Q & A WITH BILL KOCH : Deep Convictions, Deeper Pockets

dil’ettan’te A lover of the fine arts; esp., one who follows an art or a branch of knowledge desultorily or superficially, or as a pastime. Syn. See AMATEUR

--Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

Bill Koch would try on that definition and say it doesn’t fit. Anyone who spends $30 million isn’t just dabbling in the America’s Cup.

That’s Koch’s personal share of his America 3 syndicate’s $45 million commitment to defeat a man--Dennis Conner--who had won and lost the Cup before Koch ever learned to sail.

Koch has been playing catch-up as fast as he can, with all the considerable means at his disposal--foremost, money and technology backed by his three degrees, one a doctorate, from MIT. From his roots in Wichita, Kan., alternative energy and real estate have made him two-thirds a billionaire, so he can certainly outspend Conner. But can he outsail him?

The defender trials start Tuesday--Koch’s two boats against Conner’s solitary Stars & Stripes. And if those two boats aren’t enough, he’ll have two more before the trials are over.

Koch explains the syndicate name--say America Cubed-- as the combination of “talent, teamwork and technology to the third power (to) come up with a very powerful force.”

The catalyst is money. Koch espouses the “Corinthian ideal.” His boats aren’t billboards. He doesn’t have sponsors; they are “donors.” But it’s easy to be an amateur when you’re worth $650,000,000, according to Forbes magazine.

The flip side is that even if Koch prevails over the next 3 1/2 months, few will credit his sailing skills. And if he loses, with his megabucks, multi-boat advantage . . . well, Cup memories are cruel. Ask Conner about 1983.

This is the hand Koch has dealt himself. Among all the big-buck boat backers in San Diego--Raul Gardini, Sir Michael Fay, Yvon Jacob, Tatsumitsu Yamasaki--only Koch insists on sailing his own.

Q: How do you feel about the critics?

Koch: “I don’t care what they think. It had been a distraction, but now it’s no longer a distraction in house. Everybody’s happy. It started because there were a couple of egos involved that wanted all the glory for steering the boat . . . who wanted to be stars.”

Q: You’re referring to people such as Gary Jobson, John Kostecki and Cam Lewis--all so-called world-class sailors?

Koch: “Our team says, ‘There are no stars. The boat’s the star.’ The helmsman is just another team member, like the bowman, a grinder or anybody else handling a piece of hardware (the wheel). You don’t need stars to win. What you need is dedicated people--a team. I absolutely find the concept of helmsman being the star very reprehensible.

“The professional sailors have fostered the idea that the guy steering the boat, he’s the genius, the motivating force. There’s an economic incentive for guys to do this. That’s their career. I could name a dozen sailors whom I know personally that have great reputations, but they don’t spend most of their time sailing in practice (but) building up their reputations.

“We have an interesting situation on board now . . . kind of a (winch) grinders’ mafia. We had one hotshot sailor come on board and start acting like he was gonna be a hotshot helmsman and run the show. Well, the grinders went up to him and told him, ‘You’d better chill out if you know what’s good for you.’

“We had another hotshot sailor start criticizing people on board the boat. At lunch he was sitting on the edge of the cockpit. One grinder sat down on one side, one sat on the other and one stood in front of him. All of a sudden the guy trips and he’s in the water.

“Another tactician was being too hard on the crew--too critical. During lunchtime, he found himself down by his feet hoisted up the mast. The grinders are keeping people in line for the team. We all know to make friends with the grinders.”

Q: Maybe your grinders are the stars.

Koch: “There was a grinding contest. Our guys not only won it, they broke the grinding machine. Our team takes pride in the fact that we’re the most physically fit team out there.”

Q: They lift weights. They were even watching films of themselves this morning. They seem to train like a football team, not traditional sailors.

Koch: “To hell with nautical traditions. They don’t win boat races. I’ll tell you what wins. A fast boat and a crew that does everything well. Why get involved in this other garbage about who’s the star, who’s the helmsman?”

Q: Why have there been so much turnover in your team?

Koch: “We’ve actually had only about four sailors leave--about 5%. That’s a misconception created by some other people. The biggest mistake I’ve made is not getting rid of (certain) people soon enough.”

(Koch’s executive aide, David Rosow, interjects, “Bill hasn’t gotten rid of anybody. The team has. We have not had a defection when a supposed star has left.”)

Koch: “When one of those guys left, there were rumors that the whole team was gonna walk out. Not one person left. The turnover in our crew has been minor, compared to what an athletic team normally has. It’s been highlighted by the big names.

“(And) when each one of those guys left, the morale went up the next day. Everybody recognized that they were disruptive, and action was taken to correct a disruptive situation. With one member, the crew were talking about throwing him off.”

Q: Your crew assignments seem to be balanced for equal strength on the two boats. Isn’t this where you differed with Jobson, who advocated a “first” and “second” team concept?

Koch: “That and other things.”

(Others of lesser stature who left and said they were fired include pitman Eric Johnson and mastman Henry Childress. The latter was with Conner at Fremantle in 1986-87. Thursday, when Koch announced his crew assignments, several went out of their way to greet Jobson, who hired most of them for America 3 and returned to ESPN after leaving the team. Afterward, he chatted amicably with several, including Koch.)

Q: This being your first America’s Cup, what have you learned? Press relations, perhaps, when talking about “idiot” designers and “incredibly dangerous” boats?

Koch (smiling): “I’ve learned to be a little more diplomatic. I’ll stand behind some of my conclusions, however. The boats are a lot of fun to sail, especially when you’re not paying the bills. The boats are incredibly expensive. If you had this in smaller boats, you’d have 25 or 30 more competitors and would make it much more exciting.”

Q: Conner’s edge is experience. Yours is money. Have you closed the gap?

Koch: “I’ll never have as much experience as Dennis has. He started when he was 8 years old. I started eight years ago at (age) 43. But I can still be competitive, even if I haven’t sailed all my bloody life. I’ve raced Dennis for the last five years (in maxi-boats) and I’ve beaten him--uh, my team has beaten him more times than he’s beaten us.”

Q: Your Matador-2 has won the world maxi title the last two years, but does fleet racing in maxi-boats relate to match racing in the America’s Cup?

Koch: “Sure. Absolutely. A small differential in boat speed means a lot on the race course. If you have a fast boat and a crew that doesn’t make any major goof-ups and you’re conservative and don’t try to go for the home runs, you can compete with anybody in the world.

“I sailed against--my team has sailed against (Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul) Cayard, (Nippon Challenge’s) Chris Dickson, (Il Moro pace boat skipper John) Kolius--all those big shots. It’s fun sailing against them. And Dennis gave us the greatest compliment of all by saying, ‘Even my grandmother could win in his (maxi) boat.’

“Everybody laughed at me when I did the Matador research program and built 35 models (for testing). ‘Koch’s crazy.’ Now they come out and say, ‘No one can beat Koch. His boat’s too fast. Koch has killed the maxi class.’

“The strategy is the same here: build the best boat you can, put together the crew that works the best as a team and is physically fit.

“In the films, we were looking at mark roundings. Everybody has to do his job. The helmsman doesn’t do the mark rounding. He doesn’t put up the chute, doesn’t trim the sails. All he does is steer it around.

“Dennis can have all the experience in the world. He’s wily. He’s cagey. He’s a brilliant sailor. But that doesn’t make up for a slow boat (or) a bad mark rounding. And what determines good mark roundings? Practice, practice, practice, and people who want to do it right.”

Q: Conner has missed practice while he’s been out fund-raising.

Koch: “Exactly. Dennis set the framework for all this. He said technology was important and practice was important. So we’re just taking what he established a number of years ago to a much higher level.”

Q: Conner is acknowledged as a master at psyching out opponents. Are you ready for his gamesmanship?

Koch: “There was a study done about gamesmanship in the Olympics, and it showed that the guy who won the race was the guy who got up to the average speed the quickest and maintained it throughout the race. All the stuff about psyching the other guys out (was nonsense).”

Q: Do you have a team plan? Will your backup boat let No. 1 win to pile up points when they race each other?

Koch: “No, our guys are competitive. I almost had a mutiny the other day. We were having a practice race and had running backstay problems on one boat. We could only put up a three (small headsail). So we asked the other boat to put up a three, and they almost rebelled. That’s the kind of spirit we want.”

Q: Your third boat arrives soon, and you are building a fourth. How many does it take to win?

Koch: “Our goal is to have two boats in the trials that are the fastest boats in the world. . . . Whichever boat wins will be the one we take into the America’s Cup.”

Q: Do you believe that Conner isn’t building another boat in secret, as you did?

Koch: “You always have that lurking suspicion, but if you look at the economic realities and other evidence . . . I don’t believe he’s building a second one.

“It’s a shame. I regret the fact that he isn’t. He’d be much more competitive. And he’s still gonna be very competitive. He has a very fast boat.”

* AT THE HELM

America 3 chief Bill Koch announced he and Buddy Melges would be the skippers for the syndicate’s two boats when defender trials begin next week. C7A