Dennis Conner

Medal record
Dennis Conner
Competitor for  United States
Men's Sailing
Summer Olympics
Bronze	1976 Montreal	Tempest Class

Dennis Conner (born September 16, 1942) is an American yachtsman, noted for winning the bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and four wins in the America's Cup.

America's Cup

Dennis Conner is a four-time America's Cup winner, successfully defending the America's Cup in 1974, 1980, and 1988 and winning as the challenger in 1987. He was helmsman of the first defender to be defeated in the 132 year history of the cup, also ending 132 years of successful defense by the New York Yacht Club with their loss in 1983 to Alan Bond's wing-keeled challenger Australia II 4 races to 3. Conner formed his own syndicate and won the Cup back from Australia in 1987.

The Big Boat Challenge and the Beginning of Multihulls in America's Cup

After taking The Cup back to American soil, this time for the San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) in 1987, Conner defeated the controversial "Big Boat Challenge" of New Zealand banker Michael Fay.^[1] Fay's team challenged with a 90' super-sloop (KZ1). Conner's SDYC responded with a 60' wing-sailed catamaran, US-1, in a surprise defense. Fay's challenge and legal case based on the Deed foreshadowed the controversial 33rd America's Cup, whose legal wrangling resulted in the contest being decided in enormous multihulls in February 2010,^[2] while returning to the pre-war style of exclusive, billionaire backed campaigns of Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing.

Leadership and Management

From 1987 through to 2003, Conner was skipper of the celebrated Stars & Stripes yachts. Within the yachting community, Conner is most famous for fundamentally changing the America's Cup, and racing in general, from an amateur to professional status. These accomplishments led to the nickname "Mister America's Cup".

Before the 1980s, America's Cup competitors were mostly amateurs who took time off to compete. Conner insisted on year round training with a new focus on physical fitness and practice. This change in approach led to a return to professional crews in sailing, which had hardly been seen since the 1930s.

Funding and Setbacks

Perhaps due to the bad media attention surrounding the 1988 catamaran defense, Conner had insufficient funding to mount his signature multiple-boat defense in 1992, which also heralded the debut of the IACC yacht. His USA-11 proved no match to Bill Koch's America3 campaign. USA-11 was built as a test-bed for design ideas that were to be incorporated into the "racing" boat, nicknamed TDC-2. However, TDC-2 was never built. It's ideas were incorporated into his single-boat campaign for 1995, and the yacht Stars & Stripes USA-34. After almost sinking during The Citizen Cup defender trials, USA-34 went on to an improbable come-from-behind win over Mighty Mary, earning the right to defend The Cup against Team New Zealand's Black Magic, NZL-32.

Conner again found difficulty securing funding for the 2000 America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand. As in 1992 and 1995, he mounted a single-boat campaign centered upon Stars & Stripes USA-55. Conner was eliminated in the quarter final repechage by Craig McCaw's OneWorld Challenge.

Conner was a rare non-billionaire fielding a team to compete in the 2003 America's Cup, held in New Zealand, receiving funding of up to USD $40 million from his sponsors. His syndicate, Stars & Stripes, suffered a severe setback before they departed California when one of the two Stars & Stripes boats (USA-77) sank when its rudder post failed during training. Raised from 55 feet of water and eventually repaired, they were unable to recover the valuable testing time lost and they were defeated in the quarter-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

2003 marked Conner's last participation in the America's Cup.

Professional Experience

Retail and Manufacturing: Vera's Draperies, Carpet and Drapery Manufactory

• Owner: 1965 - 1983

Dennis Conner Sports

• Business Owner: 1983–Present

Team Dennis Conner: America's Cup Sailing

• Owner and Chief Executive Officer: 1985–Present

North Cove Marina, Battery Park, New York City, New York

• Business Owner: 2007–Present
• Guest marina in the financial district of New York City, services include three 53-foot Sloops for Corporate Team Building.

Dennis Conner America's Cup Experience

• Business Owner: 2007–Present
• Fleet of three vessels, offers corporate sailing ventures for social and educational voyages. Expeditions vary from whale watching to yachting aboard The America, a replica of the first winner of the America's Cup Race won in 1851.

San Diego Yacht Club

• Board of Directors: 1977 - 1984
• Commodore: 1984

Yachting Accomplishments

• 4-time winner, America's Cup Race, 1974, 1980, 1987 and 1988
• Inductee, America's Cup Hall of Fame
• Captain, two Whitbread Round-the-World races (see Volvo Ocean Race)
• 28 World Championships
• Three-time winner, U.S. Yachtsman of the Year: 1975, 1980, 1986^[3]
• Seven-time winner, San Diego Yachtsman of the Year
• Olympic Bronze Medal winner, 1976
• 4 Southern Ocean Racing Cups
• 2 Congressional Cups
• 1987 ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year
• U.S. Sailing Hall of Fame
• Maxi yacht racing, including Condor

Honors and Activities

• Commencement Speaker, United States Naval Academy
• Cover, Time Magazine, February 9, 1987 [1]
• Cover Sports Illustrated with President Ronald Reagan, February 1987 [2]
• Artist, Sales of artwork in the several millions of dollars
• Motivational Speaker
• Member of the San Diego Yacht Club, (Silvergate Yacht Club), New York Yacht Club, Yacht Club de Monaco in Monaco
• San Diego Rotary

Education

• Honorary Doctorate from Green Mountain College, 1987
• Honorary Doctorate from the Medical College of the University of South Carolina, 1987
• Bachelor's degree from San Diego State University

Publications

• No Excuse to Lose, 1987
• Comeback: My Race for the America's Cup, 1987
• The Art of Winning, 1990
• Sail Like a Champion, 1992
• America's Cup Cookbook, 1992
• Life's Winning Tips, 1997
• The America's Cup: The History of Sailings Greatest Competition in the Twentieth Century, 1998
• Learn to Sail: A Beginner's Guide to the Art, Equipment and Language of Sailing on a Lake or Ocean, 1998
• 3 Volumes, Stars and Stripes

References

1. ^ Rich Roberts (February 12, 2008). "Think this is ugly? You should have seen 1988". Scuttlebutt News. http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0212a/. 
2. ^ "America's Cup Multihull Battle Set For February 2010". The International Sailing Federation. May 14, 2009. http://www.sailing.org/news/28267.php. 
3. ^ http://www.ussailing.org/awards/rolex/

External links

• Dennis Conner Web Site

Persondata
Name	Conner, Dennis
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Date of birth	September 16, 1942
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Date of death
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