America’s Cup Trials : A Fair Wind Blows Australia IV Into Final

When the cause seemed hopeless in Newport, R.I., 3 1/2 years ago, Australia II went looking for fair wind.

Her sailors found it then and, in a similar crisis, Alan Bond’s Australia IV found it Tuesday and defeated Kookaburra II by 24 seconds, qualifying for the America’s Cup defender finals against Kookaburra III.

They will sail a best-of-nine series starting next Wednesday, while Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes has it out with New Zealand to determine the challenger.

Australia IV was greeted by a large and happy throng of supporters at its dock, although the celebration was dampened by the usual protests that had to be heard late into the night.

One by Kookaburra II objecting to Australia IV’s oversized “gennaker” sail was dismissed, after which Australia IV withdrew its protest over a windward-leeward rights incident in the tight, aggressive maneuvering five minutes before the start.

Otherwise, the fickle wind known as the Fremantle Doctor foiled the Kookaburras’ plan to get both boats in the finals, which would have been as interesting as a baseball intra-squad game.

Taking advantage of wind shifts of nearly a quarter of the compass, Colin Beashel steered Australia IV from 2 minutes 17 seconds behind and eliminated Peter Gilmour’s Kookaburra II, which some observers think could be faster than its sister now.

If Kookaburra III skipper Iain Murray thinks so, too, he could still withdraw Kookaburra III before today’s meaningless scheduled race with Australia IV, but the move seemed unlikely.

While the boss was in Hong Kong on business, the race restored the Bond syndicate’s faith in its luck, if not in its crew and boat. Australia IV hasn’t lost to anything but protests and breakdowns in this nine-race round.

Warren Jones, executive director of the syndicate, said before the race: “In this business that we’re involved in, which is the perhaps the highest peak of professionalism in yachting, you just can’t make excuses. If you don’t get the points, you just weren’t good enough.

“If we don’t beat at least one of the Kookaburras in the next two days, we weren’t good enough to be there. That doesn’t mean Australia IV wasn’t good enough to be there, because I don’t think there’s any doubt that Australia IV should be there. And if we aren’t there, we’ll have let a very good boat down.

“When you have the fastest boat in the fleet, you have no excuse if you don’t win the regatta.”

The match was blown out Monday by gusts up to 35 knots, then almost died in the light and shifty air Tuesday. After the start was delayed for 50 minutes, Kookaburra II got off well into a comfortable lead before the wind faded from 16 knots to 6.

Both crews changed to lighter headsails, and Kookaburra II rounded the weather mark 55 seconds ahead.

As they turned, Australia IV broke out its so-called gennaker, a combination genoa and spinnaker that is one of the largest sails seen in the America’s Cup since the giant J-boats sailed in the 1930s.

While bowman Damian Fewster shinnied to the top spreaders to fix a halyard problem, the chute billowed all the way from the headstay near the top of the 90-foot mast down past deck level, at times flicking the crests of the ripples ahead of the boat.

The Kookaburras officially complained.

Jones said: “They think the gennaker we used was incorrectly fastened at the bow.”

Instead of attaching the tack to a spinnaker pole, it’s simply hooked onto a bow shackle.

“The main thing is they got beat and they just don’t like it,” Jones added.

But the huge sail didn’t seem to help much. Australia IV lost 38 more seconds on the downwind leg and fell behind by a seemingly insurmountable 2:17 at one point.

Then on the second reach, enter the Doctor, stage left.

The wispy zephyrs from west by southwest started succumbing to a 17-knot sea breeze filling from south by southeast. Australia IV, sensing the shift from a reach to a run, switched from the gennaker to a normal spinnaker and quickly made up 1:22 and rounded the leeward mark only 45 seconds behind.

Kookaburra II skipper Peter Gilmour apparently expected the wind to shift back to the right, because that’s where he went.

But Beashel, feeling his boat come alive in the stronger wind, steered to the left side of the course, and the boats’ bows continued to swing southeast until Australia IV found itself in front by 10 seconds at the windward mark.

“It was looking a little bit grim there,” said Beashel, who had been mainsheet trimmer on Australia II.

He was almost as happy as designer Ben Lexcen, whose winged keel made it all happen in ’83.

“If the boat’s got it in it to come back from this, it’s got it in it to win the America’s Cup” Lexcen said Tuesday.

America’s Cup Notes There’s a void along the waterfront walk where Courageous, successful defender of the Cup in 1974 and ‘77, had rested high and dry since being withdrawn from competition after the first round of challenger trials. An attempt to update the first successful aluminum 12-meter as Courageous IV failed miserably, so this week the boat was shipped home to New York to be put in a maritime museum. After its withdrawal, the boat was “arrested” by the Western Australia Supreme Court for nonpayment of charter fees for its tender. But Don Wieringa, who owns the Fremantle Boat Lifters yard where Courageous was berthed, said he had no problems with syndicate chief Leonard Greene. “I never met Leonard Greene but I never had any worries with him,” Wieringa said. “Most times I’d fax him off a bill and get a check back within seven days.” Wieringa added: “It was a good old boat in its time, but it’s just too bloody old.” Courageous shipped out aboard the Barber Perseus, via Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore. The Barber Blue Sea shipping line was one of its sponsors. . . . Eagle’s payroll is down to three people--general manager L.J. Edgcomb, financial manager Michael Dinn and, back in Newport Beach, accounts and records keeper Mary Ross. The syndicate probably will keep its dock facility if Australia retains the cup and leave the boat there as a trial horse. . . . America’s Cup Report, a U.S. publication, has Kookaburra III favored over Australia IV and New Zealand over Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes in the final selection series.