of Tom Schnackenberg. Schnacks was deeply involved in the devel- opment of the bendy mast and calculated they needed another metre of positive luff curve, so immediately designed and built a new Kevlar mainsail that was close to perfect. As the crew pulled the main on the canvas went from very deep to quite perfect with the correct leech tension and zero backstay. The rest of the Aus- tralian team looked on with astonishment at how Schnackenberg and Lexcen had put all this together – so much extraordinary engineering done with a funny little computer, pencil and paper. Through all of this the crew could see Bond was like a kid in a candy store, and when Bertrand first arrived in Newport the first thing Alan did was take him to the old fishing shed where the mast was being built in secrecy. Bond started explaining all the engineer- ing elements… fizzing with excitement and delighted to be involved in the technology. With Lionheartnow out of the 1980 challenger series, the decider was between Australia and France and Bond was super-confident this would be his year. His crew were experienced after the battles of 1974 and 1977 and his sailmaking team were getting to grips with the new bendy mast; Bond himself was convinced a technical innovation was needed to overcome the New York YC’s grip on the trophy. He was right, but it wouldn’t be in 1980. Australiabeat France III4-1 using their conventional rig, but the French were so excited at taking a race from the Australians they called a layday and according to Longley, ‘all got smashed’. This used up valuable days in that Newport summer; had the Australians man- aged to win 4-0 there would have been more time to better understand the new rig. The day after the Australians were confirmed as Challenger they put their bendy mast in the boat, wound the backstay on and put floodlights on it all night to upset the Americans. The next morning New York YC commodore Bob McCullough was on the phone to Warren Jones: ‘You can’t use that! It’s not measured!’ ‘Well, it is Bob, want to come round and see the certificate!’ But Jim Hardy and crew had only four days between beating the French and the first Cup race to get the mast to work, and bowman Scotty McAllister was up the rig more than on deck trying to work out how their mainsail would go up… and stay up. They also had
a conventional mainsail to use if it blew hard.
Chink Longley recalls that 1980 could have seen a very different outcome: ‘We won one race with the bendy mast and big mainsail combination, beating a superbly prepared Dennis Conner on Freedomby 28 seconds, but in the fourth race it was supposed to blow hard. We towed out on a big lumpy swell and the forecast said up to 30kt, so we put up the smaller conventional main and the breeze never kicked in. It hovered around 19kt then at the start dropped to 12kt plus a really lumpy sea. We would have killed them with our big mainsail, then used that win as momentum the following day…’ At the start of that race Jim Hardy later said all he wanted to do was get off the boat.
But it was Dennis Conner who kept the momentum, taking the final race easily and winning the 24th America’s Cup match on a cold, grey, late-September day, signalling the summer was over. Another Australian attempt had failed, and the disappointment was just settling into the bones of the Australian crew on the long tow in back to Newport. Bond came over in the tender and Chink Longley thought, ‘Here we go, Alan will start on us about using the wrong mainsail in Race 4’. But it was classic Bond. He leapt onboard like a rubber ball and said, ‘That was great! We won a race! OK, next time we are going to build two boats, and John Bertrand will be the skipper and we’re going to come back and whack ’em!’ Blue Robinson
In next month’s final part we ask, ‘Cup of tea, anyone?’ USA
Records remain safe… for now
Hopes were high for some record-smashing at this year’s 48th LA-Honolulu Transpac, with no fewer than three 100ft monohulls lined up at the start. This classic jaunt to Hawaii is widely perceived as an effortless slide downwind, leaving the cool coastal waters of California for ever-warmer winds and waves heading to the finish in the tropical tradewinds off Diamond Head… followed by grass skirts and Mai Tais.
Well, enough of this is true to make the race an enduring attraction to every ocean-racing sailor worth his salt, with many coming back
We’re having a great time, and we love the boat. riend
It’s everything we hoped for and then some. –Clay Deutsch, Just A F
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© Onne van der Wal
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