Word: cups
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Ocean will undoubtedly be far different from those on Rhode Island Sound. Nor is it likely that the hearty and hail fellow atmosphere of Perth will lure the well-heeled international crowds that Newport has attracted. This year's epic contest has already irrevocably changed America's Cup racing. Clearly, future challengers will concentrate on technology as they have not done in the past. While the 12-meter class has always encouraged innovation, the Australian inventions will likely set off new and more intense experimentation in yacht design...
...Newport-six other boats, from France, Italy, Britain, Canada and Australia. In two months the Australians won 48 of the 54 times they set sail. And yet, pitted against the New York Yacht Club's haughty ways and the American defenders' $9 million outlay to keep the Cup, the Aussies cannily managed all the same to come across as the Down Underdog...
Underdog is what they remained in the first two races, both captured handily by Liberty. While two of the Aussies' losses could be ascribed mainly to equipment failures, their nemesis loomed as Dennis Conner, Liberty's fearsome skip per. Conner defended the Cup against the Aussies in 1980, winning four out of five races. He is not an endearing man: he is anxious, abrasive and overweight, hard and unforgiving on the water. Co-author of a book called No Excuse to Lose, he has spent 6,000 hours at the helm of 12-meter boats over the past...
...like I have never seen. Australia II is something new, very thoughtful and very exciting." Asked how he spent the day off after his first loss, Conner replied, "I worried." After that race Conner even said that he was "aware of the possibility" that the U.S. could lose the Cup...
Though yacht racing, and the America's Cup in particular, is usually as exciting to the average layman as a tennis match without a net, millions of ordinary citizens were caught up in the drama being played off Newport. The Boston Globe reported receiving more telephone calls about the series during each of the first two racing days than it had for baseball scores any day this season. Where nine television crews appeared for the 1980 races, there were 22 this time. More than 1,300 media credentials were issued, 200 of them to Australians...