By TERRY MADDAFORD
If Team Dennis Conner and his Stars & Stripes campaign does not return the America's Cup to its spiritual home at the New York Yacht Club, you get the feeling they would be happy for it to stay in Auckland.
NYYC commodore Charlie Dana, who was here for most
of round-robin one of the Louis Vuitton Cup before returning to his shipyard business at Rhode Island, says he is "totally blown away" by what the America's Cup has done for downtown Auckland.
"It is amazing what the cup has meant to your country," says 55-year-old Dana.
"My wife commented to me when we were here last time that she didn't think anyone would go home from New Zealand not a changed person.
"We have tried to figure out what we could do in New York if we won the cup to try and replicate what has been done at the Viaduct Basin. Hats off to them. People are already using what you have here as the benchmark. You are very lucky."
Dana reckons that in these days of the rich, very rich, players in the America's Cup, the NYYC and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron are the only yacht clubs playing a really strong role in maintaining the traditions of the cup.
"Our membership has never been stronger," says Dana, who has been a member since 1975.
"We have 3100 members which is as healthy as it has ever been.
"Quite wrongly, people perceive the NYYC as a club for fat cats. That is not the case. A membership costs around $US5000-$5500 ($10,400-$11,500) a year, which by country club standards in the US is pretty cheap.
"We want it to remain a sailing club not a social one. While a member does not have to own a boat, they must demonstrate a love of the sport. A lot wanted us to throw it open to anyone but we held our line on that."
Dana admits that as a young boy, and from a family with no interest in sailing, he was "always trying to get a ride on anything I could".
His first boat, a steel yawl, was no racing machine but it gave him a real taste for the sea.
He had his first involvement with the Auld Mug as part of the Freedom syndicate in 1977. Two years later he met Conner for the first time.
"We have been good friends ever since.
"I immediately realised one thing about the America's Cup: it is really about winning. I looked around the challengers at the dock and realised even without the best boat you could still win by being smart."
The loss to Australia II in 1983 was to change the face of the cup forever. Dana was closely associated with Conner at the time.
"After race six, he realised what the next day's racing could bring.
(At 3-3) already his mind was jumping ahead to challenging rather than defending the next time.
"He felt he deserved more support from the club at that time. In some ways we lost on the PR front in those days. There was no great hate towards Dennis for losing. I certainly never felt that. It was more a case of sport growing up.
"But losing the cup certainly gave Dennis Conner a fair amount of notoriety."
Dana retains links with New Zealand in other ways.
The most famous "resident" of his dockyard is the late Sir Peter Blake's vessel Seamaster.
"She has been there all summer.
"I knew Sir Peter and Lady Pippa a little and when they were trying to figure out what to do with the boat we donated the dockage. It was a real sweetheart deal from our point of view but it has been wonderful.
"We have people coming in all day to look at Seamaster. The crew have been terrific. We are trying to help in any way we can."
Dana does not buy into suggestions that any of the four challenging syndicates who reach the Louis Vuitton semifinals will be good enough to go on and win the cup.
"We would take Team New Zealand very seriously if we got into that position.
"Unlike last time when the early rounds did not count for much, this time it is serious business right off the line.
"The bigger gap between the end of the Louis Vuitton and the start of the match [for the cup] will give the challenger more time."
Dana, who points to the involvement of New Zealanders with so many of the challengers as proof of the strength of the sport here, is confident enough that Team Dennis Conner will still be in the hunt come December that he left a bag here to await his return.
"And, if you don't think Dennis is thinking the same way, why would he have planted tomato plants at the compound?" asks Dana.
"He intends to be here for Christmas."
By TERRY MADDAFORD
If Team Dennis Conner and his Stars & Stripes campaign does not return the America's Cup to its spiritual home at the New York Yacht Club, you get the feeling they would be happy for it to stay in Auckland.
NYYC commodore Charlie Dana, who was here for most
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