Stripes at the dock and use a rival’s speedier boat in the America’s Cup that begins Saturday.

Pact 95, whose Young America had the best overall record of the defender boats, will also help Conner’s crew train for the Cup and has made available all of its equipment.

The makeup of Conner’s crew will remain unchanged.

“We did not want to look back at the end of the America’s Cup and say we could have done this better,” said Barbara Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Conner.

“We didn’t want to have those regrets. We do acknowledge that Young America is a faster boat.”

Pact 95 said Conner’s decision, apparently the first time a losing boat has been used in the Cup, is a recognition of Young America’s prowess.

“We’re a proud organization,” said Pact 95 President John Marshall, who was with Conner for four America’s Cup campaigns. “This is a real compliment. . . . It recognizes the technology that went into producing a very fine boat.”

While the two syndicates have feuded, Marshall said that stage had passed and both teams are fully focused on collaborating to defend the Cup.

“We race hard to win, but in the end we are part of a final process to keep the Cup here,” he said, adding that he knew of no other instance of a defeated boat being used in the America’s Cup.

In four months of races, Young America compiled 24 victories compared with Stars & Stripes’ 19--Conner’s boat also had three victories on the water erased when two round robins were shortened by weather problems.

Stars & Stripes was the slowest boat among the three defender syndicates, but its crew is considered the most experienced. Young America’s narrower hull allows it to cut through choppy seas more efficiently than the flared-body Stars & Stripes.

Representatives from the teams will meet next week to discuss how to handle sponsorship questions. Sponsor logos appear on sails, crew uniforms and booms, and it was unclear Saturday how that space on Young America would be divvied up among the various sponsors of both teams.

Schwartz said Conner would use his own sails inscribed with his own sponsors’ names, but Marshall said that had not been resolved yet.

“There won’t be anything that stands in the way of getting the job done,” Marshall said.

Young America’s hull, featuring a mermaid mural painted by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, will remain free of signage, Marshall said.

Members of Pact 95 and Team Dennis Conner trained in Young America Saturday, and Conner is planning to use Stars & Stripes and Young America to prepare for the best-of-nine series and even on race days to tune up for the contests themselves, Marshall said.

For David Pedrick, one of Stars & Stripes’ designers, the decision to drop Stars & Stripes was frustrating.

“It is a disappointment to have succeeded with Stars & Stripes and then ultimately have the boat not used,” Pedrick said from Newport, R.I. “It certainly is a disappointment.”

Pedrick said a smaller budget and different priorities by Team Dennis Conner management handicapped the design crew.

Conner will defend the Cup against Team New Zealand, which has lost on the water only once since Cup trials began. The contest is a rematch of the 1988 Cup.

Conner’s stunning come-from-behind finish last week--he made up 42 boat lengths in the final leg--over U.S. syndicate America3 pushed him into the Cup.