AMERICA’S CUP / RICH ROBERTS : Despite Conner’s Charge, Josenhans Keeps Young America Fighting Trim

Through freak tornadoes and killer waves, PACT 95’s men from Maine with the mermaid on their boat just kept winning and seemingly had little to fear from a boat sailed by women or an aging campaigner with a crippled craft.

But then there was Dennis Conner, larger than life, resurrected from a 2-7 record in the America’s Cup defender semifinals through a three-way compromise with a surprise twist: Conner wasn’t supposed to start winning all of a sudden.

Conner’s Stars & Stripes is 5-1 in the finals--3-0 against PACT 95’s Young America. As they prepared to meet again this afternoon, Conner, once a nuisance, was now a definite threat.

“We should have driven a wooden stake in his heart,” Andreas Josenhans said.

Josenhans, 44, is Young America’s mainsail trimmer. His round face and walrus mustache are in the foreground of most of the on-board camera shots.

This is his third America’s Cup, after sailing on Buddy Melges’ Heart of America at Fremantle, Australia, in 1986-87 and with Melges on Bill Koch’s America 3in 1992. He also has sailed with Conner and Melges on other boats. There aren’t many top sailors he hasn’t sailed with or places he hasn’t sailed.

So, although Conner would appear to have Young America staggering, Josenhans, for one, isn’t shaken by Conner’s comeback.

“It would be impossible for me to be taken aback by it,” Josenhans said, “but let’s go through our crew. Do you think (syndicate president) John Marshall’s taken aback by it? We can safely say no. (Pitman) Stu Silvestri? No. How about (navigator) Robert Hopkins? No.”

As for skipper Kevin Mahaney, a ’92 Olympic silver medalist sailing in his first Cup: “Mahaney’s a smart man, and he knows that some of these (opponents) are as tough as nails.

“These are pretty mature guys. They’re young, I’ll grant you, but they’re pretty mature. How’s that line go? ‘They’ve poured more water out of their sea boots than most people have sailed over.’ ”

A sailmaker by trade, Josenhans is a sailor’s sailor. Born in West Germany, he grew up in Nova Scotia, lives in Trumbull, Conn., and in June plans to get around to claiming U.S. citizenship. His father is a physician, his mother a university professor and his twin brother and two sisters are doctors and scientists. “I’m definitely the black sheep in the family,” Josenhans said. “But the sport of sailing has treated me well.”

With few peers for the combined talents of sail trim, tactics and strategy, he is much sought as a crew member.

“I sit in the afterguard meetings,” Josenhans said. “Essentially, (tactician) John (Kostecki) makes the decisions. Bruce (Nelson), Robert and myself provide the raw feed to John, (who) mixes it and puts it into a tactical plan.

“This program is marked by how smoothly it has operated. OK, we had a tornado. OK, we cracked our boat on a wave. But we’re sailing with the same exact mast, mast position, rake, keel and bulb that we started with here in January.”

With Melges in ‘86-87, Josenhans said, “It was a really fun program--not to say this isn’t. We changed the boat significantly. Essentially, we did yacht design with a magic marker, a straight edge and a chain saw. Those were wilder times.”

Josenhans was on his only Cup winner with Koch in ’92. Koch built four boats. This time, PACT 95 built one.

“It was a juggernaut, but to me it missed the concept of efficiency,” Josenhans said. “It was a total zoo on the boat. Things are far more structured and settled down on this boat. We’d go sailing and look at stuff, and all of a sudden Bill would want to steer the boat with our very best sails up, and we’d overload them and break a sail and our whole line of development would part. To me, that was wasteful. I wanted to work with a smaller group and not use a small sledgehammer but more of a precision tool.

“Some boats sail well when they’re loosey-goosey. Maybe we should lighten up a little. That maybe wouldn’t hurt us.”

When Conner, with a much slower boat, tied America 3at 4-4 in the ’92 defender finals, “That was ugly,” Josenhans said.

“There were some ugly conference room meetings. With the amount of money that’s on the table when it comes to win or lose and the level of commitment by the corporations, when the finger-pointing starts, it cannot be pleasant.”

Josenhans also found Koch’s espionage program distasteful, although beneficial.

“We had information I couldn’t believe was accessible. When it came to designing America 3, . . . We knew what every program had, every last little piece of it.” Sailing with Conner was a different experience.

“On the water he’s awesome. He’s calm and he’s pleasant. He’s a good cheerleader. He’s fun to sail with. Uh . . . why don’t I leave it at that?”