And then there were four

America's Cup skippers look back at the Quarterfinal Repechage

With GBR Challenge and the French aboard Le Defi Areva out at the end of the quarter finals, the culling of the America's Cup challengers continued today with the veterans aboard Team Dennis Conner and the newcomers of the Swedish Victory Challenge being knocked out.

Team Dennis Conner were highly rated before the start given their track record, particularly when they came from nowhere to miss the Louis Vuitton Cup finals last time round by a fraction. This time they looked decidedly lacklustre in the Round Robins, but then changing to their newer boat - the sinker - USA77 they dispatched GBR Challenge. However in this repechage they proved no match for the immaculately sailed OneWorld, although the fate of their rechage sparring partner may change as a result of actions off the water.

The Scandinavian crew on Victory Challenge with a wealth of match racing and Olympic talent aboard put in a plucky performance earning much respect in Cup circles. But again Prada proved to be the class act, while the Swedish cause was not helped by repeated gear failure.

At the post race press conference earlier, Dennis Conner, David Elwell of the New York Yacht Club, Magnus Holmberg, who helmed for Victory Challenge today, Hugo Stenbeck, son of the late Jan Stenbeck who financed the Swede team, Francesco de Angelis of Prada and OneWorld Challenge's Peter Gilmour, gathered to look back at the quarterfinal repechage.

Dennis Conner opened the proceedings: ""I’m not sure if this is my last time here or not so I’d like to take advantage of having the microphone for a few minutes to thank some people that really deserve our gratitude." He went on to pay his respects to the people of New Zealand, the Louis Vuitton Cup organisation, along with his sponsors and the New York Yacht Club, on behalf of whom Team Dennis Conner were challenging.

"While I am disappointed in the way the boat performed in the series, I thought the boat was considerably faster than it was relative to OneWorld when we sailed in round one and I think we made considerable strides. I’m sorry we didn’t do better for those of our fans but we were up against a very well-sailed boat. I’d like to congratulate Peter and James Spithill for a job well done. They didn’t give us many openings or make many mistakes – I watched very carefully and I didn’t see any. So well done to Peter and the guys."

He added: "I think the boat’s a good boat and it still has more to go. I am not disappointed in the boat. I am disappointed in our results because we could have done better. In the past I’ve had boats that we’ve got the best out of and we haven’t done well. It seems like I always have an excuse but this time I don’t think it’s the boat."

During their training USA77 sunk when part of her rudder system broke and put a major hole in their test programme. Conner says this certainly didn't help their training. "I think we can all think of things in our programme that could have been better. Certainly having your boat on the bottom of the ocean isn’t a very good way to have two-boat testing. I think we were a little behind because if we had been down here racing against some of the other guys in September I think we would have known that we had a little way to go. We didn’t realise we were a bit off the pace until round robin one and we had to wait until that was over to do something about it. Whereas I think if we’d had two boats our learning curve would have been further up the ladder when round robin one started."

Was it a money issue? "Up to a certain point, money buys speed," Conner continued. "But in this campaign I didn’t feel disadvantaged. One thing about the budgets, that a lot of people don’t understand, is that it’s a matter of when you have the money that matters a lot.

"In my case sometimes it’s difficult to know for sure that I am going to have a programme until I really earn it because I don’t have the wherewithal to write the cheques myself. So it’s hard to make decisions based on if you had it and ask people to commit their lives and their families to an event that might not happen. For instance, Tom Whidden would be a valuable asset to anyone and it’s hard for me to ask him, such a good friend, to sail with me until I know I can have a decent campaign that will make him proud.

"Having the money upfront is a big advantage over having the money a year later. There’s no questions then if you have enough money for sail development, tack testing, weather development, two boat programme, and a reasonably well-staffed team. So you’re going to be at a small disadvantage. How big depends - if you have one boat - upon how fast your one boat was. We did pretty well last time with one boat and I think you’d be surprised to hear how much we really had. It was not more than what you’d think, but less. I started with a year to go after doing the Volvo so I had no money. And I think we came third. So it’s possible to do well but it’s more difficult."

Conner was non-committal over the prospects of him mounting another challenge. "Well, we haven’t finished this one yet. I’m going to wait and see how Daintry [Conner - his wife] feels about it, she’s very important to me. And I’ll see how Tom [Whidden] and the rest of the guys feel about the future because it wouldn’t be the same without my friends, for me. I’m doing this for the passion and the thrill of being involved in a very special event. I take a lot of pleasure out of being here with people I really like, who are wonderful people, who I’ve known all my life and are lifelong friends, not just in the America's Cup. I don’t have to make a decision about the future right now. My short term plans are to stay in Auckland until the event is over and fulfil any obligations I have to my corporate sponsors and my friends and then I’m going to race in the Honolulu race in July."

Regarding their case against OneWorld, the NYYC's David Elwell commented: "The protest has been put on hold until the hearing with the arbitration panel is resolved. That hearing will take place on Saturday or Sunday a week from now and I would expect a reply back from the arbitration panel very shortly thereafter." He added that he would be surprised if the arbitration panel didn't make a decision by Monday week.

As the regular 17th man on the Swedish boat Hugo Stenbeck gave his thoughts about their participation. "I think we surpassed my father’s expectations. He started off saying we had a 2% chance, then he said 3%, 4%, 5% and I think we proved it was far higher than that. I’m very happy with the crew. I haven’t contributed that much but Magnus and the others have been superb and it’s been a great experience.

"Ross Blackman summed it up the best when he said watch out, you’re going to catch Americas Cup fever, and I think that might have happened. I’d like to say yes, but we’ll see."

Stenbeck denied rumours that the Swedish team would be staying on to act as a sparring partner for Team New Zealand. "As far as I know, the base team is packing up the equipment and booking plane tickets. I think they deserve a vacation and probably the last thing on their mind is sailing, but I don’t know."

Prada skipper Francesco d'Angelis commented on their racing against the Swedes. "We always knew it would be a difficult race and it was. The races were open until the end. There were two very difficult days in light wind and up to the last gybe we knew that if we made a mistake it could go the other way. We knew we had to perform well to go through. Everything went well because the crew did an excellent job with manoeuvres in all the tight situations, we handled things well. We had good starting every day which helps a lot and everything worked."

When asked if they were going to try any more new bows he replied: "I hope we are done with bows! We must use this week for testing the two boats because we know that we have to make another jump forward and that jump will come from a lot of different things. We need the time on the water with the two boats."

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