Age Comes Before Experience for Kostecki : Sailing: America-3 syndicate wanted a young man. They got one with plenty of sailing smarts.

Two Soling world championships. Who cares? A gold medal at the Pan American Games. So what? The U.S. Olympic Committee’s Sportsman of the Year? Pass the Vivarin.

John Kostecki’s resume is chock-full of similar feats and accomplishments, but here’s what got him a spot on the two-boat America-3 crew.

Strategists be dammed. Birthdays were the key.

As Gary Jobson and Bill Koch handpicked their helmsman and tactician positions, they took two of the spots themselves, then gave Buddy Melges and Kostecki the nod for the remaining ones.

Jobson explained: “When you have a two-boat program, you need a foursome, a driver and a tactician. Even if you switch off, you have to have two-and-two. Buddy’s been around awhile, he’s 61, Bill’s 50, I’m 40, so we had to get someone around 30.”

Not that anyone’s counting. Kostecki, 26, showed experience and age can have little in common, as he drove America-3’s Jayhawk to a victory on the final and deciding leg of Monday’s International America’s Cup Class World Championship race off Point Loma.

That’s not exactly how it happened.

“John’s a great helmsman and a good tactician,” Jobson said. “I was really bullish to recruit him.”

Kostecki, a San Francisco native, was as eager to join forces with America-3 as they were to have him. He even gave up a bunk in the Dennis Conner camp.

According to Kostecki, he and Conner chatted--no formal commitment--about joining Team Dennis Conner in pursuit of the 1992 America’s Cup. But after Kostecki spent two weeks of practice sailing with America-3 on the French boat (USA-2) early in the year, his allegiance wandered.

“I felt I would have the opportunity to do more things with (America-3),” Kostecki said. “My role would have been a little more limited over there. But there were a lot of factors.”

The Gulf War also figured into his decision. At the height of the war, Kostecki wondered how difficult it would be for Conner to gather corporate sponsorship for his Stars & Stripes syndicate.

“(America-3) is well funded,” he said. “If you need new sails, you can get them . . . Anything you need to win, you can get. With (Dennis’) group, I was a little worried about that.”

Kostecki reiterated his desire to drive boats, not sit in boats.

“When you look at it, there’s a lot more opportunities to drive in a two-boat syndicate,” he said. “Sure, I would have had a fair amount of practice (with Conner), but that’s not what I want to do. I want to race.”

And what a race it was Monday. Kostecki took the helm on only two legs of the course, both downwind, but he was there when it counted.

Kostecki said his knowledge of the local conditions--he won the Olympic Soling trials here in 1987--was a key reason Koch turned over the wheel when he did.

“I have a lot of experience sailing in this area and on boats similar to these,” Kostecki said. “I have a real good feel for what works and what the angles are downwind.”

Obviously. Jayhawk--a boat new to Kostecki, who had spent Saturday and Sunday in USA-2--trailed New Zealand until the finishing leg, when the wind took a red, white and blue turn.

“The wind shifted to our advantage,” said Kostecki, who added that a little of the pressure is off now that the syndicate has captured its first victory.

Despite his clutch performance, Kostecki knows he still must earn a driving position in next year’s trials.

“If I don’t earn it, I don’t deserve it,” he said. “But here, I feel I’ll at least be able to prove myself.”