In His America’s Cup Afterglow, Koch Is Still Answering the Critics
Bill Koch has been reveling in his press clippings in the two months since he successfully defended the America’s Cup.
“It’s fun to reflect back on all the things (sportswriters) wrote about how I didn’t have a chance,” Koch said from Cape Cod.
Koch laughed the last laugh, then sailed through criticism by some of the other prominent personalities in the event: Il Moro di Venezia’s American skipper, Paul Cayard, who was beaten by Koch’s America3 in the Cup match, 4-1; Dennis Conner, who Koch said tried to help the Italians beat him, and his own helmsman, Buddy Melges, who he said had to be told his place on the boat.
Koch dismissed as “sour grapes” Cayard’s criticism of Koch’s boorish, upstart behavior, especially during award ceremonies at the San Diego Yacht Club.
“I understand how he feels because he’s been working for this all his life,” Koch said, “and here I come along, a rich kid with 18 months’ preparation, and do it the first time.”
Cayard’s mistake, Koch said, was that “he tried to be everything. That was his downfall. The difference in our team was that it was a team .”
But America3 was a team in disarray when Conner, sailing the older, slower Stars & Stripes, tied the best-of-11 defender finals, 4-4.
“If we had thrown one (intrasquad) race (in the semifinals), we could have kept (Conner) out of the defender finals,” Koch said. “But I thank God we didn’t get him out, because that forced us to do a lot of things to win.
“I said, ‘Buddy, you’re not the skipper. I’m the skipper. You’re the helmsman. By Baldridge, you’re the navigator. Dave Dellenbaugh, you’re the tactician’--and if they didn’t like it to get off the boat. There were three other guys standing in line.
“Buddy pouted like a spoiled brat for the first day, but then he realized I was right, and we got it down to where David could make a decision in two seconds. Buddy used to overrule him all the time, and then By would get into it. Once Buddy got his priorities straight, we were all right.
“If we hadn’t had that kind of a session to clarify our rules, we wouldn’t have beaten the Italians.”
Conner, Koch said, would have loved it if America3 hadn’t beaten the Italians.
“Dennis really didn’t want to see us win,” Koch said. “He wanted to see the Cup go to Venice.”
The plausible scenario was that Conner then could have challenged for his new USA Yacht Club in New York and, if successful, would have had virtual personal control of the Cup--something he will never have as long as the Cup remains at the San Diego Yacht Club.
Koch said: “I’ve got videotapes of him going in and out of (the Il Moro) compound three or four times.”
Bill Trenkle, Conner’s operations manager, said: “Dennis may have been there, but that wasn’t unusual. Dennis and Paul were always (talking). You know how Dennis likes to cover his bases. He wanted to know what would happen if Il Moro won the Cup . . . where they’d defend it and so on. It’s difficult to catch people after it’s over.
“We helped Bill Koch. We brought Stars & Stripes out to sail, offered him the intelligence we had on the Italians, any sails they wanted.”
Koch said he never considered inviting Conner to sail his boat against Il Moro.
“One, it would have upset our crew, and there were three or four helmsmen that could have done the job. Buddy was by far the best in light air.”
Nor would he have lent Conner his boat for the match, if Conner had won the defender trials. Koch said his repeated but vague references to a “tax problem” were genuine, in that his campaign was linked to a charitable foundation.
“The tax penalties would have been severe,” he said. “It would have cost me $150 million and two years in jail.”
As it was, Koch said the final bill was “65 to 67 million,” of which 80%, or $50 million, came out of his own pockets. Will he try to defend again in 1995?
“If we decide to do it, I’d know how to do it a lot better,” Koch said.
Sailing Notes
MATCH RACING--San Diego’s third-ranked Peter Isler set himself up as one of the favorites in next month’s $135,000 Mazda World Championship of Match Race Sailing at Long Beach by winning the French Open at St. Tropez. The field included top-ranked Chris Dickson and fourth-ranked Russell Coutts, both of New Zealand. Dickson won the round-robin but lost to Irish veteran Harold Cudmore in the semifinals, 2-1. Coutts finished seventh in the round-robin. Isler swept Cudmore and Australia’s Gordon Lucas in the final and semifinals, 2-0. Winds were light to moderate. . . . In concurrent events, Dennis Conner made a rare match-racing appearance to win the BMW Baltic event at Kiel, Germany, defeating Paul Cayard in the finals, 2-0. Conner’s crew included the U.S. Olympic Soling crew of Kevin Mahaney, Jim Brady and Doug Kern. . . . The latest rankings of the 10 sailors to be invited to Long Beach: Dickson, Australia’s Peter Gilmour, Isler, Coutts, Wales’ Eddie Warden-Owen, Cayard, Ed Baird, New Zealand’s Rod Davis, Denmark’s Jesper Bank and Germany’s Jochen Schumann.
OCEAN RACING--Most of the world’s best sailors who aren’t at Barcelona by the end of the month will be in Hawaii for the 14th Kenwood Cup. Robbie Haines, an ’84 Olympic gold medalist, will sail Irv Loube’s Two Ton class boat Bravura, under sponsorship of the Park Plaza Waikiki. Dickson, apparently restoring ties with his homeland after the Nippon Challenge, will be tactician on a New Zealand entry, Shockwave.
OLYMPICS--Vince Brun of San Diego, with crew Mike Durgan of New Orleans, won the King of Spain regatta for Star boats at Marina del Rey with four consecutive first places. San Diego’s Mark Reynolds, with crew Hal Haenel of Malibu, was second. Reynolds and Haenel are the American Barcelona representatives in the class, after winning a silver medal in ’88. They dominated the class at Kiel Week against the top European competition with a series of 1-2-1-3-6-1. They beat the runner-up Russian boat with 8.7 points to 44.7, then won the match-racing sailoffs. . . . David Staples, Soling skipper for Barbados in the Olympics, is a former Tustin Foothill High student and a UC San Diego graduate.
EVENTS--The J-24 North Americans will be run by Long Beach Yacht Club Tuesday through Friday, overlapping the Etchells North Americans, scheduled at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club from Thursday through Saturday. In the Etchells, former champion Dave Curtis is entered. Dennis Conner is the reigning world champion, but probably won’t compete. The strong fleets from San Diego, Newport Beach and San Francisco will be among 25-40 entries. . . . The Cal 20 Nationals will be run by King Harbor YC at Redondo Beach July 27-Aug. 1. Sixty entries are anticipated. . . . The Snipe Nationals will be at ABYC Aug. 1-8.
