COLD MAN AND THE SEA

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Conner also posseses a knack for compromise. When he was losing in the semifinals, he offered to merge his team with the women's team, taking their faster boat and half their crew, according to Vincent Moeyersoms, Mighty Mary's manager. The courtship was spurned. But when Conner finally won the defender's title, he wasted no time in dumping Stars & Stripes and making a deal to sail Marshall's Young America-the first time a finalist has switched boats before the last series. Conner might have coveted Mighty Mary, but the women weren't about to let him have their boat, not after Conner's crew shouted vulgar insults and made obscene gestures at them during start maneuvers in the semifinals. Said Bill Koch, who funded Mighty Mary's attempt: "If we gave him our boat, some of the women told me they'd knock holes in it first."

The switch to Young America gave Conner's team less than a week to learn to sail the new boat, but that was less risky than sailing the sluggish Stars & Stripes against the swift Black Magic I. "Young America's deck layout is different, but we're getting used to it," said Trenkle. "It's like getting a new car and the knobs are not where you think they are."

The sudden switch prompted outrage in New Zealand, of course. "Dennis is doing what he's always doing," Prime Minister Jim Bolger told reporters. "He's bending the rules a little. I mean, it wouldn't be a final race if he didn't do that." Trenkle shrugged off the complaints and said, "With all the bad things written about Dennis over the years, this just rolls off his back."

Because of the demands of design, organization and marketing, Conner leaves most of the steering of his boat these days to equally aggressive helmsman Paul Cayard. But Conner retains the title of skipper, and indeed, his strategic genius and Houdini-like survival skills are integral to the team's success. As his opponents can attest, he will do anything to prevent a recurrence of his worst nightmare: losing the Cup to Australia in 1983, which was the first time the Auld Mug had ever passed out of American hands. Should that happen this time, few doubt that Dirty Dennis will be sailing-and roiling-the waters off Auckland, New Zealand, in 1999.