8701060799
DETROIT FREE PRESS
870205
Thursday, February 05, 1987
METRO FINAL
1A
Photo PATRICIA BECK
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1987, Detroit Free Press
SILVER MOMENT
FOR THE AUSSIES, IT WAS ALL TOO BRIEF
FREMANTLE, Australia -- The afternoon was hot and quiet, and Cyril
Kenair, the security guard, swiped at a fly that was buzzing his head. A woman
and two children came to the door of the Royal Perth Yacht Club and Cyril
stood up quickly.
"We called this morning," said the woman, her voice polite and hopeful. "Do
you suppose we could see the Cup?"
"'All right, mum," he said. "But the kiddies -- will you watch that they
don't put their hands on the glass?"
"Certainly."
"Very good, then. Go on up."
They climbed the stairs to the third floor, where the silver America's Cup
trophy -- yachting's most prized possession, which was captured by Australia
II in 1983, after 132 years in America -- sat on display inside a glass case.
Cyril, 67, a retired air force pilot, looked after them, then took his seat
and resisted the urge to go down the hall and look at the TV set.
Ten miles out on the Indian Ocean, an American yacht was within seconds of
defeating an Australian yacht to determine the fate of the trophy Cyril had
been guarding for more than a year. A race. A boat race. For the silver cup.
"It didn't look good," said someone who had been watching earlier.
"No," said Cyril, glancing at his watch. "I gather we're losing her right
about now."
"Kind of a shame, no?"
He shrugged. "That's the way these things go. Wars are won, and wars are
lost."
"AWWOOOOOOO!"
Out on the water, Stars & Stripes was crossing the finish line for her
fourth straight victory in this 1987 America's Cup final. Four-zip. And the
war was over. Dennis Conner, the 44- year-old skipper who had lost the last
Cup final raised a triumphant fist and more than 500 spectator boats -- a
watery traffic jam -- roared and honked and screamed their approval. The
message was clear.
"AWWOOOOOOO!"
It's America's Cup again.
Conner and company had waited more than three years. They had spent $15
million and used five boats. They had taken a mediocre craft in November and
modified and modified and modified, and, finally, with the right riblets and
the right keel and the right sails, it was the right boat. It was the fastest
boat.
"WELL DONE DENNIS, YOU BASTARD!" read a sign in the port.
It's America's Cup again.
"Is this sweeter than defending it?" someone would ask Tom Whidden, the
tactician who was with Conner on Liberty, which lost the Cup off Newport,
R.I. "Is winning it back sweeter than just winning it again?"
"This," Whidden would say with a huge smile, "is the sweetest thing of all.
No one has ever gone to another country and won the Cup back. No matter what
comes now, it will never compare to this one."
THE CELEBRATING BEGAN before the final buoy was passed. The crew posed for
pictures on board Stars & Stripes during her final leg, hoping to catch the
opponent in the photo background. How quickly had they won this thing? How
much quicker is possible? In all four races, Stars & Stripes trailed
Kookaburra III only once -- by three seconds at the start of the second
race. Otherwise, she led around every mark in every leg of every race. Four
races. Every leg. Every mark. How quick? That quick.
Wind was not a problem. Name the wind. Stars & Stripes won in light wind
and heavy wind and flukey wind and upwind and downwind. Every wind. No
problem.
"Were you that much better than them?" someone later would ask Conner. "Was
that it?"
"I think the Kookaburra team did a good job," he would answer. "But in this
particular challenge, I think Stars & Stripes was just the better boat."
Could anyone deny it? No. Not the Kookaburra crew and not the Australian
press and not the 100,000 who crammed the jetties and the piers and docks to
cheer on the Australian challenge Wednesday, hoping for at least one win
against the American blitzkrieg. Desire was everywhere. Desire is important.
But desire does not make a boat go faster.
It's America's Cup again.
THIS WAS FATE, destiny, so inevitable that plane flights out were booked
en masse after Stars & Stripes' second victory. And once the gunsmoke-blue
boat pierced the finish line Wednesday, one minute and 59 seconds ahead of her
Australian rival -- the first three races had been won by 1:41, 1:10 and 1:46
-- the only questions left were, "Where's the party, and when?"
The first was right on the Stars & Stripes dock. People who paid $10 for a
glimpse would sit on the shoulders of people who paid $40 for a glimpse.
People would hang on masts of other boats and people would sit on rooftops and
people would fall into the water. Jimmy Buffett would be on hand and Walter
Cronkite would be on hand and a man in a tuxedo would sit on a rubber raft,
waiting to serve the crew champagne. A tuxedo? In the water?
"This is what it's all about!" U.S. crew member Henry Childers, a winch
grinder, would howl in the midst of it all. "We worked a long time for this, a
lot of thankless days and nights. This year we're the best in the world."
Dennis Conner would say, "Thank you all very much," then be whisked off
for a press conference with losing skipper Iain Murray. Childers would throw
his arm around several of the Kookaburra crew -- who had wandered over to
congratulate the victors -- and make plans to join them at the bar. Whidden
and Jon Wright, the mainsheet trimmer, would answer questions about the
feeling of revenge after 1983, while all the time beer and champagne and more
beer would be dumped and doused and drunk. Music would blare through the
loudspeakers. Rock music. A yachting rap.
The keel of Stars & Stripes would be painted with the words "Budweiser --
King of Beers." Balloons would fly. Flags would fly. Corporate bigwigs would
slap backs with the crew members and nod their heads over new designs and new
funding ideas and where they should eat dinner. Chants of "U-S-A!" would ring
through the local pubs and singing took over the streets and went for hours
and hours for the glory of what had been recaptured.
The Cup. The Cup. The Cup.
AT THE ROYAL PERTH Yacht Club, it was closing time. A family that had
been viewing the Cup in its glass case with the red carpet came down the
stairs to exit. Cyril, as usual, stood up.
"We'll miss it, won't we?" said an older woman, perhaps the grandmother.
"Yes, mum," Cyril said.
"It was terribly exciting that day when we won it," she said. "I'll never
forget. They played the music on the streets, in the middle of the day.
"One hundred and thirty-two years the Americans had it. And we had (it) for
three and now it's going back. But we gave it a good row, don't you think? It
was nice for a while, don't you think?"
"Yes, mum," Cyril said, and he said goodby and the family left. On the
outer door of the club, a poster had already been hung detailing Friday's
presentation ceremony, in which the trophy would be handed to the winners for
its trip back to the United States.
"Four o'clock," Cyril said, noting the hour at which he would be out of a
job. He pulled the office door. It shut with a click.
CUTLINE
With flags and banners flying, the Stars & Stripes, near the center of the
photograph, and a companion boat are towed Wednesday morning from the harbor
to the race course off the coast of Fremantle.
Stars & Stripes crew members celebrate beneath their yacht shortly after it
was lifted from the water Wednesday following victory in the fourth and final
race of the America's Cup.
YACHT;AUSTRALIA;US;SAILING;RACING