Sport: Our Cup Runneth Under

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The old trophy sailed off to Perth when Australia II beat Liberty

The land Down Under had not witnessed such an orgy of jubilation since V-J day ended the war in the Pacific. When Australia II won the America's Cup on Rhode Island Sound last week, it was as if the cork had been pulled on an entire continent of bubbly. Indeed, as the revelry roiled on, the only worry in many Australian minds was that the champers would run out. A 130-ft. by 65-ft. Australian flag was hung from Sydney Harbor bridge. In every village, town and city from Wollongong to Jiggalong, car, bus, train and ferry horns blared and ululated from daybreak on. Crude posters with messages like YOU BEAUTIES and WE KEELED THEM sprouted outside homes, shops and public buildings. At Brisbane's Crest International Hotel, the Early American Inn became the Australia II Inn, its Statue of Liberty decked with the Australian flag, a stuffed koala bear placed in an arm. The stock exchanges saw a surge in shares connected with any enterprise of Perth Entrepreneur Alan Bond, Australia II's backer.

"There are not many occasions when a Prime Minister can speak for everyone in Australia," intoned Prime Minister Bob Hawke, "but I know I can." Hawke, a nondrinker, was soaked in champagne as he appeared on national television leading spirited rounds of Waltzing Matilda and calling this "one of the greatest moments in sporting history." A Perth boy himself, Hawke appeared for the victory rites at the Royal Perth Yacht Club, sponsor of the winning boat. All but declaring a national holiday, the P.M. said that any employer who sacked a worker for being absent that day would be a "bum."

The cause of all this fizz and fever, the seventh and final race that broke the New York Yacht Club's 132-year-old hold on the Cup and ended the longest winning streak in sports, had been billed in advance as the Race of the Century. It was that, every hard-fought inch of the way.

Postponed on Saturday because of shifty winds, the race again seemed in jeopardy on Monday. Then, almost an hour late, with a southwesterly breeze notching a tender eight knots, the duel was on. Liberty, the defending twelve-meter yacht, took yet another start from the Aussies. Midway up the first leg, however, the Americans' 8-sec. lead turned into a deficit of three or four lengths as Australia II streaked upwind on a starboard tack and Liberty went to port. After the first crossover, Aussie Skipper John Bertrand committed the cardinal sin of leaving his opponent uncovered. Liberty Helmsman Dennis Conner took the left side of the course for his own and by the first mark had opened a 29-sec. lead. It looked to many as if he had the race in his sail bag.