AMERICA’S CUP : Koch Forces Conner to Sail-Off
SAN DIEGO — Bill Koch’s America3 won its fifth straight race to advance to the America’s Cup defender final series after Kanza bailed out of Sunday’s race because of structural problems.
America3 (America Cubed) moved into a three-way tie with its America3 Foundation stablemate Kanza and Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes. Each yacht has five points.
Kanza must now race in a sailoff against Conner’s Stars & Stripes on Monday to determine which boat will advance to the best-of-13 final beginning Saturday.
America3, with a 5-3 record for the round, automatically advanced to the defender final.
America3 only had to complete the 20.03-mile race course within the 4-hour, 12-minute time limit to collect the one point for victory.
Sailing in a northwesterly 10- to 11-knot breeze, America3 cruised around the course in 2 hours, 34 minutes, 18 seconds.
Kanza’s structural problem occurred as its crew was preparing to round the fourth turning mark, or wing mark. The aluminum plate holding the aft end of the boat’s hydraulic mast ram buckled, causing the mast ram’s cylinder to punch a hole through the yacht’s carbon-fiber deck.
The mast ram is mounted just below the deck and controls the position of the mast at deck level.
“It was a design problem. The plate was not beefy enough,” said Vincent Moeyersoms, executive vice president of design and development for the America3 syndicate.
A similar mast-ram setup on the yacht America3 will be replaced before Monday’s race against Stars & Stripes, said Moeyersoms.
The problem was serious enough that Kanza skipper Bill Campbell decided to stop racing. Kanza, trailing America3 by 2 minutes, 16 seconds at the fourth turning mark, sailed off the course without actually rounding the mark.
Campbell said he didn’t think the mast was at risk, but was concerned with the amount of damage that had occurred. The structural supports for the yacht’s keel were also affected, he said.
“The supporting members around the top of the keel, where it intersects the deck, were probably susceptible to damage, and I didn’t want to go any further,” Campbell said.
A loss to Kanza on Monday would mark the first time 1977 that Conner hasn’t been the skipper of the United States entry in the America’s Cup yacht race.
If Conner wins, Koch will finally be forced to pick one crew. Koch has been publicly criticized by sailing experts for changing the makeup of his two boats’ crews with each race.
The best-of-9 challenger final between the yachts New Zealand and Italy’s Il Moro di Venecia begins April 19. The America’s Cup match begins May 9.