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I've never met a world champion that's a normal person.
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You gotta be screwed up in some manner
to get out of bed to do extraordinary things.
And I'm screwed up.
Underneath this veneer of being a normal, nice guy,
I have a huge ego.
There's gotta be some motivation to drive someone to extraordinary lengths.
And the ego is part of my drive.
Good morning, the world.
We're lining up now for the start
of the seventh and vital race in this America's Cup.
Yachting's big event is more historic
than the Kentucky Derby, the World Series or the Super Bowl.
And for the first time in 132 years, America may lose the America's Cup.
Now, the whole point of this was to win the America's Cup,
which no one had ever done before.
It was the longest winning streak in history of sport.
The United States having successfully defended the Cup
for 132 years, since before the US Civil War.
This country's domination has outlasted the Confederacy,
the Third Reich, and the St. Louis Browns.
Now the Australians think their time finally has come.
Today they sail the winner-take-all, do-or-die, there's-no-tomorrow race.
Billed as the race of the century--
The greatest yacht race of the century.
The bottom line is the New York Yacht Club
were not in the business of losing the America's Cup.
So we had no confusion.
We were at war.
The full-scale war is already underway.
The Australians claim they're the target of a dirty-tricks campaign
involving espionage and political backstabbing.
We now have the FBI involved, spies, armed guards.
The New York Yacht Club are absolutely determined
to do everything possible to ensure
that the Cup stays here in the United States.
To take on the United States was a huge psychological mountain.
The most powerful nation technically and economically in the world…
-…and a little country…
with 27 million people called Australia…
…had the audacity to think that we could do it.
The first America's Cup that I'd heard was the 1962 America's Cup.
Australia versus United States.
How this country was tuned into this event halfway around the world.
These races have captured the imagination of millions.
The President of the United States himself
abandons the cares of Washington to attend.
The Australians, if they win, see it as an opportunity
to project their little-known country onto the international stage.
I can… I can still hear it.
Winds 20 to 25 knots and seas choppy…
I was just a little boy listening on the wireless.
I was seven years old listening to a small transistor radio,
lying in bed in the middle of the night.
A little tiny transistor radio.
Like a little transistor radio.
My mother said, "You get a good night's sleep,"
and I'm trying to listen to the radio.
…all over the eastern seaboard
flock to the waters of Newport, Rhode Island.
Three in the morning,
12 hours different time zone in Newport, Rhode Island.
This is Newport, the home of the America's Cup yacht race.
Since the turn of the century,
it's been the holiday playground of the nation's super rich.
As a little boy, I was infatuated with the incredible history.
All these incredible characters.
And when the summer breezes begin to roll in across the sound,
their minds turn to the only game in town, yacht racing.
For me to skipper an America's Cup boat,
that set my imagination into another direction.
It was like the door opening to another world.
There are some people at Internal Revenue
who think yachting is not much more than a dubious tax deduction.
The America's Cup, however, is something else again.
The America's Cup's always been the top echelon of the sport of sailing.
The America's Cup is one boat versus one boat,
one country versus one country.
The best of seven races.
First boat to win four races wins the America's Cup.
It's one-on-one. It's like a duel to the death.
Look at it go down! This is yachting's answer to the Titanic.
They basically have a desire to beat each other's brains out,
but it's a lot better than going to war or shooting it out in the streets.
The unique element of the America's Cup
is you're given a shot every four years, just like the Olympics.
It's a huge commitment, both physically and psychologically.
The rules were any country could challenge for the America's Cup,
but you had to design the boat in the country you were challenging from.
You had to build the boat in that country as well.
So these projects need money.
Lots of money.
The super-rich have brought large bank accounts, millions of dollars.
In the case of the America's Cup,
we're talking high-cost, high-tech yacht racing.
Unlike any other sport,
the US had never lost.
It was the longest winning streak
in sporting history
where the New York Yacht Club had successfully defended the Cup
in Newport, Rhode Island, for 132 years.
There was a sense of arrogance by the New York Yacht Club.
This is our patch.
You can play with the patch and then we'll bid you farewell.
The New York Yacht Club have defended this Cup
against all-comers from around the world
with such complete sailing mastery
that it's a wonder anyone comes after it at all.
The New York Yacht Club on Manhattan's West 44th Street.
With its windows carved in the manner of a 17th century Dutch yacht,
this is the center of the yachting universe.
The exclusive preserve
of some of America's wealthiest and most influential men.
The New York Yacht club were ferocious defenders of the America's Cup.
They reeked of old American money,
Vanderbilts and Roosevelts.
So there was a huge amount of mystique.
And there was something about the American boats.
They had this aura about them. They were immaculate.
Their sails always looked like they were carved out of alabaster.
They oozed style, wealth.
Oozed this unbeatableness.
And one day, way back in 1970,
we go into the New York Yacht Club.
And there was a room,
it was this kind of octagonal room where the Cup was sitting.
We spoke to the curator, and he said, "You realize, John,
that that trophy had not been touched by human flesh for a hundred years."
I looked at this trophy and I thought, "My God, John, this is it."
Perfect, shiny silver.
The Holy Grail.
This is the family jewel.
Silver under glass.
This is what the Americans are spending $45 million on this year alone.
Now, legend has it
that the first American skipper to end up losing this Cup
will end up losing his head.
There's no question the emerging force
for the New York Yacht Club was Dennis Conner.
A native of San Diego, California, folks, please welcome Dennis Conner.
He was the might and focus of the New York Yacht Club.
And he took the America's Cup
from an amateur world to a professional world.
Dennis changed the game.
But isn't it true that you've taken a sport
that was, uh, previously considered kind of what wealthy guys did on weekends,
and turned it into more like stock car racing?
Dennis was the best. He was the best.
Ah, he's brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
I think it's fair to say Dennis was a different person.
One of these skippers who will do anything to win.
If the most important thing in the world
was winning the America's Cup and sailing with Dennis Conner,
over going to church, over your job, over your wife, your kids…
"Oh, I gotta take off for two weeks to go skiing."
Well, enjoy your skiing, but don't bother coming back.
The first time I raced against Dennis
was 1974, the America's Cup.
And we had no chance.
The Australians, they weren't in the America's Cup business.
Psychologically, you have to perform at a very high level.
You got down to the boat early
and checked the weather, tide, current, sailing instructions,
got your boat in the water, made sure it was smooth and clean,
getting out to the course and checking the wind,
current, and the race committee and getting instructions,
and checking the wind before the start, which way it was shifting.
You had the right sails, the right mast.
You'd practiced. Your crew weighed the right amount.
If you did all those things, every time, you would then have no excuse to lose.
Lambs to the slaughter each time. Hammered in '74.
Dennis Conner came through for America again today,
winning the race by more than a minute and a half.
Got hammered again in '77.
The experts said it'd be 4 and 0,
and they've done in the Australians four races to zero.
Went back again in 1980, got beaten again.
And Australia simply couldn't catch up
and has now failed in three attempts to win the America's Cup.
I won 38 straight races.
I was the best sailor in the world.
I slaughtered them.
Welcome back to Turpie Tonight.
Ah! What a cue!
I want you to listen carefully to this.
In September 1983,
someone will be challenging the Americans for the America's Cup,
and this man will be skipper.
Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome John Bertrand?
Deep down,
I knew if there's anyone that can actually take on Dennis Conner,
it was someone like myself.
How long have you been sailing?
I started when I was 12 years old.
-What type or class of yacht? -Little Sabots, little trainers.
Yeah?
My great-grandfather was involved in the construction
of three America's Cup boats.
My grandfather was a professional fisherman,
and he'd teach me when the sea breeze would come in.
He'd have this intuitive sixth sense that was passed on to myself.
No makeup. Is that what you get from life on the ocean waves?
It's hours in the sun, Ian.
Hours and hours.
Is this a hard life?
But when I was 15, there was a shock to our family.
My father died,
my grandfather died,
and then my great-grandfather died, in sequence.
So we lost all the men.
Um…
When John's father passed away, there was a call in him.
It, in fact, was what has always driven him.
But what I really understood about John was his ability to really focus.
He could totally shut off.
I was infatuated with winning the America's Cup
and what was required.
Hopefully, you'll be the one to challenge whatever yacht the Americans put up.
That's right. Dennis Conner is the skipper of the one boat,
which he successfully defended last time.
-Boo!
-Didn't like him much.
Every year losing to Dennis,
I concluded that I wasn't mentally tough enough.
And unless you understood your competition,
unless you understood the enemy,
you could never actually take it to another level.
So I got a scholarship to MIT in Boston
in the Department of Ocean Engineering to become part of the US system.
During this program,
you'll be training for careers in marine engineering.
There will be lab work, sea projects, and plenty of difficult classwork.
When he told me the name of his thesis,
I think, by then, I really understood
how important sailing was to him.
Optimum Angle of Attack of America's Cup Sails.
Using lifting-line theory, aerospace engineering,
highly technical control systems,
basically torpedoes.
I was behind enemy lines for months…
learning about secrets.
That was very applicable to the America's Cup challenge.
So, after MIT, I knew enough
that we could go head-to-head, toe-to-toe with the best in the world.
Come on, Kyle.
To compete, you have to have the money.
I just said,
"When you want to race the America's Cup, show me the money."
I guess it's fair to say that estimates about how much money
has been spent to win this baby
are anywhere between 60 and maybe 100 million dollars.
I was lucky.
I had the backing of the New York Yacht Club.
I loved them like Mom and Dad.
So you get the money, then you can start to put a team together.
Conner is putting his troops through a training program
as tough as any yet devised for an America's Cup campaign.
It's important that the crew be able to perform at their best,
and to do so, they have to have a full commitment,
working- 00 in the morning till- 00 at night, six days a week for 17 months.
So the more money, you can start to invest in technology.
Then you can start thinking about,
"What kind of a designer are we going to have?"
"Who's gonna build the boat? Who's gonna make the sails?"
The New York Yacht Club calls to order the first meeting…
Studying the New York Yacht Club,
I realize if we're ever to win this thing,
we would need money, lots of money.
The story of the America's challenge
is the story of the whole Bond financial saga.
Bondy has always been a gambler,
and that's what this is all about, money.
Alan was the syndicate chairman for Australia.
He took a gamble.
It was his money.
It was his project.
Bondy was a big risk-taker. Larger than life.
He'd made a lot of money in a short amount of time,
largely through property deals.
And he bought Swan Brewery.
But from the New York Yacht Club's point of view, he wasn't real wealth.
Alan intuitively knew
to win could take him from a local trader to a global trader.
It was power and influence, and that was his motivation.
So, I said to Alan,
"There's basically three elements in this competition."
"You gotta have world-class administration."
"You gotta have world-class technology,
and, ultimately, the team has to be world-class."
We needed to get brilliant, highly sophisticated minds.
Invite the best of the best.
So I called Huey.
Got an apprenticeship and I left school as a sailmaker.
I can see wind shifts and wind pressure. Just could almost smell the wind.
…and outstanding tactician Hugh Treharne
join other senior members of the Australian team.
Is this the year of the impossible?
I was working as an engineer on a uranium mine.
I was actually a school teacher at the time.
I was working as an electrical engineer.
And I get a phone call out of the blue saying,
"I'd like you to be the navigator
on this 12 Metre we're gonna build for the next America's Cup."
I hadn't been a navigator on any boat.
He said, "You're an engineer. You go and figure it out."
John Bertrand very carefully worked out
the people with the right mental capacity,
who could outsmart the New York Yacht Club.
To take on the power of the American psyche,
with their immense confidence,
you need a strong ego to be able to play that game,
and that was a major hurdle.
In our country, in Australia,
we have this thing called the Tall Poppy Syndrome,
where people start to show a sense of confidence, and they cut you down.
So, if I could get the mental side tough enough,
then perhaps I could put the whole thing together.
Bertrand sent this psych test out
to all of the potential crew members.
And I can remember getting this 14-page psych test
and thinking, "What is this crap?"
Yeah. I did the personality test.
The assessment was that I could have more confidence.
That was the assessment, yeah, that I could have more confidence.
So for us, we had to believe ourselves that we belong on the world stage.
That's the power of visualization.
See the sails, see fellow crew members,
realize the trust, faith, and respect you have for them.
You're visualizing the environment even before you've gone into battle.
Ultimately, training the mind not to be intimidated in that environment.
Listen to the helicopters above.
-You see the US Coast Guard.
We're all working hand in hand together as a team.
And then you see Dennis Conner…
and his American boat, Liberty.
And finally,
the last thing we had to have was the high-tech, world-class boat.
But the American sailing technology was at a much higher level
than anything we had in Australia.
The battle of the Cup has become a war of technology,
and Conner had wanted to build himself a fearsome weapon.
So he went to the heavily-guarded US Government weapons research center.
Right now we have naval architects involved.
As a matter of fact, we have, at the hub of our campaign,
basically a subcontractor from the Department of Defense.
Dennis had US Navy and aerospace technology.
And he had big design teams, like nearly 30 guys,
but those days we just had Benny.
We had Benny. That was it.
Seen here is the barefoot Australian, Ben Lexcen.
He's Alan Bond's unlikely choice to design his yacht
for the upcoming 1983 America's Cup.
But where many designers live in a world full of calculus and geometry,
Ben Lexcen lives in a world of art.
Yacht design is still an art.
It's probably one of the only arts left where the artist has to prove his work
by actual performance.
Benny was different.
He was not constrained in a box.
Brilliant and dangerous in so many ways.
He was the Leonardo da Vinci of Australia.
Only three years of formal education, nine years old to twelve years old.
So he wasn't restricted in his thinking.
That was his strength, as it turns out.
Ben's one of these really unique people in the world
who comes from an incredible background of hardly any formal schooling at all.
He was almost a street person in a way.
Benny would just arrive
and stay with us for two nights, two weeks,
and he was physically very awkward.
He had a very severe tic, but he was curious.
He was a passionately curious man.
And we've moved the rig slightly, so, uh… The boat feels really nice.
His genius was to be able to absorb information.
He's like a honeyeater.
He'd just pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick and bring all this in.
So when Benny started to design the yacht,
I was sitting on the dock, and he said, "John, look at the seagulls."
He said, "Every feather, there's a flight control system."
He said, "There must be a thousand control systems
in one wing of that bird."
He said, "Look at how they take off. It's just one flip and they're gone."
"It's beautiful."
He was a student of nature.
And I had very little understanding of where it could lead,
but the door was opened.
Benny had gone across to Holland to try and design a 12 Metre
that was gonna be better than the 12 Metre that we had in 1980.
Benny was at one of the biggest towing tank facilities in the world
trying to get another one hundredth of one knot out of the boat.
He was tearing his hair out trying to find an improvement, and he just couldn't.
He was enormously frustrated,
and suddenly we started getting these telexes…
where he said, "Hang on. We're onto something here."
Every day we'd get back to the office and there'd be another telex
with him getting more and more excited.
He said, "I'm developing a keel here that could potentially be a breakthrough."
But he didn't actually tell us what it was.
Lexcen's seven models underwent test trials
in minute detail in at least 200 runs,
which allowed the designer to make constant refinements to his secret keel.
So the call came through to come across to see this model
that he created with this funny-looking keel.
So, I knew there was something special going on with the keel.
Benny said, "Okay, you can come over, but you can't tell anyone."
It was under covers, and John Bertrand took me in to have a look.
There, sitting in the foundry on the sand, was this thing.
And I think I was speechless.
Just trying to take it all in.
I'm looking at this thing going, "You can't be serious."
I didn't know what to think because it looked a bit weird.
People have been designing 12 Metres since 1905.
This is so different.
How can it be right?
I knew that the keel was inverted.
It was upside down.
It was like someone designed a new car. Looked like it's got wheels on the roof.
It became clear Benny had been playing around with wings.
It's like a bird with wings on it. Okay?
And that became the outrageous winged keel.
We knew the boat was high risk.
And John, who's technically one of the great sailors,
was a little nervous about it.
The last thing I wanted to do
is to spend a huge amount of my time, effort, and emotion
on something where the equipment was never gonna cut it.
We didn't even know it was gonna sail like a yacht.
When I showed our boat, they all thought I'd gone off my rocker.
So we decided we were going to have a big meeting with Alan Bond.
"So, Alan, Benny's come up with a boat that is very, very different."
"But the tank says it's 20 minutes faster around the track than this one."
"What are we going to do?" And Alan said, "Right."
"Well, we're gonna build that one. Otherwise, you're all fired."
So we just went ahead and built that boat.
This is where Ben Lexcen's latest winged wonder
will have its fiery birth in a vat of molten lead in North Fremantle.
So many years of getting hammered by the Americans.
It was time that we had to do something radical.
Skippy and I were involved in building the boat.
You know, literally hands-on.
Everyone was covered in gray from grinding and cutting aluminum.
Benny Lexcen and I designed the deck layout together.
And I was in charge of everything from the deck up.
We actually threw the rule book out in terms of how sails will be made.
And we developed the software to design the sails.
Totally revolutionary.
We would take risks and broke a lot of stuff
because Benny was experimenting as he was building stuff.
That's how he was, you know.
You'd say, "Well, that guy's crazy."
Well, yes, he was, but we're all crazy. It's all part of the deal.
We sat down with designer Ben Lexcen
and talked about his partnership with team owner Alan Bond.
I'm not under any pressure of time or money,
and he appreciates my style of thinking,
and he more or less lets me just wander along like I'm an inventor.
Alan Bond's new 12 Metre was officially named in the ceremony
before thousands of spectators in Perth today.
A supremely confident Alan Bond
told a news conference today
that Australia II would win the America's Cup.
The construction of this yacht first began with Ben Lexcen, the designer.
We've worked over two years on a truly Australian effort.
For the first time,
we have been able to develop equal to anything else the world will see.
Three cheers… Hip-hip hooray!
Four minutes before00 on Newport Radio WADK,
the official radio station of the 1983 America's Cup.
Speaking of which,
the successful 1980 defender, Dennis Conner,
and Liberty, a brand-new 12,
has made her arrival in Newport Harbor today.
Dennis Conner, the incumbent America's Cup defender,
a solitary man with a single focus, to win again in 1983.
On behalf of AT&T, we're proud to, uh, be a sponsor
in defense of the America's Cup.
And let me just add one other thing. Go get 'em, Dennis!
-All right! -Tomorrow!
This Tuesday, they will begin running the competition
for the most coveted sailing prize, the America's Cup.
Now, the America's Cup is a Challenger Series,
52 races against all the other countries,
four-and-a-half months in Newport,
for the right to race against the Americans in September.
There was a time here in New England
when the words "The British are coming" rang out loud and clear.
But during this summer of 1983 here in Newport,
it's not only the British who are coming,
but it's also the French, the Canadians, the Italians,
and the Australians.
When we first got to Newport for the Challenger Races,
we talked about the keel.
And we decided we'd hide it completely.
The last thing we want to do is show the keel to the world,
so that someone else could copy it, and put it on their boat,
and be as competitive as what we were.
So, we kept it hidden.
And I remember there was a local newspaper.
It said, "The Australians have come with some bizarre, stupid keel."
"These guys have finally lost it."
"They've lost three times, and they're getting desperate."
That was the attitude of it.
Starting leg of the America's Cup course is into the wind,
four-and-a-half miles long to this mark, followed by two reaching legs.
Then the yachts turn one more time to the port,
finishing once more into the wind.
So we entered the first races
of the elimination series against the Italians,
with the unknown of just how competitive our package was.
This radical boat,
you're either gonna hit a home run or you're not.
We were either going to be heroes or idiots.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Australia has turned the mark
and is absolutely flying downwind.
All the work that we had done in Australia
had paid huge dividends.
Australia II has won.
You can see Australia II. She's just crossed the finishing line.
And we came out all guns blazing.
We were no longer overawed by Newport.
We were just angry. We were there for one reason, to win.
The time is30 a.m. on a Sunday morning,
and the Australia II crew is already hard at work.
We would run, we'd do weights, we'd do aerobics.
It was not only a part of getting fit and getting strong.
It was also about sending a message.
Good morning, Australia!
Now it was only until we started to win races
that our credibility increased.
In the America's Cup preliminaries,
all signs are pointing to Alan Bond's Australia II
as the boat to beat.
We beat the Italians, crushed the Canadians.
After today's race,
it seems nothing can tack faster or point higher into the wind
than Ben Lexcen's radical 12 Metre.
While few people have actually seen this mysterious keel,
almost everyone here has seen the boat racing and winning.
Australia II, by some…
Then, suddenly, "Why are they so competitive?"
What is that beneath the hull of the Australia II?
A keel, but what kind of a keel?
It's this summer's mystery at Newport.
The boat was covered. It was always secret.
And that started to drive some of the observers crazy.
The big question here, Bryant, this morning, is
what do the Aussies have on their bottom?
Between us, can you tell me what that keel is?
Between us, Mort, I can't tell you, no.
Armed guards patrol this place around the clock.
Their job is to protect Australia II,
the yacht that may very well succeed in making sporting history.
Australia's designer, Ben Lexcen,
he's something of a reluctant superstar here,
but they all want to know about his keel.
-Let's see the keel! -Where's the keel, Benny?
Ben Lexcen decided that he'd draw up a sketch of the winged keel,
and he made it totally different than what it really was.
The office at Newport Offshore had a photocopier,
so Ben went over with this sheet of paper and put it on their photocopier.
Comes flying back into the office ten minutes later and says, "Guys!"
"I've left… I've left a drawing of my keel in your photocopier."
By that afternoon, there were copies all over Newport of our fake keel.
Then opposition boats put winglets on the bottom of their keels.
Australia's keel has so impressed everyone
that the British have put wings on the keel of Victory.
We'd go around and check them and say, "No, it's little a bit different to that."
"You gotta try and do it this way." You know?
One of the Americans drew that and says there's their design.
That's their secret keel.
Is that it? What do you think? Is that…
Could be. Could be.
Australia II has won!
The West Australians now have an incredible 45 wins from 51 starts,
and that just happens to be the best record in 12 Metre history.
And in the end, we won the Challenger Series.
We won by a lot.
And so that's the boat race and the Challenge Series.
Australia goes on to race Liberty for the America's Cup.
The Australians are the official 25th challengers
for the America's Cup,
and their incredible winning record
really has the New York Yacht Club worried.
The man who won the Cup last time
for the United States is jittery.
We don't know much about their boat. It's obviously a different, uh, type
of, uh, characteristics than a standard 12 Metre.
It tacks differently, and it, uh, accelerates differently,
and it maneuvers differently at the starts.
The New York Yacht Club saw that our race record was really strong.
-Hi. -Two minutes for a--
-No. Sorry. -Not even two minutes?
We're late for a meeting here, so we gotta move on.
Thank you anyway.
And if these Aussies are beating up
on the foreign challengers so easily,
47 wins out of 55 races,
then that starts to cut deep.
That sent shock waves through the New York Yacht Club.
Clearly shock waves through Newport.
There's a serious side to this.
Obviously there's more than just a yachting race at stake.
There's also a lot of money.
It's estimated that £100 million are spent in and around Newport
during the America's Cup.
It was a sudden realization that they could lose this golden goose.
It could really happen.
People in Newport and Rhode Island knew all the time,
but kept it a very closely guarded secret
that the prize isn't so much a sailboat race.
It's about a billion-dollar industry that goes along with the Cup.
So if the Americans lose,
then a substantial amount of that might be spent in Western Australia.
So, for the New York Yacht Club,
the consequences of losing
are enormous.
An ABC News Brief brought to you by Apple Computer.
Now from Los Angeles, here's Peter Jennings.
The America's Cup competition is set to get underway this Thursday.
There is now a dispute, however,
between the New York Yacht Club and the Australians.
It seems the Americans are upset with something the Aussies have done
with the underside of their boat,
something the Americans feel will give the Aussies an unfair advantage.
The New York Yacht Club alleges
that Australia II's winged keel is illegal.
This four-million-dollar challenge,
the closest ever in the history of the Cup,
could be scuttled.
The New York Yacht Club, they wanted to ban us.
They said there is no way that Benny could've come up with this.
It had to have been designed by other people.
People couldn't believe that he could do it,
given his education and his background.
At the center of all the fuss this year
has been barefoot Ben Lexcen.
With three years' schooling,
he's the man who has designed, arguably, the fastest 12 Metre ever.
I didn't know much about Ben Lexcen.
But people talk.
You hear through the grapevine.
Who's to say these wings, whose idea these really were?
The Americans try and confirm that Lexcen was helped by Dutch designers.
We believe Lexcen used the idea from Amsterdam,
but the rules are it had to be designed by the country of the challenge.
The New York Yacht Club believe they have grounds to say
that I didn't design the boat totally by myself.
They go behind your back and try and get evidence in dubious ways.
This afternoon, Ben was suffering
what friends said were a couple of dizzy spells.
Doctors immediately put him into intensive care.
His friends say it's the attacks against his name
that helped put him there.
The New York Yacht Club were endeavoring
to get the design assistants in Holland
to say that they designed the keel and not Ben Lexcen.
The Dutch had designed the keel and not Ben Lexcen.
We felt responsible to go over,
to send someone to Holland to really investigate it.
The director of the Netherlands Ship Model Basin has charged
that members of the New York Yacht Club tried to get him to sign a false affidavit
stating Ben Lexcen was not the designer.
I was very surprised to come face-to-face with two people
who wanted me to sign a document
which said that I was the designer of Australia II rather than Ben Lexcen,
which is almost too ridiculous to even think of.
The keel cup committee said, "We've been over to Holland,
and there was no substance to their complaint."
"This boat is fair and legal."
And that was the thing that finally busted their case apart.
The New York Yacht Club today withdrew its objections
to the mysterious winged keel on Australia II
and said, "May the better yacht win the America's Cup."
It has been 56 races and nearly two and a half years of effort
been put in to reach where we are today.
Let the best yacht and crew decide by the gun at the end of each race.
We're about to go live by satellite to Newport. Rob Mundle, are you there?
Certainly. Good morning, Harry.
We have a great battle coming up.
The showdown, 132 years of sporting history at stake here.
We're looking at Dennis Conner on the screen right there.
I was uneasy.
Bertrand, he was at the top of his game.
He was a tough competitor,
and he had a very good boat and a good crew.
He was dangerous, and he scared me.
Liberty and Australia II have entered the race course.
According to my watch, nine minutes and 30 seconds from now,
they will cross the starting line.
Ten minutes before the start of the race gun,
that's when the two boats would meet,
positioning yourself,
and that's when it'd be on. The gloves would come off.
The yacht that had got to the first mark of the first race
had always won the America's Cup.
Australia over the line first by three seconds.
And I look behind, and Dennis is right on our hammer,
right on our hammer.
The two yachts are now approaching the first marker,
and it's good news for Australia.
We just beat them by a couple of boat lengths.
One to us.
Australia has just made history.
The foreign challenger has never reached the first mark
ahead of the American boat in the first race.
Australia has just done it.
After the start, we sailed away from Liberty.
Then all of a sudden, it was like an explosion.
We had no control at all.
The wheel just went light. No steering. Just rudderless.
It was weird. We just had a fitting pull off the side of the boat
that had been there forever, you know.
And Dennis passed around us.
The race was over.
Liberty wins.
Sounds like a World War I poster, but it is instead the headline
out of today's opening round of the America's Cup.
We went across his stern, and the damn rudder broke.
And then, of course, start of the second race,
bang, one of the tangs holding the headboard of the mainsail breaks.
All summer their boat broke down just once,
and now in the finals, two races and two breakdowns.
This has meant a lot to the Liberty crew, giving them momentum
and an awful lot of confidence heading into race three.
Commodore McCullough, what would you say the odds are right now?
I think we'll win it 4-0, but I'll take four-to-one as a safety factor.
Any further questions?
For something like that to happen two races in a row,
it's just unforgivable.
Benny, give me a break,
just give me something that'll allow us to play the game here.
When we had that breakage,
there was some tension with John Bertrand and Ben Lexcen.
And I remember John saying to him,
"Go through the boat from head to toe and just check everything."
They have now gone over the yacht
from bow to stern, from masthead to keel bolt,
checking every sail, every piece of equipment.
Race three, Benny didn't attend the launching of the boat.
He was actually on a hill with binoculars
under intense pressure.
With just about seven minutes to go now to get this race underway.
You are watching Australia II,
the 12 Metre that has set the yachting world on its ear.
Three, two, one.
Australia II has just passed Liberty
and is taking off down the course.
But as it turns out, it was Benny's dream in its finest hour.
We have just reached the three-hour mark of this race,
and the winds here in Newport are starting to pick up.
Quite often in Newport, the wind speed was very strong,
and the winged keel effectively lowered the center of gravity of the yacht
and made Australia II competitive in stronger breezes.
This concept, upwind, the boat was a rocket ship.
She was seriously fast.
Australia sailed across the line
to win the third race by three minutes and 14 seconds.
Since 12 Metre started racing for the America's Cup,
that's the biggest margin ever recorded by a challenger.
Australia II is exceptionally fast.
This is what the New York Yacht Club is afraid of.
The New York Yacht Club certainly didn't have any enthusiasm
from my performance.
Is the New York Yacht Club at all embarrassed about this?
We keep the pressure on the skippers
because we say their head replaces the Cup in the New York Yacht Club,
so we keep pressure on them all the time.
But I came in after losing that race,
I wasn't ready just to lay down and quit. No.
The biggest thing to me was the attitude. Attitude, attitude, attitude.
Tired of the bullshit.
Tired of wasting four hours every morning fucking around
for something that's not gonna help us win the Cup.
All I was focused on was being the best I could be.
No excuse to lose.
Look at this.
The boat at the top of the screen is Liberty.
Six seconds ahead of Australia when the gun fired.
Liberty went around the first mark
36 seconds ahead.
Dennis Conner was unstoppable.
He was the most cunning and clever on the water
and strategically made good moves.
We get into a classic tacking duel.
He was impossible to go around, always covering tack for tack.
And he was hitting the wind shifts at the right time,
massive wind shifts.
Liberty led Australia across the finish line by 43 seconds.
There she goes.
She's shooting it. There's the gun. This race is over.
The Americans lead three to one.
I kicked butt.
The American yacht Liberty tonight is just one victory away
from keeping the America's Cup in the United States.
Three to one in the America's Cup series.
One more win for Liberty,
and the America's Cup will stay bolted down at the New York Yacht Club.
The despondent Australians return to their dock,
knowing they're down 3-1.
They cannot afford to make any more errors.
At 3-1 in Newport, the champagne was on ice,
the banners were ready to go up.
"Congratulations, Dennis and team."
And Newport was about to celebrate.
It's all over. Absolutely. It's all over.
Newport was rocking.
They just couldn't have been happier to have another thrashing.
It was just demoralizing.
On the morning of the race, I remember the breakfast was subdued.
I had a hard time even smelling the bacon and eggs,
let alone eating anything.
But then, on the television, we received a note
from the Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke.
Congratulations, you've done a magnificent job to this point.
What you've shown in relation to our technological capacity,
our determination as individuals…
You've got the entire support of Australia.
We'll all be looking forward to your return
when we will do you as proud as you have done us.
Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia,
shit, that's a big deal.
Here we were being recognized by the prime minister of our nation.
It was a total game changer.
Armies over the last thousand years have gone to war with symbols and music.
So, the boxing kangaroo flag was raised.
And we chose a battle hymn, Men at Work, "Down Under."
And the team spirit came alive.
And so almost unbelievably, that's Australia ahead at the first mark.
Off the coast of Rhode Island, it was Australia's day.
And Australia II still is alive and in the America's Cup yacht race.
We're just gonna get out there and do it twice more, get this Cup for Australia.
At three to two, the tables were turning.
Television crews were coming in from all around the world.
Australians were flying in to Newport.
Tonight, that quaint coastal resort of Newport, Rhode Island,
is under the constant barrage of Australia II.
The whole of Newport knew that the Australians were in town.
We tore the place apart.
The Aussies certainly have joined the hype and hoopla here with gusto,
promoting their souvenirs and image aggressively.
The barbarians are at the gate.
The Australians have come for the sacred Cup,
and they're howling.
What Australians really like is upsetting the upper echelon.
In race six, we were sailing the boat extremely well.
The boat was a rocket ship.
It's Australia II with a very big lead here by some two minutes, it seems.
And we won that race by three and a half minutes.
It was the greatest win
by a challenging yacht in the 12 Metre era.
In 132 years, no challenger has ever driven the races
to the full best-of-seven series.
The Australians, dare we say it, humiliated the Americans.
So now it's three apiece. One race to go, a true world series.
-We can do it, Jim. We can do it. -Oh yeah.
The score went from 3-1 to 3-2 to 3-3.
The Aussies had arrived.
How does it feel being the first in 132 years, which is a very long time,
to be in this situation of three-all?
I mean, it must concern you.
It's gonna be very exciting to be involved in the race of the century.
We're hoping that, uh, we can find a way to prevail
like we have in, over the last 132 years.
I think we have an awful lot of tradition going for us,
and, uh, somehow, I think we'll pull it out on Saturday.
Dennis was in a super high-pressure environment.
And the bottom line is the New York Yacht Club
were never in the business of losing, literally, by any means.
Panic, pure and simple, has gripped the American camp.
Shaken by Australia II's effortless win in the sixth race,
the Liberty syndicate are resorting to truly desperate measures.
Today the New York Yacht Club just couldn't resist firing one more shot.
Dennis and the team found a loophole in the rule on the 11th hour
and made major changes in Liberty.
The red defender was towed up river
so that 1,000 pounds of her ballast could be removed.
It had never happened before.
But the New York Yacht Club allowed them to do it.
Would never have happened if we wanted to reconfigure our boat.
Like NASCAR, there are rules in NASCAR,
but there's-- Rules are broken, and they win the race.
You use the rules to your advantage
to take advantage of the other competition.
No excuse to lose.
Alan and the crew, the exercise in which you're about to engage
is certainly one of the historic moments in Australian sporting history.
You have all our best wishes with you.
If it gets tight, let us know,
and we'll all turn towards Newport and blow to get you home.
We're with you. The very, very best of luck.
No one had ever won it from the Americans.
So here was history, absolute history in the making.
Always good to beat the Americans.
At anything.
We're with you, Australia II!
We're with you…
It's the premier sailing event in the world.
It's the cup that's never been lost.
It's the race that may end the longest winning tradition
in international sports history.
Live from Newport, this is the 25th defense,
the final race for the America's Cup.
Good morning, the world.
Once again, another live telecast
to Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, America and Europe.
At the moment, we have about 30 million people watching.
It's an emotional morning for Mrs. Beryl Bertrand,
as her son, John, takes Australia II into the grand final of the America's Cup.
Today they sail the winner-take-all, do-or-die, there's-no-tomorrow race.
Being towed out, I remember it was like a zoo.
The envelope of people around us was like a pressure cooker.
We're lining up now for the start of the seventh and vital race
in this America's Cup.
This is thousands of hours of preparation,
a lifetime of preparation.
And I'd visualized this space. I'd visualized this time.
I said to the team,
"Visualize you're on the back of an eagle, a thousand feet in the air."
"And you see the boat going through the water."
So I said, "Reach down with big scissors and cut the distractions,
release the boat, release ourselves."
"There's no tomorrow, there's no yesterday,
and there's no future."
It was just today.
Five seconds away from the start.
-There's the starting gun.
When the gun went off, the two boats charged at each other.
Here we go, you know. This is gonna be on.
They are neck-and-neck at the moment.
John Bertrand has now turned towards Liberty.
We actually had a good start, and when we tacked, we were in front.
Australia's gone right on top of Liberty
by about two boat lengths.
Both boats on starboard tack.
Uh-oh! It looks like John Bertrand has decided
not to cover Dennis Conner.
But Dennis gets in front
and, quite frankly, starts to sail away from us.
It became clear that Liberty was actually a faster boat than what we'd seen before.
The boat had been revved up.
The boat is gaining maximum speed
moving very nicely through the water there.
She certainly looks like a different boat
and obviously she's sailing like a different boat today.
You can see the two yachts are now approaching the first marker,
and it's not good news for Australia.
Liberty is leading by 29 seconds at the first mark.
That failure by John Bertrand to recover
could be tragic.
We did everything we could, but they just went faster.
If you're just joining us, it has been Liberty all the way.
At the second mark, it was Liberty by 45. At the third mark, Liberty by 23.
They just swept away from us. Close to a minute in front of us.
We just couldn't believe it.
We're just watching
Liberty having rounded the fourth mark on the course,
the margin around 55 seconds, Bob.
The Cup is as good as lost.
It seems that Bertrand's errors early in the race
may have cost Australia II the America's Cup.
To get 58 seconds ahead, that…
that's a long way.
Four thousand people gathered outside
the Royal Perth Yacht Club in Western Australia,
watching our live pictures and, uh, similar scenes over in Sydney.
It appears Liberty has a healthy lead at this point.
It's a race Dennis Conner cannot lose.
The tension mounts at the Bertrand household.
Mrs. Bertrand experiences the agony
of watching The Wonder from Down Under fall behind the American yacht, Liberty.
And, gentlemen, this downwind run is possibly our last hope.
They were basically gone.
But the bottom line is,
if the opposition start to believe that the competition
and the equipment that they're using is superior,
and you can't do anything about it 'cause it's secret,
that becomes, psychologically, a big hurdle to overcome.
And ultimately, Dennis made a decision
that was a mistake.
Dennis Conner's come to the right-hand side of the course,
looking for a big wind shift which he hopes will be over here.
We get to the top marker, and Dennis, he tacks way out.
This is an unusual move.
Dennis has decided not to cover John Bertrand.
He went to the right-hand side of the course,
and that surprised me.
And I remember just looking at the clouds evolving.
I could start to see the wind on water.
Darker patches and lighter patches. I could see the direction of the wind.
And then, eventually,
you start to get a sixth sense of what the wind is gonna do.
Not now, but within the next 10, 15 and 20 seconds,
which is the game.
Trim.
And as we keep going to the left, the breeze starts going left.
Here we go.
And we started to make gains on Liberty, with extra wind.
As they head off there,
you can see crewmen winding those coffee grinder winches,
trying to keep the yacht at maximum speed.
It's going to be a mammoth effort if she should do it.
It was meter by meter. It was yard by yard.
It was wind shift by wind shift.
There you see Australia II coming back
right now towards Liberty.
This race is a hot one.
Only a matter of minutes ago, the America's Cup was as good as lost.
Gentlemen, it's neck and neck,
but perhaps Liberty just fractionally in front.
So Australia II is back in the race.
And then, of course, they jibed and came across.
The whole of the world, who's watching this,
is holding their breath.
The tension at the moment is absolutely electric out there.
Australia II's decided to come back and attack.
It's not easy, particularly from a helicopter shot,
to see who's in front.
What'll happen with the cross?
And we went from 57 seconds behind to bow on bow.
I made the decision to jibe on top of them, which was high risk.
A collision course at the moment.
-Looks like Australia II will go across. A gutsy move.
An unbelievable move to come across there now.
We went across their bow, and we're in front.
It looks like Australia II is back in front.
-Absolutely incredible.
There's about 2,000 people here packing Royal Perth Yacht Club,
and they are absolutely rooting for Australia II.
I've never ever seen anything like this.
There was mass disappointment here before.
In the past leg, it's been absolute mayhem in here.
Australia II! Australia II!
And now it's all on.
An absolute drag race to the finish. Do you believe this, Bob Lobel?
I've seen a lot of things, but never anything like this.
Go, go, go!
On that particular leg of the course,
we probably sailed the boat as best we'd ever sailed.
We were closer to perfection than any time I'd ever been.
This group became so close and so tight.
It was basically almost on autopilot.
We were sailing into history.
We're looking for the smoke at any moment.
They're about to do it. They're about to cross the line.
They make a final move. It's over!
Australia II has done it!
They have won the America's Cup!
Will you stand up, Australia? Will you stand up and cheer?
Because this is the finest day in the history of Australian sport.
John Bertrand, the skipper,
and all of those men out there on that boat,
they have written their name large in Australian history.
They have won the America's Cup.
While I was Prime Minister,
I said some very wise and important things,
but I don't think anything I've ever said
is as well remembered as when I said…
I tell you what, any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum!
Here we go!
Across Australia, people are doing this,
saluting the men of Australia II with champagne.
And boys, they really deserve it.
I remember just going, "Shit," that it had happened.
Really remember John just kind of literally slumped over the wheel.
Just like everything just draining out of him.
It was this relief to actually win it on behalf of your country.
That's, uh, that's huge.
So…
…how do you rationalize that?
It was quite something
that I never thought could happen or would happen.
But it did.
It's a pretty powerful thing for me to be feeling like I do now.
So long ago.
Must have affected me more than I thought it did.
Anyway.
Everyone went nuts.
We lifted our heads up,
and there are boats coming from everywhere.
Boats all around us, you know?
And this cacophony of noise.
Ah! This is the greatest moment ever!
Ah!
I thought we were history, history the beginning of the week.
From the jaws of death.
When we were getting towed in,
we hoisted the Australian flag,
and that was a really proud moment, that we'd done something pretty special.
And this is just such a tremendously festive scene,
the sun now perched on the horizon
as Australia II makes her way back into Newport Harbor,
the first challenger ever to win the America's Cup.
It is a mob scene here on the dock of Australia II.
The Australians have finally done it.
And I remember pulling the boat out of the water,
and Bondy like a conductor.
Let's see the keel!
There's a very happy Alan Bond.
He's gonna take it up without the curtains.
The keel is gonna be seen.
Get her up, Australia II, and the skirt comes off.
Everyone saw the winged keel for the first time.
It's a brilliant piece of engineering design work,
extremely creative.
Ben Lexcen, designer of Australia II,
the man who did it.
He has achieved his life's ambition.
There, believe it or not,
Dennis Conner wearing his New York Yacht Club hat.
Dennis congratulated me.
Not a lot of words said, but it was warrior to warrior.
There's no question about it.
I think Dennis does look a little bit stunned there, David.
I remember shaking hands with him,
and he had tears in his eyes.
Yeah, he took it hard, hard, really hard.
Yeah.
It was a totally devastating… loss.
When I came in after losing the Cup, they have a press conference,
and nobody from the New York Yacht Club shows up to sit with you,
you got the idea they don't like you very much anymore.
I'm sure they were understandably disappointed.
You know, they were just as devastated as I was in losing the Cup.
Today, Australia II was just a better boat,
and they beat us, and we have no excuses.
So I'd like to, uh, at this point, congratulate Alan Bond and Australia II.
They proved that they were an outstanding boat.
And today was their day.
It was Dennis Conner's last appearance
as America's Cup skipper,
a great performer bowing out a loser with tears in his eyes
and a whirl of his hat.
John Bertrand and his crew have done a fine job today,
and I'm so pleased that we can say not goodbye to Newport,
but an open invitation to the people of Newport
and the people of America to come to Perth in Western Australia
and try and win it back.
We welcome you.
When we actually were presented with the America's Cup…
when I lifted the trophy above my head,
it was a boyhood dream becoming reality.
It was a big deal to beat America at something
that America had been so dominant.
So this little country, suddenly it was on the world stage.
Skipper John Bertrand, you and the crew of the Australia II
have shown us the stuff of which Australians are made.
I know your countrymen are proud of you, and I want you to take this message back,
that Americans are proud too.
We're proud to have Australians as our very dear friends.
When we got back to Australia,
they'd said we're gonna do a street parade from Fremantle to Perth, which is--
-Twenty-two kilometers. -Twenty-two kilometers to be precise.
I said, "We're gonna look like idiots driving down Stirling Highway
with three people and a dog waving at ya."
Well, the street was lined the whole 22 kilometers.
When we got to Perth,
there were 250,000 people there to welcome us.
We're such a small nation going against such large odds.
But it was that terrific determination
of the people of Australia and all the guys.
After losing the Cup, I had no money.
I was a carpet salesman.
I was certainly depressed.
But when I saw 21 different countries challenging for the Cup in Perth,
maybe I should quit feeling sorry for myself
and see what I could do about winning it back.
Today, in San Diego, California,
Dennis Conner announced his comeback for the 1987 America's Cup.
However, he will not be facing the skipper who wrenched away the trophy in 1983.
Why aren't you in it this year?
The fire's out of my belly,
and content people don't become world champions.
I'm content in that part of my life,
and I'm really keen and excited to move out into new directions.
That's what I'm doing.
But for Dennis and coming back,
it was an opportunity to resurrect himself.
There's the gun. Stars & Stripes has done it.
They've won the America's Cup.
He has climbed yachting's Mount Everest,
and he has captured, once again, yachting's holy grail.
Revenge for Dennis Conner.
I remember sitting in the ceremony
handing over the America's Cup,
and this lovely lady with a big hat said, "Hello, Mr. Bertrand."
"What a beautiful day it is. What a day of celebration."
And I looked at her and I said, "Madam, you have no idea…
how easy it was to lose and how hard it was to win."
Bond's property interests stretch
from Sydney to America to London and Hong Kong.
It is an empire worth $10,000 million.
We want all the crew to come back out. Sing it for them.
Probably the greatest Prime Minister of Australia.
He relates to the people. The public love him.
What does one of our greatest prime ministers do?
He sculled it. Listen to them. They're going, "Scull, scull, scull!"
And the great man, Bobby Hawke, nailed it.
He said, "Thank you very much, boys. Cheers."
Ben Lexcen, designer, perfectionist, and his Toyota Tarago,
a design that pleases even Ben Lexcen.
Somebody did it right again.
And at mark number four, it's American Magic.
She turns toward home at 50 knots per hour.
This is it!
Welcome to the 2021 America's Cup.
Allegations against one basketball ref of betting the outcomes of games
is rocking the NBA.
Man, did I fuck my life up.
Just like the feel-good hit of the summer, the Manti Te'o story isn't real.
Cruel, twisted hoax.
It was the longest winning streak in the history of sport.
This is the finest day in the history of Australian sports.
AND1 was making millions of dollars,
but did they respect us?
AND1 basketball, baby!
Shut your fuckin' mouth, keep it between us.
Stick to the fuckin' story.
It does not get any stranger than this one.
Donaghy is under investigation…
It's front-page news all over town.
She physically did not exist
outside of being Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend.
And I was like, "Boy, that would be fuckin' crazy if it were true."