[Archives 2]

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND -- "It's going to be tight, real tight but our whole team is cautiously optimistic that we will be out on the starting line Wednesday for our scheduled race with Young America," said Bill Trenkle, President of Dennis Conner Sports.

"Our boat-building team worked straight through last night, and made great progress," Trenkle added. "And this will be another all-nighter for sure. However, their efforts are really starting to show -- Stars & Stripes is coming back together very nicely."

Just prior to their race against Prada on Sunday, Stars & Stripes
experienced major structural damage. The bulkhead to which the running backstays are anchored separated from the hull, ripping up a small portion of the aft deck as it went. No one was seriously injured and quick work by the crew got the sails down before any additional damage occurred.

After the boat was towed back to the compound, Team Dennis Conner asked the Race Committee to postpone the start of their next race to effect repairs as provided for in the Louis Vuitton Cup Rules. After an inspection of the damage by the measurers, they were granted a 48-hour postponement.

"It's still premature to speculate when the repair will be completed," Trenkle continued. "We are not going to put the boat back into the water until we're certain there won't be a recurrence of the problem we had on Sunday. However, we're all hopeful the boat will splash on Wednesday morning."

Standings
1	Prada	22-2	73
2	AmericaOne	19-6	71
3	Nippon	16-8	65.5
4	America True	17-7	65
5	Stars & Stripes	14-10	45.5
6	Spain	11-14	44
7	Young America	14-10	42
8	Abracadabra	8-17	25
9	Le Defi BTT	7-17	32
10	Young Australia	3-21	18
11	FAST 2000	2-22	8

 
 

Victories are worth one point each in Round One, four points in Round Two
and nine points in Round Three.

For additional information:
Tom Leweck, Team Dennis Conner
TEL:  029 992-013
FAX: 64 9 9799 701
Team Dennis Conner website: http://www.stars-stripes.com/