AMERICA’S CUP : Bond Falls to 3rd in Defender Trials
It was a black day for the Black Swan Monday when Kookaburra III beat Australia III on the water and Australia IV in a protest ruling.
Alan Bond’s lead boat fell to third place in the America’s Cup defender trials behind Kookaburras III and II. Australia III remains a distant fourth.
Bond is the multimillionaire West Australian industrialist whose holdings include Black Swan Lager and vast real estate developments. Monday’s setbacks were significant in what for Australians seems as much a battle of sponsoring breweries as of boats.
Bond’s dream has long been to win the America’s Cup and defend it off Fremantle. He claimed it on his fourth attempt at Newport, R.I., in 1983 but he fail to reach the defenders’ final in his home port in 1987.
Kookaburra III easily defeated Australia III by 2:07 in winds of 19 to 24 knots. Meanwhile, on shore, an international jury blamed Australia IV for Sunday’s collision with Kookaburra III, ruling that helmsman Colin Beashel misjudged a close tack and clipped Kookaburra III’s backstay with his bow, causing the loss of and damage to the latter’s electronics gear.
Australia IV finished two seconds in front, but Kookaburra III skipper Iain Murray said: “The race was finished as soon as the collision occurred.”
The ruling raised Kookaburra III’s record to 17-1 with 25 points and left Australia IV (13-5) with 18 points, one behind the senior Kookaburra II with 19 points.
Bond’s only consolation was a routine 3:20 victory by Australia IV over Steak ‘n Kidney (0-18). Kookaburra II (13-5) beat South Australia (4-14 and seven points) by 4:10.
America’s Cup Notes
Even before Monday’s developments, the U.S.-based America’s Cup Report had the Kookaburras posted as 2-1 favorites to defend the cup, with Alan Bond’s Australias IV and III at 6-1. . . . ESPN will air a special one-hour update Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. . . . The jury Monday disqualified both boats involved in Saturday’s collision between South Australia and Steak ‘n Kidney when the bow of the latter 12-meter rammed through South Australia’s hull near the stern. South Australia helmsman Phil Thomson was catapulted out of the boat and under its bow but was able to sail the next day. The jury’s ruling erased Steak ‘n Kidney’s only victory. South Australia was disqualified by the jurors for failing to keep clear of the leeward yacht and Steak ‘n Kidney was faulted for failing to make a reasonable attempt to avoid the collision. . . . In another major ruling, a separate jury governing the challengers’ races backed the legality of Britain’s White Crusader effort casting a keel in Perth. Under the Deed of Gift governing the races, boats challenging for the cup must be designed and built in the country they represent. But the jury agreed with White Crusader officials that any replacement of the original keel should be considered a modification and therefore permissible.