Fremantle

By Tom Callahan

America retrieved its old Cup last week in four one-sided yacht races that showed U.S. sailors and Australian sportsmen at their best. The man who unthinkably lost the trophy three summers ago, San Diego's Dennis Conner, won it back with guile at the beginning and grace at the end, not to mention the fastest sailboat on the Indian Ocean. "I didn't see a foot put wrong in any one of the races by any one of their team," losing Skipper Iain Murray said admiringly. "We made a few mistakes and were a little bit off the pace." Beaten to every buoy, they finished each race more than a minute late. But Perth cheered Yank and Aussie alike, and no one seemed the loser.

Over these past two episodes in the 135-year saga of the Cup, Americans had to learn from Australians the infinite possibilities not only of 12-meter boats but of ingenuity itself. Somewhere along the U.S. line, as Enterprise begat Courageous begat Freedom begat Liberty, revolutionary breakthroughs had been luffing. Then, in 1983, influenced by Dutch technology, a child of the Outback named Ben Lexcen devised a winged keel for Australia II that altered everything. Ultimately developing wings of his own, Conner agrees, "It basically was an art before. We're just starting to scratch it into a science."

Still, his art was not lost on the relatively inexperienced sailors of Kookaburra III. "They thrashed us with a better boat," said Rick Goodrich, a Queensland cowboy grinding his first winch. And with more than just the boat. Starting Helmsman Peter Gilmour, who jockeyed for Murray in the pre-race maneuvers, imagined on the last day that he had succeeded in cajoling Conner over the line prematurely. "Then I remembered something," he said. "It's Dennis."

The Aussies had consoled themselves that the first two losses in the best- of-seven series might have been inconclusive. Shifting winds made the first something of a lottery, and the second was waged in the heavier breezes that Stars & Stripes candidly preferred. But in the third race, just one upwind leg in moderate Kookaburra weather told Murray his fate. Near the dismal end of that afternoon, a rubber speedboat pulled up alongside the Kook captain. " 'You've got a bomb on board,' they said. 'What do you want to do?' Our immediate response was, 'What's the bad news?' Then we thought, 'Here's our chance to find out if there's life after 12-meter racing.' " The bomb was a hoax, but questions of the future hang in the air.

"The Cup's got a new, happy life," Conner said. "She seems to be enjoying it." Still, the site of the next regatta, in 1990, is undetermined. Political winds figure to blow for San Diego, whose yacht club is entitled to designate the next pond. Hawaii's dramatic seas, for example, may be considered splashier for TV. Under the Deed of Gift, only a foreign power can dislodge the Cup from wherever the S.D.Y.C. decides to display it. Just as Southerner Ted Turner once defended for New York City, any U.S. suitors must now pledge fealty to San Diego. This may affect the enthusiasm of San Francisco or New York for anteing up again.

Conner's own legendary enthusiasm is unchanging at 44. "Don't be surprised if you see most of us back here in the defense," he said. In that case, Lexcen predicted, "it'll take a thousand years -- well, maybe a hundred -- to get the Cup back." Although 16 years Conner's junior, Murray declared, "I'm unlikely to sail again in the America's Cup." He is ready to shift into design, where Cups increasingly will be won. By Conner's calculations, Stars & Stripes was "at least three-tenths of a knot faster" than his previous entry, Liberty. All summer he has been charged with lying in the weeds, and he finally owned up. "We didn't show all of our cards at the beginning -- that's part of the game. We had a little tiger left in the tank." At the same time, Conner praised the Kooks: "While I'd like to think American technology proved its superiority, it wasn't by much."

Australians do great impressions of Americans, and there was even a locker- room telephone call from Prime Minister Bob Hawke. But the generous spirit of the hometown reception in Challenger Harbor would have been hard to match in the States. Jon Wright, a mainsheet trimmer who has now sailed four Cup finals, murmured, "It's these two hours that make us come back every three years." Among the dunked victors bobbing in the sea was Syndicate Chief Malin Burnham, originator of the extravagant title the Sail America Foundation for International Understanding. Amazingly, some was promoted. When Conner was asked his preference for the next venue, his sentimental reply was, "Fremantle, Western Australia."