Stars & Stripes and Sweden's Victory Challenge join the list of teams who can pack up and head home, their second lives in the quarter final repechage round proving no more than that. OneWorld and Prada sent them packing.
Only a sensational judgement to throw OneWorld out could offer a third life and we'll have to wait more than a week for that.
DC is part of the America's Cup furniture, around since 1974 when gaucho moustaches and floral flares were in vogue. Dennis sported both. His career's progressed from being the hot shot starting helmsman imported from California to ginger up the old style US defence syndicates which were invariably run by patrician New Englanders, fuelled by old money.
Conner is the driver who became a team owner, common practice in motorsports, but DC was pretty much a pioneer of this in the America's Cup. He was also the man cut adrift by the New York YC when he lost the America's Cup in 1983. What the NYYC should have done was put Conner on a pedestal for conjuring up three wins against a demonstrably faster boat. John Bertrand's Australia II crew and Alan Bond's team really should have trounced Liberty, but breakages and errors dogged a red hot boat.
Not on the boat, save for one race, and keeping himself to his compound, shop and hospitality commitments, Conner's had a huge presence in Auckland this time round without actually being seen. That's what being a legend can do for you.
He turned 60 just before Louis Vuitton Cup started. Will his 10th Cup be his last? Ask Tom Whidden, closest of friends and tactician since 1980.
"I think Dennis has this in his blood. He likes to sail and I think he would have a tough time not coming."
Speaking of blood, 17th man on Stars & Stripes' last race was Halsey Herreshoff, Conner's navigator on Liberty in 1983 and grandson of Nathaniel, the Wizard of Bristol. THAT is having the Cup in your blood.
For Jesper Bank this was his first taste of the Cup, and pretty much of big boat sailing too. A Dane in a Swedish team, Bank is a career Olympic Soling sailor except that now the Soling is no longer part of the Olympics. Still it has earned him two golds and silver over the past decade.
If anyone was the face of the Swedish team it was Bank. Founder Jan Stenbeck died unexpectedly in August and operations boss Mats Johansson chose not to be the team's public identity. Instead, Johansson and Stenbeck's son worked closely to try and progress their team.
In that they succeeded. Victory were the pick of the first time small teams. Arguably they were better than Stars & Stripes.
If Victory had a frailty it was Stenbeck's and Johansson apparent desire to have Bank and Magnus Holmberg compete for the driver's role.
And through it we saw a side of Bank that ranked him as the most seriously cool sailor in Auckland. He enjoyed the mental sparring of media conferences when the questions were good and graced dull inquiries with truthful, informative answers.
Always his brow would furrow as simultaneous translation and response composition were being computed inside his mind. Then the smile came and answer given.
A favourite recollection was this question about the Bank/Holmberg chop and change policy: "Crew rotation can look like indecision at best and chaos at worst - would you like the crew to be settled before the next round?"
Bank paused. If it was for effect, it worked a treat.
His response?
(Smile, voice deadpan)
"Yes."
Tim Jeffery, 30 November 2002
