Gentleman Jim
Sir James Hardy OBE was a giant of the sport, who inspired a generation of Aus- tralian sailors after competing in and winning many of sailing’s most prestigious races. A descendent of Sir Thomas Hardy, who commanded HMS Victory at Trafal- gar, Jim Hardy was raised in Seacliff, South Australia. His father died in a plane crash when
Jim was six years old, and growing up in wartime South Australia led to a spirited childhood, where Jim worked at weekends to pay for the materials to build his first boat, a 12ft Cadet dinghy named Nocroo – an indigenous word for speed. After completing his national service in 1951 Jim returned to Adelaide to the family wine firm of Hardy & Sons, starting as a shipping clerk while studying accountancy at night school. Hardy won his first national champion -
ship in the Flying Dutchman class at the age of 16 before being selected as a reserve for the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games. He would go on to compete at the 1968
42 SEAHORSE
Earlier this summer Australia bid farewell to a particularly special sportsman – a towering figure in every type of competitive sailing from 505s to the America’s Cup. And also one hell of a vintner… Blue Robinson pays his respects to the late Sir Jim Hardy OBE
Mexico Olympics, where he finished seventh in the 5.5 Metre class with Gilbert Kaufman and William Solomons. ‘Gentleman Jim’ also won the 505
World Championships with Max Whitnall in 1966, beating Olympic champion Paul Elvstrøm, which led to an invitation to join Sir Frank Packer’s Gretel II America’s Cup team. His subsequent defeat as helmsman in the controversial 1970 America’s Cup Match against Bill Ficker’s Intrepid was a bitter blow to Jim, and affected him deeply. Hardy was haunted by the deci- sions he made, with an ongoing belief they should not have lost ‘the protest’. ‘The judges made the correct decision
on the facts presented to them in that protest, but I believe that we put up a poor case. I was so sure we would win that 1970 challenge, and from the moment Sir Frank called me to ask me to sail the boat my conviction was quite uncanny. ‘And just how close we came, crossing
the finishing line ahead of Intrepid in two races, only to lose one on a protest. Losing
that 1970 America’s Cup series left me with a kind of depression that lasted nearly 10 years until the tragic 1979 Fastnet Race; where going through an experience like that onboard Impetuous sort of washes out your soul and shocks everything back into perspective.’ The 1970 Cup also saw a memorable
quote enter history from Sir Frank Packer, who said, ‘Protesting the New York Yacht Club is like complaining to your mother- in-law about your wife…’ Jim Hardy was impressed by Packer:
‘He was tough, but he was just – and in my book that’s good news. When l sailed on Gretel II in my first Cup Challenge I was in no doubt as to what he expected of me.’ Jim saw many similarities between Sir
Frank Packer and Alan Bond: ‘Both were very demanding. I often argued with both of them but never tried to overrule their decisions even when I knew they were basically wrong. I believe in the maxim that he who pays the piper calls the tune.’ The 1974 event saw the entrance of
individuals who would shape the Cup for decades to come, ushering in a new era of professionalism and prestige. Jim Hardy on the helm of Alan Bond’s Southern Cross dispatched Baron Bich’s France 4-0 for the right to challenge, with individual race margins of up to seven minutes. But Hardy and his crew (including Alan
Bond as a below-deck grinder) were about to meet the might of the American estab- lishment, with a four syndicate defence
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