THE END OF AMATEURISM

The accepted narrative is that Dennis Conner ushered in a new era of professionalism, something that he very much countered years later in a book written with Michael Levitt where he clearly stated: “I was a professional in approach, but not in fact.” Conner then ran a wholesale drapery business in San Diego, taking over the business in 1979 when his boss, Alan Raffee, died tragically in an aircraft accident but his approach to the defence of the 1980 America’s Cup was the blueprint by which all future Cups would be measured against.

Ted Turner would be back, skippering Courageous again, but with burgeoning business interests in Atlanta and now approaching 40 years old, his drive to compete at the intensity of Conner was waning. Olin Stephens was commissioned to draw the lines for a new-build 12 Metre - ‘Freedom’ - that Conner chose to commission and trial against the Dave Pedrick/Stephens designed ‘Enterprise’ but eschewed extensive and expensive tank-testing with Conner placing greater store in sail design, sail materials and crew-work. He would take training to another level, sailing in Newport in the summer and then San Diego in the winter to gain maximum time on the water and even hired Arnie Schmeling, the son of Max Schmeling who was the first boxer to beat Joe Louis, as a physical trainer for the Freedom syndicate.

Ted Turner was disillusioned with the Conner approach, telling the yachting journalist Bob Fisher: “340 days last year, 340 days in a sailboat, that’s what he spent – and him a fully grown man.” Turner’s ire, always media gold-dust, mixed with Tom Blackaller who was an arch-rival of Conner through dinghy days to the America’s Cup and was tactician aboard Russell Long’s ‘Clipper’ in the 1980 defence trials, was to continue all the way through the trials. Conner was a class apart, however.

The international challengers for the 1980 America’s Cup were arguably stronger than had ever been seen before. The Challenger of Record was the Yacht Club d’Hyères, represented by Baron Marcel Bich now into his fourth and final challenge with a new Johan Valentijn designer 12-Metre, ‘France 3’ built by Dufour Yachts and tuned up against Gerry Driscoll’s ‘Intrepid’ crew through the summer of 1979.

Alan Bond returned with the boat that had contested the Match in 1977 ‘Australia’ re-configured by Ben Lexcen who would sail aboard as navigator. Some years later, John Bertrand described the challenge in his seminal book ‘Born to Win that: “1980 was just a low budget holding action, and that 1983 was what would count.” But it was a very credible challenge, nonetheless.

Britain re-entered the America’s Cup with Tony Boyden who had previously campaigned in 1964 with ‘Sovereign’ to little success. However, after bringing innovative designer Ian Howlett into the project, the British yacht ‘Lionheart’ featured one of the most talked-about technical advances that summer – the bendy mast that added some 100 square feet of ‘unrated’ sail area. The obvious bend at the top section was spectacular and eye-catching but another advance was the elliptical planform of the spar itself, developed from World War II thinking around the British Spitfire wing design. What Lionheart explored to some effect with the mast was the known fact from wind-tunnel testing that the top 15% of a standard 12-Metre sail was effectively redundant and could be removed to little or no effect on performance. By bending the mast and then supporting an enlarged, exaggerated roach through battening, an increased and more dynamic sail plan could deliver increased performance.

The bendy mast caught the eye of Ben Lexcen, designer of ‘Australia’ and immediately Alan Bond green-lighted the secret build of their own version with Lexcen overseeing everything at a warehouse near the SS Newport Restaurant, two doors down from the ‘Freedom’ base. Lexcen had the fortune to oversee the measurement of the British rig and observed that the bendy tip was a fibreglass core wrapped in a rubber sleeve. He deigned to do better and without a lengthy design process, instructed and built a rig for ‘Australia’ almost by sight and guesswork. The result was dynamite – a variable thickness fibreglass top was scarfed onto the aluminium rig that produced a more even bend than the pronounced ‘Lionheart’ rig, but the Australians kept the mast under wraps only to be used in the event that they won the Challenger Selection Series.  

The final challenger for the 1980 America’s Cup came from the Swedish again with Pelle Petersen leading the syndicate and re-purposing the 1977 challenger ‘Sverige’ by chopping some 20 feet off the bow area, refining it and adding a double knuckle very much along the lines of his world championship winning 6-Metre ‘Irene II.’ The Swedish also made minor changes to the rudder and structural changes to the stern section whilst working with Proctor Masts in the UK on the rig. Where ultimately the Swedish challenge failed, and indeed where nearly all the Challengers failed was on sail design with the Americans effectively cornering the market in the exotic materials – Kevlar in particular -  that powered the modern 12-Metres of the day.

When racing started in earnest in 1980 in the Challenger Series, it was ‘Australia’ that was the boat to beat. Jim Hardy had returned to the Bond syndicate having won the 1979 Admiral’s Cup in Cowes and also having competed in the infamous Fastnet Race of that year, that was, incidentally, won by Ted Turner on ‘Tenacious.’ Hardy felt that he had come close to winning the America’s Cup in 1970 with ‘Gretel II’ and that defeat stung, but the events of the 1979 Fastnet Race where 15 sailors lost their lives put sailing into perspective and when Warren Jones had offered him the chance of a return in 1980, he took it with both hands.

As the Challenger Selection Series started, ‘Australia’ came out smoking, scoring wins over ‘Lionheart’ and ‘Sverige.’ The Swedes went on to beat ‘France 3’ but then a moment of America’s Cup history was struck as Baron Bich overturned a ten-year losing streak as Bruno Troublé steered ‘France ‘3 to a maiden win over ‘Lionheart,’ steered by Olympian John Oakley, by some 56 seconds. “It took a long-time coming,” noted Bruno Bich, son of Baron Marcel Bich, “it is a little late.”

Further racing saw the Australians almost unbeatable despite being pushed by ‘Lionheart’ who suffered gear damage whilst ahead in the final race for John Oakley as skipper who was removed and replaced by Lawrie Smith. The British felt that ‘Lionheart’ had inherent speed that wasn’t being tapped, especially in the lighter airs, and Smith was joined by Ian Howlett in the afterguard for the final races before the semi-finals. ‘Australia’ was paired with ‘Sverige’ whilst ‘Lionheart’ faced ‘France 3’ for a place in the Final.

The semi-finals proved to be eventful with collisions, protests, high winds, no wind and fog over the series but by the end, it was ‘Australia’ who came through comfortably against ‘Sverige’ whilst ‘France 3’ edged out ‘Lionheart’ in a desperately close and somewhat acrimonious battle that all came down to a protest on the final day whilst the French were 3-2 up. The British lost and their 1980 challenge was over. The final was set for ‘Australia’ versus ‘France 3’ and after three races a whitewash looked inevitable as Jim Hardy steered the Australians into a 3-0 lead. An upset win in race four, famously saw the French win and save face but race five, after a lay-day, was a masterclass in superior speed and devastating loose-cover tactics from Hardy and a pumped-up Ben Lexcen as navigator. ‘Australia’ were duly confirmed as the Challenger for the 24^th America’s Cup in 1980.

The Defender trials had begun in June 1980 with the New York Yacht Club heavily invested in rapid-fire, short course racing to determine the fastest boat and the crew with the best chance of retaining the Auld Mug. Races were routinely shortened at around the 11-mile mark, but ‘Freedom’ was the stand-out contender, recording a 10-2 scoreline at the end of June whilst Turner’s ‘Courageous’ was second with 6-8 and the Russel Long / Tom Blackaller ‘Clipper’ in third with a scoreline of 3-9.

Long was the coming man though, a recent Harvard graduate and selected by Turner to provide competition with a team that had a median age of just 24 years old and led to one member of the ‘Courageous’ crew wryly commenting: “I’ve owned dogs that have lived longer than most of those guys.” It was a changing of the guard in the America’s Cup and Turner’s team with an average of 33 years old were being surpassed. Tom Blackaller, at 40 years old, was seen as the ‘old guard’ on the boat but the team got better with his inclusion and as Conner’s arch nemesis, added to the needle in the 1980 trials.

Conner later wrote: “In the first race of the defence trials Turner beat us by 1 minute 25 seconds. It was in a northwest breeze that can be substantial in Newport. In this race we used our oldest Dacron sails - they were training sails from 1979. Already Russell Long who had yet to sail a race was trumpeting our demise. I wasn't upset; this was part of my plan. I was supremely confident in my sails - they proved a generation ahead of the competitions’. Whenever Turner would build a new sail, I’d just go to a faster one - I had 52 cards - a full deck - he only had 15. We finished the first round with a record of 11-1 we didn't lose another race to Turner that summer.”

The July trials continued in the same vein as June with ‘Freedom’ on top. ‘Clipper’ however recorded a better scoreline than Ted Turner who broke the mast that had been used in both the 1974 and 1977 Cup Matches when in close-quarters racing with ‘Clipper’ that came across their stern on port and placed the bow into the cockpit ripping away the rig. It was a big collision but one that provoked a remarkable series of events that saw Turner excused from the remained of the July trials when he courted Ben Lexcen to come aboard ‘Courageous’ and help tune the replacement mast that was stepped the following day after the collision.

Turner returned three weeks later for the final August trials where Dennis Conner was peerless and almost unbeatable. On August 25^th, 1980, Conner aced Turner on a first leg to lead by 1 minute 18 seconds at the top mark before the race was abandoned and Bob McCullough and his America’s Cup Committee delivered the news to Turner onboard ‘Courageous’ that he was excused from further racing.

It was to be Turner’s last race in the America’s Cup, and he summed it up in typical style saying: “This was going to be it for me anyway. I have other things to do. I have done it three times and that is enough. Nothing short of a sea-monster swallowing them up or a nuclear bomb can stop ‘Freedom’ now from winning the defence spot.” Four days later, Turner’s words were proven, and ‘Freedom’ was appointed as the Defender for the New York Yacht Club having only lost three races all summer.

The scene was all set for what was expected to be a thrilling contest and the temperature rose as 42 members of the Australian team man-handled the new bendy rig of Ben Lexcen’s genius design from the shed above Crawford Welding at 20^th West Extension Street and carried it to the Newport Offshore Boatyard where ‘Australia’ was moored, ready to be stepped ahead of the Match.  

Conner, once he had wind of it, huddled with his design team but eventually decided that there was neither the money nor the time to copy the Australians who were betting on a very light airs regatta to gain the maximum benefit from the bendy rig configuration. The Americans gambled that they could play their lay-day cards on light airs days to negate the advantage and that the ‘Freedom’ syndicate’s sail design programme that started with Hood Sails before switching to North Sails and later, some Sobstad spinnakers designed by a certain Tom Whidden, would prove to be the key to winning in 1980.

In the press conference ahead of racing, Jim Hardy ramped up the tension saying: “The poor old defending helmsman, ouch, he's got heaps of fear of defeat.” Conner later said: “That ouch was a nice touch. No, my fear was light winds.”

That fear very nearly materialised on Narragansett Bay with the first race on Tuesday August 16^th, 1980, Conner’s 38^th birthday, beginning in an east to southeast breeze of just 10 knots. ‘Australia’ started to leeward and ahead by 5 seconds, but an early right shift gave ‘Freedom’ the lead and by the top mark they were some 52 seconds ahead – a lead they doubled over the first two reaches. Unknown to the ‘Australia’ crew at the time, at the end of the second beat, Freedom’s primary steering gear failed, and Conner could only control the boat on the downwind leg via the trim tab at the back of the keel. The crew went below and wrapped a makeshift line around the rudder post that lead back to a genoa winch for the final beat and whilst ‘Freedom’ was still fast in a straight line, tacking was a difficulty. The crew kept a loose cover as ‘Australia’ closed the gap by 25 seconds but at the finish line, ‘Freedom’ scored the first win with a 1 minute 52 second delta and Conner was so proud of his crew’s efforts that he didn’t mention a word of the failure in the press conference afterwards.

John Bertrand, who was port trimmer on Australia, noted the following in Born to Win, his seminal book published some years later: “Race 1: Not sailing our boat well enough to contain Freedom. She seemed faster, but events proved that in these conditions she should not have been. We failed to get maximum out of our boat. 1-0.”

Bertrand also later described the mood on Australia, in particular Ben Lexcen’s attitude in the afterguard saying: “I was surprised at the depth of aggression he showed in combat in the 1980 America’s Cup against the British, the Swedes and the French which is why it was such a poignant and unexpected moment for everyone when Benny, the great iconoclast, was finally silenced and became a puppy instead of a fighter. A big blue 12-Metre called ‘Freedom’ was the culprit. At first sight it knocked all the bounce and aggression out of our bear. Benny very nearly saluted Dennis Conner as the Americans slid down to the start of race one in the 1980 Americas Cup. Benny's personality had undergone a total transformation from the killer in the cockpit who took apart Baron Bich’s lovely ‘France 3’ to a pensive little foreign sailor, nervous about his opponent, quiet without jokes, laughter or shouting, he was suddenly a man whose fire had gone, who no longer believed that he had a chance.” 

Lexcen’s demeanour may well have unsettled Bertrand and the crew but in Jim Hardy they had a skipper who had nothing to lose and felt that in ‘Australia’ they had the equipment to Beat the Americans. Hardy commented: “I have the right tools and they are well prepared, it’s up to me to do the job properly.” Alan Bond, meanwhile, rallied the crew straight after the first race by announcing that they would challenge again in 1983 and nominating, without even consulting, John Bertrand as skipper. This gave a boost and then Bond went to work on the psychological warfare in the press conference accusing Conner of using a radio to receive wind information from the chase before the start, outside of a window that the Australians thought had been agreed.

All of this psychology translated into performance on the water in the next two races. After a lay-day where both boats were hard at work, Conner fixing and testing Freedom’s steering gear and ‘Australia’ testing new sails on the bendy mast in races against ‘France 3,’ the two boats came out on glassy seas on September 18^th, 1980, and a light north-north-westerly. ‘Freedom’ held the early advantage more by luck than judgement as they clicked into freshening breeze on the first beat, rounded ahead and extended over the two reaching legs and up the second beat. However, the wind dropped to zero, ‘Freedom’ sailed into a hole and ‘Australia,’ positioned further to the east sailed into the lead. But with the light fading and the clock ticking, neither boat could get to the finish line before the time limit expired and the race was abandoned.

Ahead of the re-run second race, delayed considerably due to the super-light conditions, Dennis Conner called over his tender and took onboard running lights, with his afterguard of Halsey Herreshoff and Tom Whidden convinced that racing would be concluded after sunset. The two boats started with ‘Freedom’ marginally ahead and both boats headed out neck and neck on starboard tack for some 18 minutes before ‘Australia’ locked into a lift and forced ‘Freedom’ to tack away. ‘Australia’ seized the lead by two boatlengths and held on tenaciously to round the windward mark first, hold the lead down the reaches and round the second windward mark still in the lead. On the final run though, a poor gybe by Australia towards the leeward mark allowed ‘Freedom’ in and Conner took the opportunity to round ahead with only the final beat to the finish line and the light fading.

Conner kept a tight cover in the dying breeze but with a mile left to run, both boats locked into a 20-degree header whilst ‘Freedom’ also sailed into a wind-hole. Hardy saw this and with a fraction more hull-speed, wheeled over and crossed Freedom’s bow. In doing so, Conner and his afterguard noticed that ‘Australia’ had no stern light visible and with little chance to close the gap in the light airs with Hardy covering tenaciously, the Americans protested. ‘Australia’ crossed the finish line 28 seconds ahead – the first time a challenging yacht had won a race in the Match for 10 years (1970 being the year when Gretel II won a race).

Back ashore, the ‘Freedom’ syndicate debated long into the night as to whether to pursue the protest. Conner sent Ed du Moulin to the press conference that evening and, whilst the NYYC were initially adamant that the protest should proceed, on September 20^th, 1980, a lay day, the decision was taken after consultation with Halsey Herreshoff and Jack Sutphen at a 6am meeting that the protest should be dropped. This was communicated to the International Jury who informed the ‘Freedom’ team that once lodged, the protest couldn’t be rescinded, however a typo was found in the original copy and the protest was deemed to be ‘invalid as written.’

Australia levelled the series 1-1. John Bertrand recorded: “Conditions light. Perfect for us, could have won more comfortably. Put up wrong spinnaker. Selected wrong side of course. Get overtaken. Scraped home by 4 lengths.”

After the lay-day and the protest shenanigans, the forecast for race three on September 21^st, 1980, was for a building breeze. At the start, in just 7 knots of breeze, Conner trapped Hardy over the line before the starting gun in a classic match-racing manoeuvre but then inexplicably bore away early for the line. Conner describes this race as “a race that still gives me nightmares.” He went on to describe it, saying: “Our problems began when we selected too light a mainsail. Then at the start, when we were just about to plant the hook into Australia, she wriggled off it. Next a spinnaker exploded; the head of a headsail blew out; we hoisted the spinnaker under the pole lift; lost a jib overboard; dropped our spinnaker pole in the water; and nearly had a spinnaker wrap around the forestay. It was as if we'd fallen over the edge. Despite all that we led at every mark. Obviously in a breeze we couldn't stop this freight train ‘Freedom,’ no matter how hard we tried.”

John Bertrand saw it similarly but from an ‘Australia’ angle, saying in Born to Win: “Conditions potentially good for us. Should have been equal with them. Freedom has hopeless problems losing time with first torn spinnaker, then torn jib. Then over 2 minutes with pole in the water. And we still lost. 2-1.”

‘Freedom’ and ‘Australia’ both crossed the finish line with protest flags flying with the IYRU Rule 54.3 being contested around the use of a spinnaker that was not attached to the spinnaker pole. The Americans had noted that ‘Australia’ was carrying their kite pole-less for up to two and a half lengths pre-gybe and then for four lengths, post-gybe. ‘Australia’ meanwhile were protesting at the amount of time that ‘Freedom’ carried their spinnaker whilst trying to sort out the mess incurred by hoisting under the pole-lift as Conner describes above followed by a catastrophe of errors thereafter. Both protests were debated at length but summarily dismissed. The record stands that ‘Freedom’ won by 53 seconds and took the lead in the series.

The Americans played their lay-day cards well with one eye on the weather forecast all the time to try and annul the perceived light-airs advantage that ‘Australia’ enjoyed. The third race was thus held on September 23^rd, 1980, with a lively 11-16 knots and the Australians swapped out their mainsail for a smaller all-Dacron one and reduced the bend in the mast.

Freedom’s sail programme was sublime, and Conner called for his trusted Mylar/Kevlar intermediate mainsail and immediately off the start, which he nailed with a port tacker at the Committee Boat end, sought to control the right-hand side of the course. Hardy started midline but Conner protected the right side and once the predicted shift came in, was able to round the top mark with an enormous 1 minute and 48 second lead. After two fast reaches, the American margin was 3 minutes and 8 seconds and whilst the Australians came back to cut the deficit marginally over the final two legs, ‘Freedom’ sailed off on the final beat and recorded a truly resounding win by 3 minutes and 48 seconds. It was a slaughter on the water.

John Bertrand recorded it in depressing tones saying: “Sail selection again wrong. Mainsail too small. Misjudged weather. Lost by 3 minutes 48 seconds. We have not had enough practise with our sails. We cannot possibly win with this lack of preparation.”

Freedom called another lay day before what would be the final race of the series got underway on what Conner called a: “grey, nasty day” on September 25^th 1980 as the wind came in at 14-17 knots. ‘Freedom’ won the race, almost as much as ‘Australia’ threw it away at the start, setting up to leeward and marginally astern of the Americans who once again saw the wind predictions and tenaciously protected the right.

Indeed, both boats sailed from the start to the port-tack layline and when a ten-degree shift came in, as expected, ‘Freedom’ tacked and extended to a 52 second lead rounding the weather mark. It was a lacklustre display from the Australians whose demeanour was of beaten men, but they closed marginally on the two reaching legs to round the first leeward mark 44 seconds adrift before initiating a tacking duel up the second beat. ‘Freedom’ held the right and rounded the final windward mark 1 minute 20 seconds up and then displayed awesome gybing angles downwind, manoeuvring on every shift with Herreshoff and Whidden on fire, to round the final leeward mark 3 minutes and 4 seconds ahead. Devastating.

By the finish, and making no mistakes by keeping a tight cover, ‘Freedom’ defended the America’s Cup with a winning delta of 3 minutes 38 seconds. John Bertrand described the race thus: “Australia is not competitive when the wind is more than 14 knots. ‘Freedom’ just sails clean away from us. Total disaster. 4-1. Go home as usual.”

For Dennis Conner it was one of his finest campaigns, and arguably his most commanding of America’s Cup victories. It was confirmation that 4,000 hours of sailing time, a brilliant design package from Sparkman & Stephens and the uncovering of outstanding sailmaking (and sailing) talent in Tom Whidden and John Marshall, were the keys to success. On the way back into Newport after the win, Conner invited Jim Hardy aboard Freedom and with the boat full of supporters and backers, Hardy took the wheel and sailed the boat all the way back to the port.

It was the end of amateurism in the Cup but still a “friendly competition between foreign countries.”