Aussies Issue Big Boat Cup Challenge

Hoping to take advantage of a possible loophole first explored by New Zealand, Australia has also challenged for the America’s Cup, and like its Commonwealth neighbor, the Aussies want to race in 10 months aboard 90-foot boats.

The Royal Perth Yacht Club and a racing syndicate headed by Australian multimillionaire Alan Bond issued the challenge last week, said Dr. Fred Frye, commodore of the San Diego Yacht Club.

The Australian challenge is certain to further the controversy and confusion that erupted last month when New Zealand--attempting to take advantage of a possible loophole in the document governing custody of the Cup--issued the first challenge and called for a 1988 race in much larger 90-foot yachts.

Boats in the range of 90 feet at the waterline were used in America’s Cup racing until the 1950s when rules changes introduced the 12-meter boats that have been used ever since. A 90-foot boat is nearly twice as long at the waterline as a 12-meter yacht. Last February’s regatta in Fremantle, Australia, where skipper Dennis Conner and his yacht Stars & Stripes regained the cup for the United States, was an all 12-meter affair.

Frye refused to comment on the legality of the Australian and New Zealand challenges. However, he offered little hope that there will be any America’s Cup races held in 1988, nearly three years ahead of the next planned America’s Cup races.

A group composed of officials from the San Diego Yacht Club and the Sail America Foundation--the syndicate under contract to the club to manage the next Cup race--are researching the legality of challenges.

In recent years, the America’s Cup “conventions” have called for the races to be held every three or four years in regattas that include several nations, Frye said.

The Right to Challenge

In addition to the proposal to use the bigger boats, the Australian and New Zealand challenges are unusual because they are single-nation challenges. Frye also referred to “another convention” that has been established during this century, when as many as 13 clubs from different nations have raced for the Cup.

The Mercury Bay Boating Club Inc. of New Zealand began the controversy when it challenged the San Diego Yacht Club on July 15, arguing that the Cup’s Deed of Gift allows any nation the right to challenge for the Cup and that it needs only to give 10 months’ notice.

The Deed of Gift has loosely outlined the conditions of challenging and racing for the Cup for 100 years.

“This 1988 challenge would endorse the New Zealand syndicate’s approach to San Diego (Yacht Club),” said Ian Cameron, commodore of the Royal Perth Yacht Club, in a statement released Tuesday. “Legal advice of the validity of the (Australian) challenge had proved very positive and the club now awaits confirmation of the 1988 challenge from San Diego.”

But Frye said that San Diego Yacht Club officials remain unconvinced about the “validity” of the Australian and New Zealand challenges for 1988.

“I don’t think there is a loophole in the Deed of Gift,” Frye said.

So far, Australia and New Zealand are the only nations that have formally announced a decision to race 90-foot boats. But Frye and Michael Fay, who would race the New Zealand entry in 1988 if the San Diego Yacht Club accepts the challenge, said the Royal Burnham Yacht Club from England has also challenged and is also considering racing a 90-foot boat. But the English club says it doesn’t want to race until 1991.

Beating the ‘Aussies’

When asked if there was a Commonwealth move to pressure the San Diego Yacht Club to accept a 1988 challenge using 90-foot boats, Fay said:

“There’s only one thing that New Zealanders love more dearly than playing rugby. That’s playing rugby against the Australians and beating them. We have one passion, and that’s beating Aussies at rugby or the America’s Cup. No, we are in no way working with the Aussies on this one.”

Interest by New Zealand, Australia and England in racing 90-foot boats shows “a great deal of worldwide support for such a competition in 90-foot yachts, and it’s growing,” Fay said.

Although Bond and the Royal Perth Yacht Club have issued a challenge for 1988 using 90-foot boats, they have also issued a challenge for 1991 using 12-meter boats.

Additionally, Bond is not the only Aussie challenger. In recent weeks the San Diego Yacht Club has received challenges from six Australian yacht clubs, Frye said.

“The Aussies are covering all bases, from 90-footers to 12 meters,” Frye said. “The point is they want to be players. They don’t want to be left out.”

In addition to the Aussies and Kiwis, the Americans have received challenges from clubs in Germany, England, Sardinia and Japan and inquiries from clubs in Sweden, France and Denmark, Frye said. The overwhelming choice is still for 12-meter yachts in races to be held in 1991, he said.

“This demonstrates a lot of interest for the America’s Cup races, and the 12-meter yacht is still the boat of choice. The (challenging) clubs don’t want to get into a single-nation challenge. They want it to be a multiple challenge,” Frye said.