AMERICA’S CUP : Koch Doesn’t Expect a Surprise From Conner

Bill Koch, steering a course between arrogance and condescension, will have Dennis Conner in his sights today, the opening of the third round of the America’s Cup defender trial trials.

With his bank account, higher technology and unbridled espionage, Koch is waging sailing’s version of the Persian Gulf War. He’s out to overwhelm Conner as well as whichever challenger awaits in May.

He already has taken them on with his electronic intelligence operations, and Monday he rejected the complaints of Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard.

“Paul’s under a great deal of pressure and a great deal of frustration,” Koch said. “I think he’s just whining.”

As for Conner, who was sitting alongside at the time, Koch said, “We’re looking forward to being very competitive with Dennis. He’s a formidable opponent and we’re very proud to be sailing against him.”

A nice tribute to the man who brought the Cup back to the United States with his victory over the Australians at Fremantle in 1987, but perhaps a polite prelude to what seems inevitable.

Entering the third round, Conner’s Stars & Stripes is 5-7 with seven points through the first two rounds, compared to Koch’s third boat, America 3(USA 23), with 16 points, and Koch’s older boat, Defiant, with 4. Victories will count four points in this round, which will have each boat racing each of the others four times instead of three.

Conner hasn’t even beaten USA 23, let alone the fourth boat Koch will have later this month. Koch characterized the importance of a multi-boat development program.

“Jayhawk felt like a dog,” Koch said of his first boat. “Defiant felt like a truck. Twenty-three feels like a beautiful woman.”

Offstage, Koch repeated his earlier beliefs that Conner will have no second boat and is all but a dead duck without one. Conner can tweak only so much more speed out of Stars & Stripes, the oldest International America’s Cup Class boat still racing, Koch says.

“We’re fairly confident it’s going to be hard for him to catch up to 23.” Koch said. “(All) he can do is change his keel or his mast or his rudder or his sail.

“We’ve gone around and checked with every boat builder, every supplier of material and every keel builder. We can’t find a boat being built anywhere.

“Everything about Dennis sandbagging, cards up his sleeve and all that is kind of a mystique that has grown way out of proportion. Dennis wants to win, and if he could he’d be beating up on us pretty badly now.”

Conner indicated all he had up his sleeve was an arm grasping at straws.

“We thought we had a little cat in the box that we played last time--the tandem keel idea,” he said.

“That didn’t work, and you’re not going to see anything like that. We’re (back to) trying to optimize our boat in a standard, conventional fashion.”

Koch’s program is something more than standard and conventional. Last weekend he unveiled a new sail material involving liquid crystals, carbon-fiber and a secret polymer process.

“The nice thing about liquid crystals is if you break it, the liquid won’t pour out,” Koch said.

Koch also said, “The crystals will align with stresses that are put on (the sail).”