SPEAKING OF NEWPORT....An email over the weekend from bro Paul indicates that Paul, sis Cris and Tom Sr may all join Leslie, Meg and myself in Newport in late June for the the first AC Class racing in Newport in over 20 years (see earlier story below). Others welcome -- just let me know so housing can be arranged.
Apropos that fateful day in September 1983 when we lost the Cup, here is a photo taken just moments after AUSTRALIA II crossed the finish line in Race 7 to break the longest streak in modern sports history.
That photo was posted today on the
Scuttlebutt website.
Scuttlebutt is a free email newsletter published five days a week by our good friends Tom Leweck and his son, Criag, who live in Southern California. Grandma Jan reads it religiously, one suspects less to keep current with grand prix sailing news but more for the occasional mention of her eldest son's name. Tom Leweck and his wife Barbara will also be coming to Newport for the event next month, as will hundreds of other sailing/Cup aficianados.
This is a guest editorial I wrote for
Scuttlebutt a couple weeks ago in connection with "the race of the century." (The headline is Tom Leweck's, not mine!)
A HISTORY LESSON - Tom Ehman
In yesterday's 'Butt the assertion is made, yet again, that "Stars & Stripes" lost the Cup in 1983 "by not covering" AUS II on the "fateful final leg of that race." That's not how I remember it.
During that race I was watching from the bow of the Jury Boat (NYYC's America's Cup Committee boat), the closest and best viewing position. First, it was on the penultimate leg (the run), not the final leg (a beat), that Australia II passed Liberty (not S&S). One did not need a PJ Montgomery commentary to realize, in the first minutes of that run, that AUS II was sailing significantly lower and faster than Liberty.
Nonetheless, Liberty did cover AUS II. Indeed, the argument could be made that Liberty should have split big-time from AUS II early in the leg in an attempt to find better pressure or angles. But Dennis & Co. did the conservative and proper thing -- they covered.
Even if Liberty had jibed away from AUS II early in the leg for any length of time, JB & Co. may well have "covered from behind" by jibing with them to stay close so they could continue to grind them down and not give Liberty any "leverage." Moreover, in 1983 it was not the relatively short, quick 3.0 mile legs the much faster ACC yachts race these days, but a 4.5 mile run in heavy, slow boats now often referred to, with some affection, as "12 pounders."
Regardless, it probably would not have mattered. The breeze was reasonably consistent across the course, and a much faster AUS II was steadily grinding Liberty down. The only question was whether there was enough "runway" for AUS II to get past Liberty before the bottom mark. Remember, too, that AUS II was the first boat to go to minimum 12-Metre length and displacement, and that she had significantly less wetted-surface than any other Twelve -- relatively speaking, a downwind flyer especially in the light, flat conditions of that late afternoon.
Dyer Jones, NYYC's meticulous and fair-minded 1983 AC Race Committee chairman (now the 2007 AC Regatta Director), said, "I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. You will recall that I and my Committee were aboard Black Knight. When the yachts started their 4th leg (upwind), BK preceded them up the leg and had to go to windward of the not inconsiderable spectator fleet gathered in the vicinity of Mark 4 in order to get a decent wind direction and velocity reading. After rounding, both yachts were rolling the wind out of their spinnakers, barely able to keep them full, but AUS II clearly had better VMG to the bottom (5th) mark."
Liberty tactician Tom Whidden, at a dinner last evening on the West Coast in honour of his upcoming induction into the AC Hall of Fame, told the story of the most interesting race of his career which, of course, was Race 7 of the '83 Cup. "We lost half our lead in the first 10 minutes of a 45-minute leg, we jibed in front of them, and they just sailed through us to leeward."
That Team DC got the series to 3-3 was some achievement if not a minor miracle. AUS II was the faster boat, well sailed and it held together -- the winning formula in every Cup match except, arguably, 1934. An excellent race, and series, between two of the finest crews ever to grace an AC race course.
Historical footnote... No surprise, passing in the AC happens far more often downwind because it is difficult to defend against the trailing boat. Today, for the sake of closer and more tactically-interesting races, windward-leeward courses are used not only for the AC and other match racing, but, increasingly, for fleet racing by well-managed classes such as the Farr 40 and Star.
* * * And here is a picture, also just posted on the
Scuttlebutt website, of the infamous AUSTRALIA II keel as it was revealed to the world that evening.
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