Dennis Conner is all but finished with the America's Cup, unable to raise the staggering amount of cash needed to fund his own team and too old to steer someone else's boat.
Conner, the man most identified with the oldest trophy in international sports, has said for more than a year that he likely would be priced out of the next America's Cup. With the entry deadline for the 2007 regatta just hours away, Conner made if official on Thursday that he would not have a team in the cup for the first time in 30 years.
"I would say I'm definitely done as an owner," said Conner, who won and lost the cup more than any man in history -- four victories and two defeats. "I don't see how it will get any cheaper. You have to show up at all these preliminary events and then you have no money left for the main event.
"It's great for the rich guys, but for the average guys, it's a disaster. I don't ever see it again with me as the principle."
Conner helped bring the America's Cup into the era of professional sailors in the early 1980s, and now he's been pushed aside by billionaires, whom he calls "the Bs."
Some syndicates backed by billionaires have budgets of more than US$100 million (77.5 million euros). Relying on corporate backing, Conner spent about US$40 million (31 million euros) on the last cup and didn't even make it to the challenger finals.
With the next cup to be held in Valencia, Spain, in 2007, Americans are hurt by an unfavorable exchange rate with the euro.
Conner wasn't alone in dealing with the mind-numbing cup budgets.
Sausalito Challenge, based across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, wired the entry fee of approximately US$1.6 million (1.24 million euros) to America's Cup Management in Valencia, Spain, and was trying to secure a letter of intent from one of three possible sponsors, sailing manager John Sweeney said.
The deadline is today.
"We have half of a business day in Europe to get it done," Sweeney said by phone from the Sausalito Challenge, which is based across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. "It's really tough."
If Sausalito Challenge can't secure a sponsor by one hour before the deadline, it will pull out in order to recoup the entry fee. If that happens, the only American challenger will be San Francisco-based BMW Oracle Racing. That syndicate is backed by Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison and the German automaker, and is crewed mostly by New Zealanders.
Conner said he knew he was probably finished when the cup was won for the first time by a European team, Alinghi of Switzerland, which swept Team New Zealand in 2003. Back then it was relatively cheap to compete in New Zealand, with one US dollar buying about two Kiwi dollars.
"Add in the Bs, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out," Conner said.
Conner sailed in a total of nine cups, and skippered his own team an unprecedented eight straight times, dating to 1980. He first won the cup in 1974 as starting helmsman aboard Courageous. He skipped the 1977 cup after winning a bronze medal in the Tempest class in the 1976 Olympics.
He successfully defended the cup as head of his own team in 1980, then became the first US skipper to lose the cup in 132 years after Australia II, with a radical winged-keel, rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Liberty in seven races off Newport, Rhode Island in 1983. Four years later, Conner steered Stars & Stripes to a four-race sweep of Kookaburra III off Fremantle, Australia, to win the cup for the San Diego Yacht Club.
In 1988, he beat New Zealand in a bitter and bizarre match that was contested in court as well as on the water.
That was the last time Conner hoisted the trophy in victory. He lost in the defender trials in 1992, then made it back to the America's Cup match in 1995 but lost 5-0 to Team New Zealand.
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