AMERICA’S CUP : No Decision on Status of Conner’s Stars & Stripes

SAN DIEGO —  The jury is still out and Team Dennis Conner is still in. No one, in fact, who was still in at dawn Thursday was out by dusk. America 3was still around on the defenders’ side, and TAG Heuer Challenge was still around on the challengers’ side.

When it comes to this final four, the America’s Cup defender and challenger finalists, nothing was resolved on a day many thought would be climactic.

The America’s Cup International Jury was into its second night of a hearing at which America 3was claiming the replacement keel on Team Conner’s Stars & Stripes was illegally approved, illegally configured and illegally positioned. The original was damaged last Sunday in a mishap that almost sank the Conner boat.

America 3and Team Conner, locked in this off-the-water struggle, will meet on the water today. The jury will reconvene afterward.

If the jury declares Conner’s boat illegal, his campaign is finished. America 3’s Mighty Mary would advance to the defender finals against PACT 95’s Young America.

Should the verdict favor Conner, Stars & Stripes would need to either defeat Mighty Mary today or Young America Saturday to avoid a Sunday sail-off with America 3’s boat.

As if the off-the-water legal scenario was not complicated enough, PACT 95 joined the fray Thursday when its boat flew a red flag protesting Stars & Stripes keel. Team Conner could have wrapped up the on-the-water version of second place in the defender series with a victory in that race, but lost by 44 seconds.

Meanwhile, the challengers’ second spot, opposite Team New Zealand, was still being determined the old-fashioned way . . . by sailing. TAG Heuer Challenge, the second New Zealand entry, can stay alive only if winless Nippon upsets oneAustralia today.