Biography of Dennis Conner

Dennis Conner has just completed leading his team thorough an unprecedented Ninth America’s Cup campaign. He challenged for America’s Cup 2003 through the New York Yacht Club.
Winner of more than 100 America’s Cup Trial races, Conner won the America’s Cup in 1974, 1980, 1987 and 1988. Conner is actively involved in the planning, organizing, fund-raising, design, staffing and public relations of his America’s Cup Campaigns. No skipper has been more successful in the modern America’s Cup in putting together his own campaigns.

Though the Cup is the symbol of his victories, Conner has captured many other awards. He has won world championships in boats from 11-feet to 80-feet. Having represented the United States in international events since 1963, he has been selected United States Yachtsman of the Year four times and San Diego Yachtsman of the Year seven times.

Conner has won two Star World Championships, two Etchells World Championships, two Congressional Cups and four Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) victories. In Kiel, West Germany, in 1977, he established a Star class record that has never been equaled, scoring five consecutive first place finishes against 89 boats. Dennis Conner regards this record in particular as one of his greatest sailing accomplishments.

In the 1976 Olympic Games, Conner won a bronze medal for the United States in the Tempest class. He has also been twice a member of the U.S. Admiral’s Cup Team and participated in the historic 1979 Fastnet Race that met with disaster in a Force 10 storm.

Conner’s more recent sailing accomplishments include winning the 2003 New Zealand Etchells National Championships. This makes his fourth time as he won in 1996,1997 and 2001 as well. In 2003 he won the New Zealand National Championships in the Ross 780 class. In 1994 he won the Etchells World Championships against a world-class field of 62 entries. He also broke the speed record in the largest yacht race in the world in 1994. With more than 500 boats racing a 130-mile course from Newport Beach, California to Ensenada, Mexico, he set a new speed record for the 40-year old race, breaking the record he set in 1991. In May he won his class in the 2003 Newport to Ensenada Race.

Conner has led two entries in the Whitbread Round The World Race, both in 1993-94 with Winston and in 1997-98 with Toshiba. Prior to the Whitbread In 1993, Conner set a new Trans-Atlantic record with Winston. Until Conner’s attempt, the record had been held since 1905, then set by the 150-foot Atlantic. Conner averaged 11 knots in his Whitbread-60 Winston in the Gold Cup race, setting the new record at 11 days and 8 hours. Conner also won the Australian National Etchells-22 Championship that same year.

As an author and publisher, Conner has recounted the motivation, teamwork and commitment to winning on and off the water in his books Learn to Sail, No Excuse To Lose, Comeback, The Art of Winning, The Official Record of Stars & Stripes 1987, The Official Record of Stars & Stripes 1988, The Official Record of Stars & Stripes 1992, Sail Like a Champion and Life’s Wining Tips. He is also the co-author of The America’s Cup: The History of Sailing’s Greatest Competition in the Twentieth Century, published in July 1998.

In 1987, Conner combined his passion for sailing with his talent for business by starting Dennis Conner Sports, Inc. Over the years, he has worked with hundreds of major corporate clients on product endorsements, sailing events and sponsorships.

While serving as Commodore of the San Diego Yacht Club, Conner formed the successful Stars & Stripes Challenge in 1984 and also served on the original board of the Sail America Foundation. He was responsible for the tactical game-plan which led to his victory in the 1987 America’s Cup returning the America’s Cup back to the Untied States.
Conner grew up in San Diego, raised near the San Diego Yacht Club which he joined at age 11. He has been a member of the SDYC for over forty years and has served on the SDYC Board of Directors for nine years. He studied business at San Diego State University and lives with his wife Daintry in San Diego, California.

Conner entertains with insightful anecdotes and stories of encouragement, motivation and inspired performance. He gives audiences "no excuse to lose" and proves it with his remarkable sailing record.