AMERICA’S CUP COMMENTARY : Is Koch’s Wheel of Chaos a Bum Steer?

Stars & Stripes will race America 3’s Kanza when the America’s Cup defender trials resume today.

Dennis Conner will steer Stars & Stripes--of that there is no doubt. Kanza will be driven by . . . uh, will the Cubens’ next mystery helmsman sign in, please?

One month from Thursday, the Cup match will start against the surviving challenger. This would be late December of an NFL season, with the playoffs under way. But after nearly three months of trials Bill Koch still hasn’t settled on a crew--and, specifically, the man who will lead that crew. The quarterback.

Recent events indicate that he’s keeping the afterguard unsettled until he can get good enough to justify assigning himself to the wheel.

Not that he needs to justify it to anybody. Koch owns the boats. And Roger Penske could drive his own Indy cars. Alex Spanos could play quarterback for the Chargers.

Two members of the afterguard--the brain trust in the back of the boat--told reporters over the weekend that the apparent instability, including last Saturday’s self-benching of Buddy Melges and Sunday’s sudden switch of assignments, hadn’t upset the crew.

“I’m not upset,” tactician Dave Dellenbaugh said, turning to part-time helmsman Buddy Melges. “Are you upset?”

“I’m not upset,” Melges said.

Dellenbaugh said, “We’re the only syndicate that has two boats racing. So it’s not as simple a question. You have to make sure you have two competitive boats.”

Melges: “Bill has set this concept right from the start. We’re living with it. Certainly, the crew appreciates the opportunity to continue to compete right up until the 11th hour.”

Does it? America 3 crew members must sign agreements to inform management of any contact with the media, what questions were asked and how they responded, so it’s difficult to talk to them.

But sources say America 3 morale is not good. Plans are changing too quickly and too often for this late in the game.

The America’s Cup Organizing Committee also is quietly concerned that Koch’s vacillation is bad for the defense.

ACOC President Malin Burnham was reminded of the 1977 defense at Newport, R.I., when he was aboard the 12-meter Enterprise with Lowell North and John Marshall in the defense trials. North steered for the starts, Burnham steered upwind and Marshall steered downwind--similar to America 3’s procedure with Dellenbaugh, Melges, Koch and the new man in the mix, Kimo Worthington.

How did that arrangement work out?

“Not very well,” Burnham said. “As I look back on that exercise, I never thought it was the best thing to do. The disadvantage I had as the upwind helmsman was that I didn’t get a feel of the boat until after the starting gun. I didn’t have a chance to warm up.”

Publicly, Koch said, “I love being told I can’t do something.”

If that’s true, he must be having a wonderful time, because everybody is telling him he can’t steer an America’s Cup boat.

But his reasons for wanting to steer might go deeper than sailing, which he has been doing for only eight years. Maybe he has a point to prove to his two alienated brothers who bought him and his other brother out of the family business in a feud years ago.

His Stars & Stripes rivals say they can’t tell the difference when he’s steering one of his boats, and on some points of sail in certain conditions he is probably quite capable. But the America 3 is not a sailing school.

While steering Kanza in Sunday’s intramural race against America 3, the boat, on an upwind leg, one of the others--Dellenbaugh or Bill Campbell--was seen virtual wresting the wheel from Koch to avert a collision as they crossed Americac,63’s stern.

The America 3 company line is that it doesn’t matter much who steers, but in the next breath Koch lauds Conner’s skillful helmsmanship and how it has made the difference in recent races.

Gary Jobson, the ESPN sailing commentator who assembled Koch’s crew, then left when he sensed the drift toward the current situation, said, “It would really be best for the defense for Dennis to get in (the defense finals) because it would force America 3 to settle on one crew and one boat and put all the effort into one.”

Another fruitful scenario might be, even if Koch monopolizes the finals with two boats, to give one boat to Conner and the Stars & Stripes crew to make sure he is pushed to the maximum. Even if Conner & Co. won the best-of-13 series, Koch would still have the option of putting the boat and crew of his choice into the Cup match in May.

The worst scenario for the defense would be for Koch to get two boats in the defense finals and delay his cutdown until just before the Cup match. The challengers are rooting for that one.