America 3 Sets Sights on Conner
Bill Koch’s America 3 armada has Dennis Conner behind the 8-ball, and over the next two or three days they’ll try to run the table and sink him in the corner pocket.
Koch, who wants to monopolize the America’s Cup defender finals, set Conner up for the kill Thursday when he happily sailed his newer Kanza around the 20-mile course 9 minutes 59 seconds behind his other boat, America 3.
That’s a light year in match racing, but no more than what was expected when Koch, who admits, “I’m not a good light-air sailor,” showed up at the starting line in 5-knot wisps aboard Kanza, which was designed as a heavy air boat.
The result gave A3 three points to Stars & Stripes’ four and Kanza’s five, with three more races remaining in this round that will eliminate one for the finals, which start April 18.
Stars & Stripes can assure itself of a sailoff Monday by beating Kanza today but, regardless of the outcome, can clinch a spot by beating A3 Saturday, rendering Sunday’s intramural finale between the Cubens unnecessary.
“Obviously, today was a day we wanted a win for 23 (A3),” said America 3 executive vice president David Rosow. “You put your best team on the boat you want to win.”
That’s helmsman Buddy Melges, tactician Dave Dellenbaugh, navigator Bill Campbell and the rest of the “A” crew that Koch named only this week.
But, Rosow added, “We don’t rig races.”
Once Koch assigned the crews, nobody disputed that both crews were trying as hard as their hearts would let them. But the light wind favored A3 so much that Kimo Worthington, Koch’s tactician on Kanza, said, believably, “If we could have switched crews and skippers, the same result would have come out . . . 23 would have won.”
“Besides, 23 has to beat Stars & Stripes on Saturday. We made a mode change this week. We’ve gotta make sure that thing is going.” From the start, the question of Koch manipulating the scoring has hung over this Cup like a cloud. Koch & Co. have denied doing so consistently, but ethics are running head-on into practical purposes this week.
Peter Gilmour finally admitted on ESPN Thursday that Australia’s two Kookaburras juggled their results in intramural matches at Fremantle in 1986-87 and warned America 3 of the consequences.
“The single biggest problem they’ll have when they go out there and go head to head is credibility in the public eye,” Gilmour said. “They’re gonna have to look as though they’re competitively racing these boats as best as they possibly can.
“Who went across the finishing line was for Iain (Murray) and me to decide before the day got under way.”
There was one interesting feature in Thursday’s meaningless windup of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger semifinals: a re-enactment of Tuesday’s controversial windward mark incident between Stars & Stripes and Kanza on the defenders’ course when the boats collided, forcing Stars & Stripes into the mark and causing Stars & Stripes to do a penalty turn that cost it the race and left Conner’s crew in the fix it’s in.
This time it was New Zealand--7-2 in the semifinals, 25-5 overall--in Kanza’s outside position and Il Moro di Venezia (5-4, 20-10) taking Stars & Stripes’ role, trying to squeeze through inside.
The Kiwis recovered from a poor start to take the lead, and as Rod Davis steered across Il Moro’s course to round the mark, the boats missed colliding by inches and both raised protest flags. Then Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard was unable to keep his boat from barely brushing a corner of the inflated buoy as he drifted past.
The umpires green-flagged the protests but ordered Il Moro to do a penalty turn for touching the mark. Already 1:11 behind, the Italians did it on the next upwind leg after the three reaches and were never close again, losing by 2:20.