Wind in Conner's favour

SAILING

The count was stopped at nine in what was supposed to be a knock-out contest to find the defender for the America's Cup yesterday, writes Stuart Alexander from San Diego.

In a move which undermines the competition, but which is in keeping with an American tradition of bending the rules, the defence organisers were trying, right up to the start of the final race, to cook up a deal to keep all three contenders in the hunt.

For months the format of the competition has been laid down and for days the crunch match yesterday between Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes and Bill Koch's America3 has been building up. Huge wrangles in front of an international jury have heightened public awareness, in a less than beneficial way for the sport, as the two syndicates have seemed to be fighting for survival.

Both Koch and Conner have a large number of sponsors who have had to wait until now for television in the United States to start covering the event and, tied at 3-3, neither is confident of winning the decider. The weather has moved in Conner's favour as his yacht is more suited to lighter airs. Koch knows that, although he probably has a faster boat, Mighty Mary has little edge in such conditions and his near all-women crew is less adept than Conner's.

Under America's Cup rules, the defence committee can pick any boat which raced in the final, not just the winner. The new formula keeps the Koch machine at their disposal. Conner, in any case, had been angling to take over the boat if he were to beat Koch in the final race.