Word: conners
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...defenders, whose original 1851 victory on the schooner America was dubious too.* When an appealing gang of Australians flew the Cup away on a winged keel three years ago and relocated it in a western backwater near Perth, only a few millionaires with wet bottoms were very disappointed. Only Conner cried...
...Conner is not a rich man, though. Furthermore, he says he does not like to sail. As a matter of fact, he cannot swim. ("I spend all of my time trying to stay out of the water.") No more enigmatic character presides over any sport. At the top of his game, Conner can eat with Nicklaus, drink with Namath, offend with McEnroe, spend with Marcos and lose with Napoleon. With a straight face, as brown...
...calls 12-meter racing his hobby. But nearly everyone on the dock seems to believe he has singlehandedly killed it as a pleasure sport. "The weekend sailor has been shoved out," says Ted Turner, Captain Outrageous of 1977. Tom Blackaller, one of the advocates of leisure caught in Conner's relentless wake, mourns, "I'd like to get him the hell out of sailing. I think he hurts it." Conner sighs and explains, "What they're saying is, 'If I were willing to give as much as Dennis does, I could be as good as he is.' That's just...
...Excuse to Lose is the title of Conner's 1978 tome, which he modestly refers to as the Bible. In 1983 his explanation for the grandest seafaring indignity since Bligh went home in a dinghy was that the best crew lost to the best boat. "Design has taken the place of what sailing used to be," he says. And now that Conner understands this, he doesn't mind. "I don't like to sail," he says. "I like to compete. I guess I don't dislike it, but my sailing is just the bottom line, like adding up the score...
After two races against the Australian Kookaburra (a bush bird of prey sometimes called a "laughing jackass"), this game stood 2-0 for Conner in the best-of-seven final. Most depressing for the Australians, the lighter breezes they had prayed for all month materialized the first day, but the boat thought to be nimbler was outmaneuvered all the same. Winds that routinely topped 20 knots in the trials eased abruptly to eight or ten. Effectively the yachtsmen were back in Newport, R.I. Breaking neatly in front, Conner never rounded any buoy less than 40 seconds ahead...