This week is the thirty-ninth anniversary of one of the great upsets in sports history, Australia’s win over the United States in the 1983 America’s Cup twelve meter Yacht race. Generally considered the longest winning streak in sports, the USA had retained the cup against all challengers for one hundred thirty two years straight.
But in 1983 the Royal Perth Yacht Club entered the twelve meter yacht Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand and bankrolled by businessman Alan Bond, a larger than life character who’d made his fortune in property deals and construction. Bond was a gambler who never flinched at putting his money on the line, and never backed down from a challenge.
Defending the cup since 1857, the New York Yacht Club was an exclusive group of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the United States. Their boat that year, Liberty, was skippered by the renowned Dennis Conner, maybe the finest sailor on the planet. The members of the New York Yacht Club were a group of men (there were no women members) not used to losing, had not lost in over a century, and had no plans to lose. Ever.
In contrast, the team of John Bertrand and Alan Bond were upstarts. Whereas Dennis Conner was a celebrity in moneyed America, and had recently been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, nobody outside of sailing circles had heard of Bertrand. He was respected by his small group of peers, but unknown outside that group. Bond was “new money,” and would never have been invited inside the NYYC (New York Yacht Club.)
And then there was the boat, Australia II. She was designed by Ben Lexcen, a sailor and marine architect who as a child had been abandoned by his laborer parents, sent to foster care, then dropped out of school at the age of fourteen to begin working at shipyards, building boats. What he invented that year, 1983, designing Australia II, was a completely revolutionary keel design, the winged keel. Under the boat, in the water, out of sight, it looked like an upside down airplane. And for scientific reasons I don’t completely understand, it made the boat very fast.
The match that year, as in the years before, was off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, haven for the opulent seaside mansions of the super rich. They were the best of seven races, in other words the first to win four races won the Cup.
In the challenge races leading up to the Cup, members of the NYYC, Bruce Conner, and the American sailing community watched with increasing trepidation as it became obvious that Australia II was an extremely quick boat. She simply dominated the competition, defeating the best boats from all over the world.
She also kept the secret of her speed, the winged keel, well hidden from prying eyes, draping her bottom in tarps whenever she was pulled from the water. And the well funded, extremely curious eyes, were repeatedly thwarted in their efforts to get a look at the game changing technology. Few outside of the Australian team knew what the keel looked like, and those who knew weren’t saying.
Then came the showdown.
Liberty won the first two races when equipment failed on the Australia II. A broken fastener, snapped lines, extreme bad luck for the Aussies. Australia II won the third race by over three minutes, but then Liberty came back to win the next, and the score was now 3-1. Australia II would now have to win three races in a row to take the championship, an almost insurmountable task. Newport celebrated, victory seemingly at hand.
But then the celebrations dwindled as Australia II took the next race. And then the next. The championship came down to a seventh race, a scenario never seen in modern times. Winner take all.
In that seventh race Liberty got a better start and beat Australia II to the first buoy by eight seconds. But skipper Bertrand had positioned Australia II better and took the lead back by the leeward mark. Then very soon Conner and Liberty had moved back ahead, and began to build what seemed an insurmountable lead. It was looking like the America’s Cup would stay in America after all.
Then Conner the impeccable sailor made a serious tactical mistake, failing to cover the Australian boat on tack, which enabled them to run deeper and faster, cutting the American lead. And then they passed them, winning the race by 41 seconds.
It was a huge upset, the little guys over the big guys, David beating Goliath. And it ushered in a new era where everybody adopted Ben Lexcen’s winged keel, other countries began to field more competitive boats, and racing got interesting again. All because of some plucky Aussies.
Cheers mate.
