AMERICA’S CUP DAILY REPORT : Nippon Goes From Lead to 0-3 Mark

Halfway through Wednesday’s windy race against France in the challenger semifinals of the America’s Cup--a race that Nippon Challenge was winning and needed to win--its boat broke. A rudder shaft snapped, leaving Chris Dickson and crew stranded in the fast lane.

That turned a lead of about a minute into an 0-3 record with only six races remaining and New Zealand, Il Moro di Venezia and Ville de Paris all in front at 2-1 in the standings.

It was a devastating fall from the dizzying height of first place through the first three rounds.

That incident boosted the other challengers’ race as a preview of the challenger finals, which begin April 19. New Zealand defeated Il Moro by 18 seconds--only three or four boat lengths around the 20-mile course--and within six seconds of the biggest lead the Kiwis had all day.

On the defenders’ course, Dennis Conner and Stars & Stripes drew a bye as Buddy Melges overcam an awful start, won a protest from the boss, Bill Koch, and sailed Americac,63’s newest boat, Kanza, to a victory by 1:13 over America 3, the third of his Koch’s four boats.

That left Stars & Stripes and Kanza with three victories each, America 3with none. Two will reach the finals.

Today, Stars & Stripes meets Kanza, and New Zealand comes right back against Il Moro. Nippon will race Ville de Paris again.

Dickson said: “About halfway toward mark five . . . (there was) a huge sound like a big tree falling down, followed by this very large noise. We lost control of the steering system.

“We started this semifinal knowing six wins were needed to get into the final, and we still have six more races to go. We intend to get those wins starting tomorrow.�

Dickson said he didn’t know why the carbon-fiber shaft broke, but the northwest winds blew up to 18 knots--unusually strong for San Diego--and probably put extra strain on the steering.

Tactician John Cutler dismissed the possibility of sabotage linked to the Le Defi Francais’ budget consultant being caught diving under the Nippon boat last Sunday.

Melges’ start in the defenders’ match was suspect. With no pressure to cross the line, some observers speculated that he jumped the gun on purpose to give Koch a 20-second head start. Melges denied it.

He figured he was over by no more than “a foot and a half,� and added, “If there was any hanky panky, do you think I would have made him do a 270?�

He referred to an incident a few minutes later, after Kanza caught up to Koch’s America 3. Koch, approaching on port tack without right of way, came about directly in front of the hard-charging Melges.

Koch, whose helmsmanship remains open to question, might have suffered whiplash from a rear-end collision if Melges had turned his boat upwind, as Melges threw a protest flag against Koch for tacking too close.

The on-water umpires agreed, ordering Koch to do the penalty turn.