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Sailing: Conner makes sluggish Britain pay

Stuart Alexander
Saturday 16 November 2002 01:00 GMT
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When it comes to heaving shoulders and turning round a difficult situation there are few with more experience than Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes. So it was no surprise when they powered their way to a second consecutive win against Britain's GBR Challenge in the quarter final of the Louis Vuitton Cup yesterday.

It was never going to be easy for Britain after a 15-year absence and blooding a whole squad of new players, but just how hard it can be was etched all over the face of the skipper, Ian Walker, as he went 2-1 down in the best of seven.

"We didn't do a very good job at the start, didn't execute the final bit as well as we would have liked, and that put us on the back foot," said Walker. GBR Challenge has already changed its starting helmsman once, abruptly replacing Andy Green with Andy Beadsworth mid-way through the first round robin, and Walker has made it clear that it is not a job which he wishes to do himself.

He did not specifically blame Beadsworth for "pulling the trigger too late" and placing Wight Lightning on the start line two seconds behind Stars & Stripes. And he made it clear that, in deciding just how much aggression, and therefore risk, should be folded into the mix, all the senior crew were involved in making that policy.

Walker was able to praise the crewmen Simon Fry and Guy Reid, whose quick reactions helped rescue the 6ft 7in mastman George Skuodas when he was knocked overboard. But that had little effect on the overall loss by an emphatic 2min 10sec.

There is not much time. Stars & Stripes needs just two more wins for Britain to avoid being home in time to start their advent calendars. The number of days may be stretched as heavy weather once again threatens to intervene, but the number of opportunities remains the same.

In even more strife are the French. Le Defi Areva seem, if anything, to have lost some of their speed after changing keel, bulb and steering system. They are 3-0 down to Sweden's Victory Challenge, who are cruising and seemingly unassailable unless they suffer major gear failure. Even for them, however, the prospect of having to line up against either OneWorld or Prada must look daunting.

The cold shower of three consecutive defeats at the hands of Chris Dickson and Oracle BMW has come as an unexpected shock to Peter Gilmour and a OneWorld team that hit the ground running with eight straight wins in the opening round robin. So too for Italy's Prada who at least pushed Switzerland's Alinghi all the way yesterday.

Russell Coutts eventually made it 3-0, but not before a sail handling error had let Prada take the lead for the first time in 16 three-mile legs so far. Alinghi again turned on its upwind turbocharger, and, for the second day running, scraped home by a meagre eight seconds.

That was enough for Prada, who conceded the fourth race and set about modifying their boat ahead of next week's repêchage.

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