The boat in Wichita is an early design of the current class that race for the Cup known as the IAC class (International America's Cup). It was the first boat built by the America 3 syndicate which eventually won the Cup in '92. The A3 syndicate was headed by a long time off-shore racer named Bill Koch who is a native of Kansas, hence the name of the boat, Jayhawk, and the donation of it to Wichita.

Jayhawk provided a test bed for their later boats and was invaluable I suppose in that role, but I think it's actual competition record was like 0 and something.....never won once. Bill Koch on the other hand did win the Cup as well as trying again with first all-women team which did pretty well although they didn't make the finals.

Again, what Koch had going for him was mega-bucks and a good management style where he went out and hired the fastest guns around and melded them together into a winning effort. Koch never raced the boats much himself, but he is an excellent offshore helmsman and skipper. Match racing is a skill unto itself.

Spaw