Koch’s Compound Is Giddy With Success : Sailing: Victory gives the team a chance to have some fun in the water before focusing on the America’s Cup final.

You snooze, you swim. Everyone was fair game Friday afternoon at the America 3 compound.

This looked more like Animal House than the house that billionaire industrialist Bill Koch built. Come to think of it, wasn’t that Koch who threw Malin Burnham, America’s Cup Organizing Committee president, into the briny deep?

A dripping wet Tom Ehman, ACOC general manager, turned to Burnham and said, “They never did this at the New York Yacht Club.”

Those wild and crazy Cubens. But they earned every moment of it. With A3 ‘s 5-minute, 8-second victory over Dennis Conner on Day 11 of the defender finals, Koch’s syndicate closed out a grueling four-month series by dethroning the reigning crew.

Koch was still drying off when he addressed an informal gathering of reporters on the dock. He could hardly contain his excitement.

“Our guys are ecstatic. They’re really proud that they’ve been able to get this far,” he said. “As we say in Kansas, the greatness of your tribe is determined by the greatness of your enemy. . . We feel as if we can conquer the world. I hope we can, but we have a hard road ahead of us.”

A road that the Italians, A3’s opponent in the America’s Cup finals, which begin May 9, would like very much to block.

Il Moro di Venezia, driven by skipper Paul Cayard, has proven it can win as well as spend money. And the Italians, who came back from being down 3-1, demonstrated how not to wilt under pressure in winning four consecutive races to defeat New Zealand.

But Koch likes his team’s chances, and gladly will pit his talent and technology against that of Il Moro.

“The Italians are trying to buy the best American talent and the best American technology,” he said. “But we in America can develop our own technology to beat everyone else in the world. That’s our own philosophy. Ordinary Americans and ordinary American technology is competitive with the rest of the world.”

In the World According to Koch, the formula of success in this America’s Cup breaks down as follows: 55% boat speed, 33% sailing skill, and the rest is pure luck.

“But 55% is enough to win,” he insisted. “Here I am a kid from Kansas, I’ve been sailing seven years and we’ve just knocked off the best sailor in the world. The results speak for themselves.”

But some of Koch’s crew was close to speechless after clinching the championship berth. For pitman Josh Belsky of Newport, R.I., this is a childhood dream come true.

“Without a doubt,” said Belsky, 25, sailing in his first America’s Cup. “I’ve been thinking about this for a lifetime. This hasn’t hit yet. I don’t think it will until we’re out there against Italy next week. There’s still so much to do, but just to know you’re in the America’s Cup . . . “

For the 16 men who have gone one-on-one with Starts & Stripes since mid-January, it will be nice to face another opponent.

“Now it won’t be a blue boat anymore, it will be a red boat,” said Belsky, who expects a rough-and-tumble series against Il Moro.

“This is the Super Bowl,” he said. “I think it’s going to be very close racing. There will be very aggressive maneuvering at the start line, move aggressive beats, tacks and jibes, everything. We’re going to have a real duke fest.”

A3 helmsman Buddy Melges, has a reputation as a Wizard (of Zenda, Wis.) rather than a Duke, and he has probably won as many sailing championships as he’s told jokes. But Melges, 62, said a victory in this regatta would certainly stand out.

“This is only the right to defend,” said Melges, who won Olympic gold in 1972. “This has nothing to do with winning the Cup. This is just a stop. The gold medal still stands above them all, but maybe that will change if we successfully defend the Cup.”

The age-old question of Conner joining Koch’s camp was inevitably raised. Still too happy to get angry, Koch replied patiently.

“I’ve got a team here that’s very good. We’re going to stick together no matter what,” he said. “I don’t know what (Dennis) could do for us. I’m confident we can go into the America’s Cup and represent America with pride.”

As for his syndicate, America 3 will have a rare day off today. As for Koch, he’s going to Boston to visit his son, Wyatt.

“I’m going to play with him, give him all the hugs and kisses I can,” he said.

Pretty fluffy stuff for a man who just toppled a sailing dynasty.