Word: kookaburra
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...yellow-bellied robin is always the first bird to wake in the mornings in the rainforests of northeastern Australia. Its singular call is soon echoed by a chorus of others--the screech of cat birds, the gunfire of Macleay's honeyeater and sometimes the eerie laugh of the kookaburra...
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...
...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...
After two races against the Australian Kookaburra (a bush bird of prey sometimes called a "laughing jackass"), this game stood 2-0 for Conner in the best-of-seven final. Most depressing for the Australians, the lighter breezes they had prayed for all month materialized the first day, but the boat thought to be nimbler was outmaneuvered all the same. Winds that routinely topped 20 knots in the trials eased abruptly to eight or ten. Effectively the yachtsmen were back in Newport, R.I. Breaking neatly in front, Conner never rounded any buoy less than 40 seconds ahead...
...From what we saw of his clash with the Kiwis," said Iain Murray, 28, the Kookaburra helmsman, "Conner had no great speed advantage. He won because he was always in the right spot." Another well-fed skipper -- "Lard" to his mates -- Murray cuts a Dennis figure in several ways. As New York had shunned Conner, Murray was passed over by Perth Millionaire Alan Bond, the Cup's Australian guardian. Sailing for Business Rival Kevin Parry, Murray whacked Bond's Australia IV 5-0. "He even looks a little like me," says Conner. "He lost at the America's Cup last...