Representatives of America3, the winning America's Cup yacht, were in Salt Lake City yesterday to give credit where credit was due - in this case to the Bacchus Works of the Hercules Aerospace Company, which developed the carbon fiber and composite material that made up much of the yacht.
"What we showed is that carbon fiber and composite technology in the United States is better than anywhere in the world," said Vince Moeyersons, an America3 vice president. To further illustrate that message, Heiner Meldner, an America3 technical director, showed a videotape of an ESPN broadcast from last month's America's Cup races in San Diego. In the videotape, the ESPN race commentator notes after America3 has negotiated a particularly hairy turn that the mast swayed more than four feet from its original position.Any normal mast made of, say, mere steel, would have snapped and sent pieces flying as far as San Juan Capistrano. But not the Hercules-made America3 mast, which kept on racing without a trace of a whimper.
A slide show featuring action shots of the America3 "team" was also shown, with prominent pictures of Bill Koch, the billionaire businessman who skippered America3 and, it was rumored, would be a part of yesterday's press conference at the Little America Hotel. Koch was a no-show, however. He was content to let the carbon fiber do his talking - just as during the America's Cup races he was content to turn over the difficult sailing of America3 to Olympic gold medal-winning sailor Buddy Melges.
As much as anything, the Hercules press conference further verified that yacht racing, America's Cup style, isn't related as much to sports as it is to running a Presidential campaign - may the best billionaire win.
America3's triumph in the Cup finals over Italy, and its more-difficult triumph over fellow American and defending Cup champion Dennis Conner in the semifinals, had a lot more to do with carbon fiber and other composite components - materials similar to the ones that allow middle-aged golfers to hit 300 yard drives - than with true athleticism. The fact that Koch, 52, and one of America's wealthiest men, could rule the world's waves had a lot more to do with the ability to pay for the development and purchase of these materials than with sailing ability.
You've got to admit, Koch didn't climb to his rung atop the sporting world in exactly the conventional manner. His ladder went roughly like this: First he was born wealthy, next he got his own yacht, next he graduated with a Ph.D. in engineering from M.I.T., next he dabbled in money-making businesses such as geothermal energy, computers and composite materials, and then he took five months off, moved to San Diego, hired the best sailor he could find to take over the wheel whenever the yacht needed to do something technical, such as turn, and won the America's Cup.
Not only was technology No. 1 with America Cubed, but so was Spare No Expense. When a formidable foe like Conner needed to be beaten in the semis, for instance, and that meant new boats with even better technology needed to be built, the call went out for all essential components in
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Utah, Rhode Island and San Francisco. Instead of being trucked to San Diego, the components were shipped overnight by huge planes. America Cubed flew first class or it wouldn't have flown at all.
Since Conner's fortunes limited him to building just the one yacht, he was doomed.
To their credit, Moeyersons and Meldner didn't disguise America3's quest as something more noble than spending money for better technology and better service to beat back the Italians and Japanese (who they said spent more money; in the case of the Italians, four times more money). They didn't detract from Koch's gasp in San Diego when he added up how much he had spent on his venture - $65 million, give or take a graphite mast - and said, "If I had known it would cost this much, I wouldn't have done it."
None of which mattered to the Hercules corporate executives, flown in from around the country, who were scattered around the room yesterday, shaking hands, accepting congratulations, talking about the wonders of carbon fiber, and wondering why yacht racing doesn't get more sports page coverage.
If it hadn't been for their fin keels, their masts and their rudders, America3 would have been blown out of the water, or at least sunk to the bottom of the San Diego Bay. Hercules builds strong yachts. Triumph was theirs, and they knew it.