Conner controls breeze to square defender triangle

SAILING

The inability of Bill Koch's 15 women and a man on Mighty Mary to put away the opposition in pressure matches was apparent again yesterday in the re-sail of Wednesday's race which was abandoned as the breeze died.

Paul Cayard, starting and upwind helmsman on Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes, again outmaneouvred David Dellenbaugh to control the favoured left hand end of the starting line.

Even though a little swing to the right lifted Mighty Mary into at least parity mid-way up the first leg, the faith in the left of Stripes' tactician Tom Whidden was rewarded and took them round the top mark 25 seconds ahead.

Conner was equally happy when the breeze softened slightly from 10 knots to eight, and then picked up to nearly 14. He stretched the distance on the first run, and then was given a few more seconds as the Cubens blew the head out of their spinnaker during the drop and made a slow rounding to trail by 1min 6sec. A full round later it was 1:26 and they lost the use of their other spinnaker halyard. The victory put Conner equal with Mighty Mary and Pact'95 on two points.

No such fragility afflicts the Kiwis as Team New Zealand powered into an untroubled lead over their Louis Vuitton Cup final rivals oneAustralia. After a fine start, sheer boat speed carried them to an unassailable lead.

n Pierre Fehlmann, organiser of the Grand Mistral round-the-world race to rival the Whitbread, said he has five syndicates more than 50 per cent of the way to declaring their entries by June this year. The Whitbread winner, Grant Dalton, is expected to claim the New Zealand slot in the one boat per nation scheme.

AMERICA'S CUP (San Diego) Louis Vuitton Cup, Final, Race 2: Team New Zealand bt oneAustralia, 1min 57 sec. TNZ leads 2-0. Cirizen Cup, Final, Race 3: Stars & Stripes bt America3, 2:50. Standings: 1= Pact'95, Stars & Stripes and America3, 2pts.