AMERICA’S CUP NOTEBOOK / RICH ROBERTS : Verdict on Koch Will Have to Wait

So how good a helmsman is Bill Koch?

America’s Cup watchers won’t be able to make any judgments right away. Buddy Melges, sailing Defiant, will lead off with the first part of America 3’s one-two punch against Dennis Conner when the defender trials start Tuesday.

Koch will sail Jayhawk, his older boat, against Conner on Wednesday, and Melges and Koch will meet in an intrasquad scrimmage Thursday.

When asked why he assigned himself to the older boat, Koch said, “I have to work a lot harder than Buddy to catch up. (Also,) we’ve made substantial improvements to both one and two, and in certain conditions one is faster than (two). So, as Buddy said, you flip a coin.”

Koch also said other crew members, such as tactician Dave Dellenbaugh, navigator Bill Campbell and mainsail trimmer Kimo Worthington, have steered big race boats and may take the wheel occasionally.

“Any one of them can be competitive,” Koch said. “We track this on a computer . . . track people’s performance.”

And how does Koch stack up?

“The tests show that I’m up there with them.”

Gary Jobson hired all but two of the current crew, was listed as an “alternate helmsman” and worked out the defender trials format with Stars & Stripes tactician Tom Whidden before he left America 3 to rejoin ESPN last summer.

Jobson was frustrated that Koch would not pick first and second teams but preferred the two balanced crews announced this week--truly, a split in philosophies.

“They split elsewhere, too,” Koch said. “I think he wanted to be first string. He wanted to be skipper. I don’t blame him.”

Koch said he has learned much from Melges, the wizard of Zenda, Wis., who has sailed almost every kind of boat imaginable. And he also has a sailing lesson coming from Conner.

In a recent fund-raiser for J.J. Isler’s Olympic campaign, Conner offered a ride on Stars & Stripes. Koch bought it with a bid of $1,000.

“They’re not offering it yet,” Koch said. “I’ve got to go demand it.”

Rod Davis was not surprised when Russell Coutts beat him with New Zealand’s older, conventional boat in the challenger practice race Thursday.

Davis might be the second-ranked match racer in the world, behind Nippon Challenge’s Chris Dickson, but Coutts is third.

Coutts, along with David Barnes, was one of three candidates to be the Kiwi skipper, but when Peter Blake picked the crew he placed Coutts on the backup boat.

“We’re stronger by divvying it up than we are by putting all three of us on one boat and just hammering away at our pace boat,” Davis said. “We’re really blessed to have Russell to push us--and don’t you worry, Russell will push us.

“It’s an opportunity we have by having three very qualified people. I don’t know of any other challenge that has three people that are as qualified.”

Coutts probably won’t be on the campaign boat when the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials start Jan. 25.

“But soon after that he might be,” Davis said. “It’s like having a backup quarterback.”

With a sparse spectator fleet anticipated in the early trial rounds, crowd control will be loose as long as small, private spectator boats don’t interfere with the racers.

Race manager Terry Harper said there will be a crowd control perimeter enforced by course marshalls, but even private boats with no flag credentials should be able to get within 200 yards of the downwind end of the course and within 300 yards of the race boats elsewhere.

Those guidelines are experimental and much looser than the half-mile distance stipulated in the Boating & Spectator Guide--as long as the boats behave themselves.

The guide is available at marinas and yacht clubs.

With a few exceptions, there will be no races on Mondays or Fridays during the four-month run of the America’s Cup.

The ocean belongs to the Navy on those days--generally, leaving port Monday and returning Friday.