Heart of America Ties to Cup Winner are Few
It’s like trying to describe the similarities between Lassie and Cujo, or June Cleaver and Roseanne.
OK. So two were dogs and two were moms. Other than that, there are few.
That’s sort of the way the men who sailed with Heart of America and America 3 feel. Yes, they were similarities. No, there weren’t many.
“Heart of America was a very special program, but this is a winning program,” said A3 tactician Andreas Josenhans, one of 10 America 3 crew members who were holdovers from the Heart of America campaign in Fremantle in 1986-87.
Josenhans, a main trimmer in the Cubens’ decisive America’s Cup victory over Il Moro di Venezia Saturday, said, “. . .Heart of America was a family team, this is an all-pro team. In every aspect I know anything about, this was different.”
Starting with the pecking order of their finishes. In Australia, the Buddy Melges-created, inspired and driven Heart of America effort finished seventh in a field of 10 challengers. Saturday, the members of that doomed syndicate won the America’s Cup regatta.
America 3 used more people (a lot), spent more money (tons), tapped more resources (numerous). But the one thing that was duplicated here in San Diego was the enormous desire of the crew to win.
And Melges is credited with bringing that intensity across a continent, and through thousands of nautical miles of training, five years later.
“I have to give Buddy an awful lot of credit for the work ethic, the intent, the drive, the desire,” Josenhans said.
Pitman Wally Henry said the desire to win never changed, only the methods management went about to get them.
“Everyone had a burning desire to win then and now, we just went about the task in a different way,” he said.
Team members speak about Heart of America nostalgically, like a good friend you don’t see often but with whom you shared some of the best times of your life. You don’t want to forget about it, but you must move on.
“Everyone who was associated with Heart of America had a great time, it was a wonderful experience,” Josenhans said.
Said grinder Larry Mialik, a member of both: “America 3 has a life of its own. There were Heart of America people here, but this wasn’t Heart of America. There were (maxi boat) Matador 2 people here, but it wasn’t Matador 2 . This was America 3 .”
This was a syndicate that Bill Koch complained about spending so much money on, but didn’t hesitate to keep the bank account fat, and the check’s signed.
“I have to give Bill the credit for giving us the toys and the tools to work with,” Josenhans said. “There never was anything lacking. Most programs you’re in say we can’t afford it, or we don’t want to do it, or it doesn’t make sense. Here, if it was a viable avenue to explore, it got explored. There may have been a finite end, but we didn’t find it. A lot of small countries run on the budget this thing ran on.”
Not exactly the philosophy of Melges’ Fremantle fling, where volunteers did jobs that America 3 wouldn’t dream of letting anyone but documented professionals handle.
Dick Brown was floating around the compound after the Cubens’ victory Saturday. He wanted to congratulate crew members he worked with five years ago, where he was an electrician, a plumber, anything that Heart of America needed him to be.
“That was so much fun, I just wanted to come here and support them,” said Brown of Ft. Collins, Colo.
Mialik said this is the most well grounded program he’s ever been associated with, “in all area of support. From the front office to the support team, you name it. In Fremantle you could do without a lot of expense, but here, in the end, you saw that in this type of campaign, you saw the Italians spent a lot of money as well, it was an advantage.”
Is this a sign that the America’s Cup can’t, or won’t, be won without spending a fortune? Is there a yachting versions of Hoosiers in the future of the Cup?
“I don’t know about that,” Mialik said, “But I think a year ago, a lot of people thought we had about the same chances of a small school in Indiana.”