Many Rumors, 1 Truth About Sail America--It Needs More Money

FREMANTLE, Australia —  Which rumor is true?

--Dennis Conner has bought a $1-million penthouse in Auckland, New Zealand, for the next America’s Cup defense.

--Dennis Conner plans to sell out San Diego and peddle the America’s Cup, if he wins it, to the Atlantic City casinos.

--Dennis Conner’s Sail America syndicate is several million dollars in debt.

All have been reported recently but, apparently, only the last is fact.

“We need more financial help,” Sail America President Malin Burnham said Tuesday. “It’s as simple and blunt as that. We have a money problem.”

Burnham, Conner’s longtime sailing associate, said that the syndicate has borrowed to cover some of the $4-million shortfall of its $15-million budget but is still spending more than $20,000 a day to maintain its operation here.

Considering that, another report this week that said Conner and Burnham hoped to put the Cup up for bids, should they win it, came at a bad time, since they are trying to solicit additional support back home.

Atlantic City has been mentioned as a possible site for the defense.

“That’s about as accurate as the report that I bought a condo in Auckland,” Conner said.

Although Conner’s effort is sponsored by the San Diego Yacht Club, Burnham said two weeks ago that a defense wouldn’t necessarily be held in San Diego if other locations became physically and financially more attractive.

John Griffith, a director for the Eagle syndicate of Newport Beach, said this week that he expected Conner to take the defense to Hawaii, where he tested and tuned his boats for this campaign.

“Unfortunately, some things got twisted,” Burnham said. “I had three telephone calls from San Diego today quoting Dennis as saying that if we win the America’s Cup, we aren’t going to sail it in San Diego. Dennis has never said that and neither have I.”

There also have been implications that Conner and Burnham stood to reap a bonanza by marketing the Cup through the Sail America Foundation for International Understanding, which is the financial arm of their effort.

Burnham said: “Most revenues would come to the Sail America Foundation, (but) it’s a nonprofit foundation recognized by the IRS as a nontaxable entity.

“I don’t own anything. Dennis doesn’t own anything. We’ve been accused of being traitors. We’re both native sons (of San Diego).”

Burnham did put his hometown on notice, however, that he can’t assure a defense being staged there.

According to a “written, signed agreement” with the San Diego YC, the decision on a site would be made by a Sail America committee to be appointed only after the Cup is won, and the club is entitled to a majority representation on that committee.

“I don’t even know if I or Dennis would be on it,” Burnham said.

Burnham restated the three conditions for selecting a venue, “with no particular priority.

“Wind and sea conditions, whether the San Diego community would come forth with funds to put on the event, or whether they would be ho-hum, and whether the waterfront facilities would be available in San Diego harbor.”

The wind and sea conditions--notoriously light--are of the least concern.

“We could have races off San Diego,” Burnham said. “They might not be as exciting as they’ve been here. There wouldn’t be any mast-crashing. But we’ve had numerous world championships there.”

Conner said: “A lot of good sailors come from San Diego.”

On the other hand, Burnham continued: “If Newport (R.I.) offered $30 million to stage the defense and San Diego didn’t want to do anything, we’d have to think about it.

“But I neither have the power nor the inclination to make that determination, and neither does Dennis. And if the San Diego community were going to be completely behind the effort, I would be hard-pressed to imagine it being held anywhere else.”

Burnham said that San Diego County had recently contributed $50,000 to the current campaign, and the San Diego city council was due to vote on a $100,000 contribution within the next few days.

“It’s nice to get the governments behind us,” Burnham said.

Recent loans have been underwritten by individuals who have confidence in the Sail America program, he said. “That’s what we took to the banks.”

Sail America also is soliciting corporate sponsors of some of the boats that have been eliminated “to see if they’d like to pursue their support to bring the cup back to America. We’re gonna try to piggyback wherever we can.”