A living piece of yachting history

After USA lost the 1983 America’s Cup to Australia, the 1987 edition attracted 13 challengers and four defense syndicates seeking to compete in the 26th Match. The series was held in Gage Roads off Fremantle, Western Australia, and Dennis Conner was eager to win back the Cup he lost.

His Stars & Stripes team succeeded in a remarkable story of triumph, but this was the last time 12-Metre class yachts were used in the America’s Cup. Many of these yachts remain active today, and Cup fan Gordon Baird shares a recent encounter with a living piece of yachting history:

I had been invited to Hilton Head Island to be a passenger on one of Conner’s 12-Meter yachts. Built in 1986, it had just turned 40 and was still sailing. Who knew? It was like meeting a Greek God.

At the dock, it looked exactly like it had in all those video tapes I’d set to record at 2:00 am to catch the racing from the other side of the world. That special gun-metal blue coloring, the double steering wheels – right and left – the towering white mast. It was like a ghost from my past.

I’d watched the races repeatedly and closely followed how Conner overcame the 1983 loss to topple the Australians in one of the best America’s Cups ever! I could talk a good game and did, and after about ten minutes, the captain turned to me and said: “You seem to know all about it. Ready to drive?”

My body instinctively wrapped itself immediately around that wheel in case someone else might have thought he meant them. But, surprise, Stars & Stripes was a tank! She had been built for 25 knots and it was blowing 6.

The wind was all over the place: left, then right, then up and down in speed. But you could feel the thoroughbred speed built into her. Finally, a steadier breeze piped up and we were zooming. Apparently, we passed a shark, dolphins, and several manta rays, but I never looked away from the course ahead out of pure fear of failure.

History had dropped right into my lap. The wonderful captain let me drive for nearly a half hour. It was a tank alright, but it was my tank full of watery history.