Old warhorses come back to life

A bunch of yachting enthusiasts have set up a group known as the Australian 12 metre Historic Trust to save two former Australian America's Cup challengers from rotting at their moorings in Far North Queensland.

The Trust has bought Australia (KA5), the yacht Alan Bond used to challenge for the Cup in 1977 and 1980, and Steak'n'Kidney, the ill-fated yacht that Sydney yachting legend Syd Fischer campaigned unsuccessfully in Fremantle in 1987. The two boats are to be brought to Sydney for total restoration and then used as floating museum pieces. Their final home could be Wollongong harbour.

Early this month a team from the Trust, which was formed early this year, flew to Airlie Beach to take possession of the two yachts, which had been converted for charter use in the Whitsunday Islands. The two vessels had spent the past five years moored, without moving, at the Abel Point Marina and their hulls were covered with barnacles, oysters, weed and sea lice.

Despite their initial shock, the Trust workers found the yachts to be surprisingly sound and the engines even started after some maintenance and work on their mountings.

After scraping the hulls clean and making the yachts seaworthy, the Trust members plan to sail them down the coast from Airlie Beach to Mackay Harbour for some serious maintenance before sailing them to Sydney where they will undergo a complete restoration.

Australia (KA5) was launched by Perth businessman Alan Bond for the Sun City Yacht Club in 1977 for his second crack at the America’s Cup. In Newport, Rhode Island, she defeated the Swedish yacht Sverige for the right to face Courageous in the Cup final. She was trounced four-zip.

In 1980, Bond was back in Newport sailing under the banner of Royal Perth Yacht Club and with a re-vamped Australia. The boat’s underwater shape had been modified by Ben Lexcen and prominent Adelaide yachtsman Jim Hardy was at the helm.

KA5 met France III in the challenger final and won the right to meet the New York Yacht Club’s defender, Freedom, in the America’s Cup regatta. The night before the first race the Aussies decided to copy a “bendy” mast the British had used on their unsuccessful challenger but which seriously increased the usable sail area.

Hardy said the effect on the yacht was like “putting a V8 into a Mini Minor” -- but the crew didn’t have enough time to master the equipment. They won the second race of the Cup match and scared the hell out of the Americans before finally losing 4-1.

Steak’n’Kidney was designed by Sydney’s Peter Cole in 1987 for veteran yachtsman Syd Fischer’s third crack at the trophy -- then held by Royal Perth after Bond’s win with Australia II in 1983.

When she first hit the water in Fremantle, S’n’K was painfully slow and she failed to make much on an impression in the early rounds of the defender elimination series. Fischer discovered the wrong keel had been fitted and, when this was corrected, the boat proved to be a rocket.

Sailing experts now believe that Steak’n’Kidney was the fastest 12 metre yacht ever built -- but despite her speed she could not overcome the RPYC’s scoring system to become the Australian defender. A few years ago, Dennis Conner, the successful challenger in Stars and Stripes (which clobbered Kookaburra 4-0) admitted he doubted he could have won back the America’s Cup if he had faced Steak’n’Kidney.

A week or so before the start of the final regatta, Connor ranged up alongside Steak’n’Kidney to get an idea of the speed of the Aussie boats. He quickly broke off the encounter when S’n’K smoked Stars and Stripes.