KEY POINTS:
At dawn on Saturday, San Diego time, Dennis Conner will be cheering on his old nemesis, Team New Zealand.
The man they call Mr America's Cup is far from the crossed masts and caterwauling of Valencia, his competitive sailing now concentrated on his lovingly-restored 1920s classic yacht, Cotton
Blossom II.
But the sailor who won and lost, then won and lost, the America's Cup over three decades has yet to completely extinguish the flame that burns for the old silver ewer.
In fact, if Emirates Team New Zealand return the Auld Mug to Auckland, it might be enough to lure Conner back.
Conner, now 64, and his right-hand-man of the past 27 years, Bill Trenkle, "miss the America's Cup badly".
"But if there's any consolation, we hear from people that things aren't as good in Valencia as they were in Auckland," says Trenkle, a former Stars & Stripes sailor and president of Team Dennis Conner.
"So we figure if we're going to miss an event, this is a good one to miss, even if it is the first one in 27 years."
Conner's sailing interests now lie elsewhere. He's chairman of the board of North Cove, a new mega-yacht marina in New York built in the rejuvenation of that part of the city devastated by 9/11. Boats over 75ft are welcomed with a case of Heineken.
"I'm still racing my Etchell-22 occasionally, and I plan on buying an ocean racing boat to race to Mexico with my friends," Conner says.
He has restored a classic Q boat, Cotton Blossom II - "she's 85 years on", says Conner, who races it on the Mediterranean. He used to sail on it in the 1950s, and recovered it from total disrepair.
"He's so proud and he's loving the challenge of trying to make a boat with a wooden mast and Dacron sails go faster," Trenkle says.
Among Conner's crew has been young Kiwi sailor Nick Blackman, a graduate of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's youth programme and son of Team New Zealand business manager Ross Blackman.
Conner wet his America's Cup boatshoes on Courageous in 1974, but ruled himself out of this cup because of the financial mountain of getting there. For years, he had predicted the regatta would become the playground of the "Bees" - billionaires with money to toss into the sea - and out of the reach of syndicates, like his, funded by clusters of sponsors.
"Having to raise US$150 million to be a competitive America's Cup team is kind of ridiculous. It's got so expensive, the way it's now organised, that unless you have a billionaire behind you, or the king of a country, you can't really do it," Trenkle says.
That's part of the reason Conner and Trenkle want to see Grant Dalton with his hands on the cup.
"I would like to see the America's Cup go back to New Zealand," Trenkle says. "It may be commercially healthier in Europe, and some argue that there would be more challengers if it stayed there.
"But it has got too far away from the sport that I've known through eight campaigns. It doesn't have to go back to the 1800s, but they may have taken too many steps too fast."
Team Dennis Conner couldn't see the logic in the new Acts - pre-cup regattas staged over three years - which they say only added to the stupendous cost of a competitive campaign. They couldn't see how additional exposure translated into speed gains.
Conner and Trenkle, who now works in marine survey, talk about re-entering the game, but agree it would have to be brought back to a reasonable cost before they could consider it. They believe another America's Cup in Auckland would be affordable to a corporate-backed United States team.
"New Zealand was actually a very inexpensive place for a cup campaign. We got a lot of bang for our buck in the last two campaigns.
"There's a full marine industry in place, ready to handle all the teams, where in Valencia, you had to have 100 per cent of your own infrastructure from scratch," Trenkle says. And if it came back, would DC come too? "We would certainly consider it."
Conner loved Auckland and the city embraced him, pardoning the Dirty Den persona of the 80s.
"I still have a few investments in New Zealand and I will always love Auckland and look forward to my visits," says Conner, who sometimes returns to sail in local regattas without fanfare.
While the patriotic side of Trenkle would have liked to have seen the only American boat in the 2007 regatta - BMW Oracle - make the cup match, he knew a Larry Ellison victory wouldn't have been in Team Dennis Conner's best interests.
If Ellison defended the cup with the Golden Gate Yacht Club, it would have been unlikely to see an old-style defender series, so another American team wouldn't have got a look in.
Now they are barracking for the Kiwis. "I would like to wish all of New Zealand good luck in the America's Cup," Conner says.
"The rumour mills say that Alinghi is so powerful that Team New Zealand won't stand a chance," Trenkle adds.
"But hopefully Team New Zealand will have an edge, like they did against Luna Rossa."
There is a Stars & Stripes connection on board NZL92 in tactician Terry Hutchinson, who sailed for Conner in Auckland in the 2002 Louis Vuitton Cup.
"It's great to see our old friend Terry helping call the shifts.
"It's deja vu watching his body language as he leans over the side of the boat, willing it down to leeward, wanting it to go a little faster, a little deeper," Trenkle says.
Conner and Trenkle, both living in San Diego, will be watching the cup match closely on television. Conner was heading home from a classic yacht regatta in Italy, but didn't detour to Valencia on the way.
"We don't miss much by not being there - with TV cameras, we're on the boats for every race. Sure Dennis misses the excitement, but sometimes you have to know when to end," Trenkle says. "Even Mr America's Cup has to stop at some point."
