Perth already preparing to retain the America’s Cup.

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 14

Perth already preparing to retain the America’s Cup.

New numberplates on cars in Western Australia carry the slogan: “W.A. — Home of the America’s Cup.” Youngsters on Perth’s beautiful beaches wear shirts emblazoned “Australia’s Cup.” The cup itself sits gently sparkling, in subdued lighting, behind security glass in the Royal Perth Yacht Club.

The 12-metre yacht Australia II won the cup at Newport just over a year ago. The first defence of the cup outside the United States will be sailed off Perth in the summer of 1986-87.

With more than two years to go, the people of Perth are already predicting the city of 900,000 will have a million visitors for the event.

The series itself is expected to be the biggest ever. Twenty-four foreign syndicates have lodged challenges; nine Australian syndicates will compete for the right to defend the cup. Yachtsmen in Perth, and in the nearby port of Fremantle, smile knowingly about the defence. Local knowledge and freaky winds played a big part in the successful American defences of the cup for more than a century. Local knowledge will be important in Australia, too. Much of the course off Fremantle is in open water — the broad sweep of the Indian Ocean. Light airs can be expected in the mornings, with stiff, steady south-westerly winds in the afternoons. Rottnest Island, 18 kilometres from the mainland, will add dashes of uncertainty. Hundreds of Perth homes will enjoy a grandstand view of the preliminary races and the cup challenges. The course — eight legs south-west and north-east - will be laid out off City Beach, just north of the mouth of the Swan River. Miles of beach suburbs will have the racing a few kilometres outside their windows. Already, house prices are rising along the coast; space for viewing is being booked well in advance; a new marina for spectators’ boats and support craft is being built at Sorrento.

Alan Bond, the Perth millionaire who headed the syndicate that built the successful challenger, plans a new hotel and blocks of apartments

right on the foreshore, opposite the starting line. The development is expected to cost sAustloo million. No-one seems to mind that “Bondy” hopes to do well from the defence of the cup. He is a local hero, said to be generous and unassuming, and determined to see the cup stay in Western Australia to the benefit of Perth and Fremantle. In Perth itself, some hotels are already almost fully booked for the time of the cup series. New SouthEast Asian hotel chains, such as the Merlin and the Orchard, have moved in. Smaller local hotels, such as the Princes, have been refurbished. The Western Australian Tourism Commission talks of revenue of $l5OO million (about SNZ27OO million) coming to Perth as a result of the cup. Up to 11,000 new jobs are predicted. On the foreshore at Fremantle there has been a burst of building and reclamation. The 12-metre yachts are too big to pass under

By

NAYLOR HILLARY,

who was recently

on holiday m the cock-a-hoop Western Australian city.

Fremantle’s bridges and reach the Royal Perth Yacht Club on the north bank of the Swan River. Instead, the entrants will be moored in three harbours close together in Fremantle — a new marina at Success Harbour, built five years ago by the Fremantle Sailing Club, the adjoining Fishermen’s Harbour, and a new marina nearby, still being built. The old Fremantle Sailing Club headquarters has been bought by Alan Bond to build apartments for Australian crews. Three American syndicates have already sent teams to Perth and Fremantle to begin their preparations. The New York Yacht Club, which lost the cup in 1983, has grabbed a prime site on the waterfront and is building a yacht basin with ultra-modern lifting facilities and buildings where yachts can be tuned in secret. “We’ll spend whatever it takes to get the cup back,” said New York’s Commodore, Robert Stone, earlier this year. The club is already spending about $l5 million. The San Diego Yacht Club, from California, has also taken a prime dock site. Dennis Connor, Commodore of the club, was the first American skipper ever to lose the cup and it still rankles. Between the two American syndicates, Alan Bond and his team of defenders have leased another prime waterfront location. The Yale-Corinthian Yacht Club has also taken space on Fremantle’s waterfront, and American teams are buying apartment blocks nearby for their crews and supporters. Those who are lucky enough to be in Perth for the series will have a feast of sailing. To find a challenger, up to 600 races will have to be sailed off Fremantle between November, 1986, and the start of the challenge series on January 31, 1987.

Another extended series of races will be needed to decide which

Australian yacht will defend the cup. All the cup preparations are having a profound effect on Fremantle. For years the port languished. Then the tourist industry discovered that central Fremantle has one of the finest collections of nineteenth-century buildings in Australia. Even before the cup excitement, Fremantle had been refurbished as a slice of “living history.” Now, streets and buildings are being spruced up. A new state Government has restored the passenger rail service to Perth, 18 kilometres away. Museums, and arts and crafts markets, are expanding. Throughout the rest of Australia a host of building projects and public works are under way for the target of 1988 — the year when Australia celebrates 200 years of settlement In Perth and Fremantle, the target for completion is more than a year earlier — the cup challenges. .“Don’t stand still or they’ll paint you,” has become a saying in Fremantle.

Is all the effort going into an event that will be held only once? Not according to the locals. They expect to hold the cup, at least this time.

They put their faith in the ingenuity of Australia’s yacht designers who came up with the startling Australia 11. As back-up, they believe the unfamiliar conditions will tell against challengers. Unlike the waters off Newport, the ocean outside Fremantle is little affected by tides and currents; the wind is generally fresh and reliable; the sea much choppier than it was in the United States. As a result, the yachts may have to be heavier with a smaller sail area. Perth and its suburbs have thousands of yachtsmen who know the waters well. They are determined the cup will stay in Australia, and preferably in its present home in the Royal Perth Yacht Club.