Stars & Stripes wins; Mighty Mary protests> Replacement of yacht’s keel stirs controversy

SAN DIEGO – What a difference around a day makes, so the old song almost goes, 36 little hours …

That is exactly how long it took Dennis Conner and crew to progress from a nearly sinking to a fully repaired Stars & Stripes that went out and thumped Mighty Mary Tuesday by a convincing 1 minute 31 seconds.

Now Stars & Stripes may be one win closer to joining Young America in the America’s Cup Defenders finals next month.

Or it may be out of the America’s Cup for good.

The fate of San Diego’s hometown team rests with an international jury deliberating a protest filed by America3 over the repairs made to Stars & Stripes after the yacht gave way after three legs of Sunday’s race in moderate air.

Whatever the case, Team Conner did make the necessary repairs, did show up on the race course Tuesday and did give Mighty Mary a proper thrashing.

The questions remain just how much rebuilding they did to the boat, which included an entire keel change, and whether it was legal.

“We were never notified they were doing a keel change,” said America3 CEO Vincent Moeyersoms, who added that the keel replacement violated the rules which state that a team may make such changes in configuration only between rounds, not during a round.

But Stars & Stripes, whose helmsman, Paul Cayard, acknowledged that the crew put back on a keel that had been “retired” after the last round robin, argued for the need of a keel change.

“The fin part of the keel was so severely damaged that it had to be replaced,” Cayard said. “And the fin goes with the bulb. I’m not joking when I say the boat could have sunk. We were lucky to get back to the dock.”

Damage also was done to the section of the hull where the fin is attached. Conner theorizes that Stars & Stripes, when thrashing in heavy seas Friday, lost some of the connecting points where the fin is attached to the hull. When they hoisted the boat out of the water, the fin and bulb were “dangling,” in Cayard’s words.

“We didn’t expect this from America3,” said Stars & Stripes tactician Tom Whidden. “The very specific rules of the defense contract allow the change we made. We followed the proper guidelines and received permission from the proper authorities.

“The keel we used to replace the damaged one is as similar as we know how to make it.”

Whatever repairs were made, Stars & Stripes came out smoking Tuesday, certainly faster than the boat that went five straight races without a win.

Both upwind and down, with Cayard at the wheel throughout, Stars & Stripes was superior on every point of sail to Mighty Mary, the newest of the America3 boats.