Challenge from Down Under

For in years, ocean racing's most famous trophy, the America's Cup, has been gathering dust in the New York Yacht Club, waiting for a foreign challenger to win it away from the U.S. The British have tried 15 times, the Canadians twice. Their combined efforts have cost at least $25 million, and all have failed. Last week another nation threw down a challenge. Along the banks of the Parramatta River, outside Sydney, throngs of excited Australians cheered the launching of a sleekly handsome 12-meter yacht that may give U.S. sailors their sternest test yet.

Rigid Security. The design for the Australian challenger came from the board of Alan Newbury Payne, 40, a maverick Sydney naval architect whose failures (an overrigged 12-ft. skiff, a 35-ft. cutter that wallowed badly when winds dipped below 25 knots) just about balance out his successes. To turn out the first 12-meter yacht ever built Down Under, Payne shrugged off recurring hepatitis, worked 60 hours a week for two years under such rigid security that outsiders still do not know the boat's full specifications. But her 30-ton weight matches that of such U.S. 12-meters as Vim and Columbia; so do her 11-ft. 10-in. beam and her 70 ft. of overall length. The yacht's decks are of Canadian cedar, overlaid with waterproof blue fiber glass. Her hull is of Honduras mahogany, covered with six coats of white paint, decorated with a thin gold stripe and the five stars of the Southern Cross. Her sails, tailored from light blue Dacron, range in weight from 1/4 oz. per sq. yd. (for the spinnakers) to 6 oz. per sq. yd. (for the mainsail).

Slightly fuller-bodied amidships than Vim, the new challenger has a "knuckle" or sharp upward turn on her bow, designed to reduce weight by eliminating overhang. Her floorboards are hollowed out, her fittings are cast of light-weight aluminum or alloys, and some metal parts have been drilled full of holes. Her cockpit floor is purposely curved to provide the helmsman with level footing when the boat heels over in the wind. But her most radical feature is a simplified mainsail control--a single wire, attached to a three-speed gearbox that Payne admits could cause a "chaotic situation" if it jams.

An Awful Spot. At week's end the svelte Australian challenger was still berthed at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, awaiting christening and preliminary sea trials. Sydney wags suggested the name Spectre, an unkind play on the Sceptre. Britain's roundly trounced 1958 challenger. But the syndicate of Down Under businessmen (a newspaper magnate, an oilman, a tobacco tycoon) who had shelled out $700,000 to build her were optimistic about her chances against the U.S. next September. Said Syndicate Chairman Sir Frank Packer: "The Americans have had the cup for so long that when they give it to us. it's going to leave an awful spot on the sideboard." Designer Payne was more cautious. "I don't know what we've got yet," he said, "and I won't know until we go sailing."

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