AMERICA’S CUP : America 3 Win No Bargain Sail : Yachting: But after beating Il Moro, 4-1, Koch says the $65 million he spent to win the America’s Cup is worth it.
SAN DIEGO — Under a champagne shower, Bill Koch decided $65 million was a reasonable price for the America’s Cup.
“Right now I would say it’s worth it,” said the America 3 boss, who had often considered the cost “obscene.”
The cost, perhaps--the accomplishment, no. The performance by America 3 was a work of art worthy of Koch’s collection. In closing out Il Moro di Venezia, 4-1, with a 44-second victory Saturday, the U.S. defender completed the most expensive and expansive successful assault on the Cup in its 141-year history.
“This is a triumph for American technology and American teamwork,” Koch said Saturday.
Among world-class sailors, Koch, 52, is an amateur. The talent belonged to people such as helmsman Buddy Melges, 62; tactician and starting helmsman Dave Dellenbaugh, 38, and able hands from previous Cup campaigns and other international competition.
The victory brought Melges sailing’s first grand slam: an America’s Cup, an Olympic gold medal (in a Soling at Kiel, Germany, in 1972) and world Star class championships in ’78 and ’79.
“It’s certainly a wonderful day for me,” Melges said, “but all these guys that supported this organization. . . . I know there were a lot of negatives that hit the press, but what they didn’t know is what the core of this group really is, and by God they’re terrific.”
Dripping with champagne, Melges added that were he to select a most valuable player, “you’d have to give it to David Dellenbaugh for the starts and the tactics. He’s terrific. I love sailing with that boy.”
Despite the largely Eastern roots of the crew, the world’s oldest sporting trophy will remain at the San Diego Yacht Club for the America’s Cup defense in 1995--not at Koch’s hometown of Wichita, Kan., or his less humble abode at Palm Beach, Fla.
Koch’s most important thrust was the technology that built the best of the new, 75-foot International America’s Cup Class boat. It was the fourth of five, including the starter boat he bought from the French before his first one, Jayhawk, was ready.
America 3, constantly upgraded through Koch’s commitment to and confidence in scientific projections, won 28 races and lost 10. It had slight but sufficient superiority over the last of five red boats Raul Gardini built for his Il Moro di Venezia team. Through four months of trials and the America’s Cup that included 168 races overall, Il Moro had a record of 27-16.
Il Moro’s American skipper, Paul Cayard, led Italy to its greatest height in competition sailing, but in the end, he said, “We got beat by a better boat and a better team.
“They did a very nice job designing that boat. I’d also say that Buddy and Dave and the crew out-sailed us. I didn’t sail nearly as well as I did in the Louis Vuitton series. Maybe winning the challenger series took a lot out of me and some of the guys. If I would have sailed perfectly, we could have still won.”
Other than his three-second victory in the second race of the match, Cayard probably sailed his best race Saturday. America 3 never led by more than 51 seconds--its approximate average winning margin in the series.
There were no lead changes in any of the five match races but, while the rival bowmen performed high-wire acts, the outcome Saturday was in doubt until late on the final, downwind leg of the 20.03-nautical mile course off Point Loma.
Il Moro’s best hope was for light, shifty zephyrs in which luck and cunning might play a stronger part. But it was the Italians’ bad luck to encounter winds of 10 knots or better all week. Saturday, a solid westerly of 12 to 14 knots carried the boats around the course with long odds for any gambles to pay off.
America 3’s highest anxiety came two minutes into the 10-minute pre-start maneuvering when bowman Jerry Kirby was hauled one-third up the 110-foot mast to patch a tear in the see-through, liquid crystal mainsail.
While Dellenbaugh steered as carefully as he could, Cayard, imploring, “Let’s go, guys,” to his crew, tailgated America 3 aggressively. But by the gun the boats were dipping back below the line to start evenly in opposite directions--America 3 left and Il Moro right.
When they converged almost five minutes later, America 3 had a two-length lead, which it held through a tight series of 20 tacks to the first mark, where America 3 led by 24 seconds.
Then Il Moro had a problem: broken battens high up in its carbon-fiber mainsail. The long, flat boards meant to give shape to the sail had split and were poking through their pockets. Bowman Alberto Fantini was hauled aloft for about 10 minutes to patch the damage, which may have hurt Il Moro on the subsequent windward leg when America 3 extended its lead.
Il Moro also blew out a gennaker on the start of the first reach, or fourth leg, but lost only a few seconds before raising another.
Koch, who usually steers the straight-line reaching legs, stayed on the helm until Il Moro cut back into America 3’s lead on the last upwind leg, the seventh overall.
However, as Cayard asked his afterguard, “You want to go at ‘em?” Koch gave the wheel back to Melges, whose steady hand stopped the Italians’ comeback short.
As they sailed into the finish, Koch and Melges mocked the competition-long controversy about the owner’s insistence on steering. Laughing, with victory in hand, they tugged for control from opposite sides of the wheel.
Both won.
