Bill Koch’s Newest Boat Is Christened ‘Kanza’

The America 3 team’s fourth America’s Cup boat was christened “Kanza” Friday, for an American Indian tribe in owner Bill Koch’s home state of Kansas.

It will replace Koch’s second boat, Defiant, alongside stablemate America 3, against Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes in the fourth round of defender trials starting March 28. Conner apparently will continue to sail his first and only boat.

The name Kanza means “the wind people” or “people of the south wind” in the ancient language of the tribe, which inhabited eastern Kansas in the 17th and 18th centuries. The boat was christened by Wanda Stone, tribal chairman of the Kawa/Kanza Indian nation in Kaw City, Okla.

Meanwhile, Koch’s first boat, Jayhawk, departed San Diego this week on a two-month, cross-country tour, with scheduled stops at syndicate donor headquarters in Golden, Colo.; Wichita, Kan.; Warren, Mich., and Boston.