Word: ewers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Eight years later, the little island country-with a population smaller than that of Los Angeles-has mounted an almost $20 million challenge, complete with the requisite space-age, computer-loaded sloop, to wrest the 144-year-old silver ewer from its U.S. berth. The grudge match between Team New Zealand and Team Dennis Conner began last Saturday in the first race of a best-of-nine series, with a resounding victory by the Kiwis aboard Black Magic I. With a possible two more weeks of sailing in the famously fickle breezes off San Diego, the final outcome is still...
...cold war is fading, so let's get down to a more basic conflict: Can the girls beat the boys? Ever since Queen Victoria reluctantly handed over an 8- lb. silver ewer to a team of swaggering American sailors in 1851, the America's Cup (as it was called from then on) has overflowed with machismo. It was not just the Vanderbilts, the Liptons, the Ted Turners, the Alan Bonds, the Baron Bichs and the Raul Gardinis out to prove who was the richest, swiftest guy on the dock. The very image of the U.S. as a mega-tech superpower...
...prize is a 144-year-old Victorian ewer fashioned from 134 oz. of British silver. The ornate vessel happens to be bottomless -- a fitting metaphor for a race whose victors could wind up paying more than half a million dollars an ounce for their trophy. For the bankers, industry barons and one drapery manufacturer who are battling through the semifinal rounds off San Diego this week, the 28th America's Cup competition is not just a matter of money. It is a spiritual quest that combines courage and seamanship with hubris and high technology. Yet deep pockets seem...