Word: australia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Peter Bird, 36, is a London-based photographer who was rescued on June 14 on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, after 296 days of rowing 9,560 miles alone across the Pacific from San Francisco. He had abandoned a successful photography business and left a girlfriend ashore, and he recalls fretting for months about why he was risking his life. "I invented all sorts of answers, but none of them was honest." The truth dawned in midocean, as he was listening to a radio interview with a man who, as he remembers, had resailed the route Captain Bligh followed...
Neither the American yacht nor the challenger has yet been picked. But there is little doubt that when the two square off in the waters of Rhode Island Sound on Sept. 13, the foreign contender will be a white-hulled marvel called Australia II that has set the yachting world back on its scuppers. The Australians seem to be doing everything right, beginning with a spectacular success at what has always been the heart of the American game: building yachts that are technologically superior to those of all their challengers. Measuring 64 ft. 7 in. from its snub-nosed...
Since June, when seven yachts from five nations began competing off Newport for the right to face the Americans, Australia II has repeatedly trounced not only its two Down Under rivals, Challenge 12 and Advance, but also Canada 1, France 3, Britain's Victory '83, and Italy's Azzurra, often by embarrassingly wide margins. The two other Australian boats have already been eliminated, and at week's end, as the challenger selection continued in its fourth round, Australia had compiled a record of 42 wins and only five defeats. Its closest competitor, Victory...
Whichever American boat is tapped, its skipper will have more to worry about than the novel design of the expected challenger. Australia II's crew is also in superb trim. Once better known for hoisting pints than hoisting sails, the Australians are up at 5:50 each morning for an hour of calisthenics and road work. "The whole thing has become deadly, deadly, deadly serious," says Australia II Executive Director Warren Jones. "We train like commandos." The eleven-man crew enjoys impressive backup support. As Australia II was maneuvering before the start of a race last week, its carbon...
That snappy performance reflected the damn-the-expense attitude of Alan Bond, 45, the swashbuckling tycoon from Perth (real estate, mining, oil), who heads the Australia II syndicate. Bond, a onetime sign painter, is making his fourth try for the Cup, a record surpassed only by Britain's indomitable Sir Thomas Lipton earlier in the century. In his latest bid, Bond could spend as much as $3.5 million for a prize initially valued at only 100 guineas (about $70 by current reckoning...