Bond Says Race Days Seem Over : Aussie, ’83 Winner, Pledges Cup Support to Japanese Syndicate

Alan Bond, the multimillionaire who masterminded Australia’s victory in the America’s Cup in 1983 but lost the chance to defend the trophy this year, announced Friday that he probably would not race 12-meter yachts again.

Bond has pledged major support to a Japanese yachting syndicate. He recently sold his Australia III and Australia IV, both unsuccessful contenders to defend the trophy in the America’s Cup final, to a syndicate led by Masakazu Kobayashi, head of the Bengal Bay Yacht Club near Nagoya on the east coast of Japan.

The $7-million deal included all sails and computer software developed for Bond’s unsuccessful 1987 defense program and an operations manual detailing the finer points of 12-meter sailing.

Bond’s Swan Brewery also will contribute $1.75 million to the Japanese campaign for the 1990-91 challenge--the first time Japan will enter the battle for the 135-year-old trophy.

Bond told a news conference that “in all probability” he would be bowing out of 12-meter racing, but his withdrawal depended on the outcome of the Cup final between the defender Kookaburra III and the American challenger, Stars & Stripes of San Diego.

“We will wait and see the result of the races,” he said.

Bond said previously that if business rival Kevin Parry was unable to retain the Cup with his golden-hulled Kookaburra III, “we will go and get it back.”

Bond said he saw no emotional conflict over his involvement with the Japanese. He said the arrangement was made in keeping with the original Deed of Gift of the America’s Cup, a deed that called for the preservation of “friendly competition between foreign countries.”

Bond said: “I believe that our involvement with the Japanese syndicate will promote further goodwill between our largest trading partner and ourselves. I also believe that our sponsorship of the syndicate will greatly assist our brewing and other business aspirations in Japan.”

Bond said his support for the Japanese syndicate would end six months before the start of the next Cup series.

Kobayashi said business interests behind his syndicate had already put up more than $20 million to build a challenger for the 1990 series. They will begin their campaign this summer, using one of the Australian yachts at the 12-meter world championships in Sardinia, Italy.

Kobayashi said he hoped that Japan would be successful in 1990, but if not, “like Alan Bond, we will try and try again.”

Bond spent 12 years in four campaigns before successfully ending America’s 132-year possession of the Cup, the longest winning streak in sporting history.

Bond, pressed to predict a winner in the current series between Australian Iain Murray, skipper of Kookaburra III, and Stars & Stripes’ Dennis Conner, the man who lost the Cup in 1983, said:

“It’s very even. A week ago I thought Stars & Stripes was odds on to win. But today, with the weather quietening down and we now knowing what Kookaburra can do, it is a very open series.”