AMERICA’S CUP ’92 : Koch, Melges Roll With Punch Lines : Sailing: Dennis Conner’s struggling entry is main topic of discussion.
Bill Koch: “Our philosophy is not to grind Dennis’ nose in the mud and pound on him . . .”
Buddy Melges: “It isn’t?”
Koch: “Our purpose is to have the best possible racing, to win . . . and go on and win the America’s Cup.”
Melges: “Then grind his nose in the mud.”
With Bill Koch’s straight lines and Buddy Melges’ punch lines, a visit to the America 3team is more entertaining than the America’s Cup defender races lately.
Sailing off mild-mannered Point Loma was called off for the least anticipated reason Wednesday--too much wind--so Koch summoned the Cup press corps to a briefing in the art room at his compound.
The winds of more than 30 knots forced the first abandonment of a race in San Diego’s brief Cup history. Weather permitting, the racing will resume today with Dennis Conner’s retrofitted Stars & Stripes--without Conner--racing Koch’s Defiant at 12:15.
Conner, who expected to have the next two days off, left town Wednesday evening to fulfill a commitment to appear at the Miami Boat Show. John Bertrand is expected to take the helm today.
At least the boat should be somewhat better than it was in the first three races of this second round, when it has lost to America 3 by 6:00 and 6:23 and Defiant by 4:16--margins so lopsided that Koch suggested to Conner that he fix his boat to provide better competition.
Fix it his crew did, working all day Wednesday, replacing the radical new keel and rudder system with something closer to the old one.
Last weekend, Koch said, Conner called him to ask if he could borrow Jayhawk, the oldest of Koch’s three boats that was replaced by the new America 3 in this round.
“Dennis called me last Saturday night asking to borrow Jayhawk to test against,” Koch said. “When Defiant beat up on him the next day so badly, we thought a better suggestion would be for him to have a mode change.
“Their boat is so far off the pace I don’t think they’d learn much by tuning it up against Jayhawk.”
Besides, Melges said, “There are some excellent things on Jayhawk that (Conner) doesn’t have to see.”
Stars & Stripes is believed to be handicapped by a new rudder-keel configuration installed since the first round. To change it again before the end of the round requires consent of the opponent: Koch.
Koch described what he believed to be the configuration of Conner’s underwater appendages with his hands.
“We understand there are two (fore and aft) fins coming down attached to a great big bulb, and the two fins rotate. . . . You can spin it fast, do all kinds of stuff, but it doesn’t give you much lift.”
Contrary to lift, the boat appears to lack enough lateral resistance to prevent it from skidding off line while sailing upwind in even a moderate breeze.
“Earlier, Dennis was supposed to have a fast boat in heavier air,” Koch said. “Now he’s got a dog in all conditions. He goes more sideways than he does forward.
“From a technological standpoint, we’re delighted we’re beating him by four and six minutes. With (IACC boat number) 23 we’ve made a tremendous leap forward, and he’s made a leap backward with his rudder tandem device.
“We still want as much competition as we can get. Ideally, we’d like to beat Dennis by 10 seconds every race. That puts tremendous pressure on the whole crew not to make mistakes.”
At first, Koch had to persuade his team that helping Conner was a good idea.
“The idea of offering a competitor a mode change became an extremely emotional issue in our camp. (Some thought), ‘Why give your competitor any chance at all?’ ”
Melges said, “There are 15 people in the afterguard and (the vote) was 15 to 1.”
Koch: “Dennis has been pretty tough on his competitors in the past, and we have been pretty tough on him now. It’s pretty tough to get beaten by six minutes here, four minutes there.”
And it doesn’t do the winners much good, either.
“We broke a spinnaker yesterday and it took us a minute and a half to get another one up,” Koch said. “We should have had one up within 30 seconds. But (the attitude was) ‘We’re so far ahead, what’s an extra minute?’ ”
Koch isn’t waiting for Conner to get a second boat--still a subject of speculation.
“The odds of that are about a million to one,” Koch said.
“(But) I think Dennis can bring Stars & Stripes up to where she will give us a good run for the money. I’d be surprised if he could bring her up fast enough to give boat 23 a run. Just giving Defiant a run would be good for our team.
“I hope I’m not sounding arrogant, but we have an exceptionally fast boat out here. You all will be amazed how fast she is, and she’s got a long way to go.”
Asked how his boat would compare to those of the top challengers, Koch said, “If you’d like to bet me a million bucks on whether that boat would beat them, I’d take that bet right now. I’m putting my money where my mouth is.
“I want to look beyond Dennis (to) our ultimate goal . . . to win the America’s Cup, to keep it in San Diego.”
That means Conner would be left on the beach. Koch indicated there would be no merger, no teaming up, no room for Dennis on his boat.
Melges: “Well, we have a weight (limit) problem . . .”
Koch, who has been sailing only eight years, said Conner was instrumental in getting him involved in the Cup.
“A lot of potential American defenders approached me in the summer of ’90 after (his maxi boat) Matador beat Boomerang by about 20 minutes, trying to get my technology. Dennis also approached me, looking for my technology and money.
“Then I knew I must have had something. Dennis (said) our technological program had a lot of merit and that it could be applied to the new America’s Cup. He told me the other potential defenders wouldn’t be viable opponents, so he asked me to join his team.