Sport: The Best Cup Challenge Ever

Australia II puts on a fan-bloody-tastic show

The America's Cup was still there on Monday morning, bolted to a table at the New York Yacht Club, which has been its home for 132 years. Its tenure had become frighteningly fragile, however. For the past fortnight a superboat and a bunch of hungry sailors from Down Under have shown that the U.S. can no longer successfully defend the knobbly silver ewer merely by putting a boat in the water. At week's end the best-of-seven series was tied 3-3 between the red-hulled American defender Liberty and Australia II. In the process, the Aussies had proved themselves every fighting inch the equals of the Americans. It has been the greatest America's Cup challenge in history.

No challenger had ever won more than two races, but that is merely a statistic. What was on display in Newport was nobility. The Australians showed technological brilliance, consummate sailing skill, luck, intuition, nerve, courage, stamina and fanatic determination to win. It also took millions of dollars on both sides, since that is the price of admission in 12-meter yacht racing. But no amount of money could have bought what Aussie guts and gall have won to date.

The Australian campaign has had an unlikely Nelson: Allan Bond, 45, a chunky, feisty Perth entrepreneur and onetime sign painter, who has spent $16 million in ten years pursuing what many of his countrymen dismissed as a manic obsession. This is his fourth bid, Australia II his third boat. In Ben Lexcen, 47, Bond found a naval architect who could radically change the design of a 12-meter boat, a field that has seen little technological innovation in years. In secret tank tests in The Netherlands, Lexcen developed a keel like nothing ever used before: with two delta-type wings weighing more than a ton each, it gives the boat added stability, more agility in tacking and greater speed overall. While his boat clearly had the advantage over all comers in light winds, many experts questioned whether it could perform as well in heavier conditions. Australia II, it turned out, is glorious in any kind of weather.

John Bertrand, 36, Bond's skipper, proved in the trials that he is among the world's best at handling a 12-meter yacht. Relaxed and modest, he was quick to admit error. He also had the fervent loyalty of his crew. By contrast with previous years, when the Aussie sailors downed Foster's Lager in Newport's pubs till the wee hours, Bertrand's men trained like commandos for the marine assault. Off Newport, long considered mare nostrum by the American defenders, Bertrand developed a feel for wind and water conditions unmatched by many Americans who have sailed these waters since adolescence.