Races to Remember

In the 111-year history of the America's Cup, 17 challengers had gone down to defeat before superior U.S. boats and superior U.S. seamanship. Of 55 races, the challengers had won only five*--and the last boat to do it was Britain's Endeavour, 28 years ago. But last week, off Newport, R.I., Australia's Gretel and Skipper Jock Sturrock proved to be unawed by the statistics. In the first four races of the best-of-seven series, the Aussies lost three to the U.S. defender, Weatherly, and her quiet genius, Bus Mosbacher. But Gretel did win one, and in a way that led one Aussie to proclaim: "Australians everywhere stand ten feet tall today."

Having been soundly trounced by 3 min. 46 sec. in the first race, the Aussies came out for the second match in the kind of day to gladden any Sydney sailor's heart. The balmy 15-knot breeze had be come a tearing, 25-knot northwest wind; heavy swells rolled across the green Atlantic, and off to the horizon spray-laden whitecaps filled the scene. It was Gretel's weather, the same strong winds that made the beautiful white-hulled sloop fly in home waters off Gretel's weather, the same strong winds that made the beautiful white-hulled sloop fly in home waters off Sydney and her crew made the most of it.

"Doing Him In." The race was only a half hour old when Mosbacher knew that he was in trouble. Beating to windward (Weatherly's strongest point) toward the first eight-mile mark on the 24-mile triangular course, he could manage only a four-length lead. Eleven times in the space of five minutes Sturrock challenged with short tacks, hoping to gain a few precious seconds, his crewmen working like demons at the coffee-grinder winches. Each time, in the brutal test of skill and muscle, Mosbacher covered, instantly at first, and then more slowly as his crew began to tire. "We were doing him in," crowed an Aussie crewman.

Skimming around the first buoy, Mosbacher's lead had been reduced to two boat lengths, a bare 12 sec. By the second eight-mile mark, it was still only 14 sec. Then Gretel and Sturrock stole the day. His spinnaker ballooning firm and white, Sturrock caught a great, wind-driven wave under his stern and rode it like a surfboarder on a Pacific comber. As the Australians surged past, Mosbacher's Yanks heard a roaring war whoop booming out across the water. Weatherly tried to recover, but she snapped her spinnaker pole --and then it was too late. Gretel was home free, 47 sec. ahead in 2 hr. 46 min. 58 sec., the fastest 24-mile Cup race ever sailed by a 12-meter yacht.

"No One Goes to Jail." Gretel's joyous crew was singing Waltzing Matilda as they were towed back to port past the horn-tooting spectator fleet, and the song rang through Newport all night. Even the cops cheered. "Nobody with an Australian accent goes to jail tonight," announced a local policeman. Said a crew member, amid the debris of Gretel's headquarters pub: "This reminds me of an outback pub at shearing time." Back home, radio stations played a special Gretel Song. The Sydney Sun announced the victory: WILY STURROCK OUTFOXES AMERICANS. And for this one race, at least, Bus Mosbacher was willing to agree. "I should have stayed home," he said.

The victory shifted little money Gretel's way; nor did it unduly depress the canny Mosbacher. Next time out, on light (4 to 10 knots) northerly airs that turned the race into a drab drifting match, well-suited to Weatherly, he demonstrated some lessons of his own, beating the Aussies by a wide 8 min. 40 sec.

Only slightly heavier winds riffled the Atlantic for the fourth meeting. Yet this time, Sturrock and his Aussies made a real race of it. Behind by 1 1/2 min. as they rounded the first mark of the three-legged course, they nibbled away at Weatherly's lead until well into the final run, when little more than a single boat length separated the two. But no closer could Gretel come. At the finish, Weatherly's masterful Mosbacher drove his boat across the line with 26 sec. to spare. It was the slimmest margin in America's Cup history.

* Scattered so thoroughly over the years that no challenger ever carried home the Cup, even in the best-of-three meetings at the end of the 19th century. The best-of-seven rule has only been in force since 1930.

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