Australia’s First Challenge for the Americas Cup
“This is friendliness: fervent, unfettered, full of live.
This is Australia-the uncommon place.
Australia is all this, and more. It’s a white-capped wall of water leaping towards Sydney’s Bondi Beachshore. A ski-sweep down shimmering snow capped Mount Kosciusko. A lunch in the sun at a sidewalk cafe in Melbourne.It’s rolling emerald countryside, sun brushed plains, untouched bushlands, newly shaped cities, 600 islands in a coral chain. A most uncommon place. (one thing it’s not: trampled by camera clutching tourists.) Behind all this is the pulsating, friendly fervour of the highest hearted people on earth. Discover the wonders of Australia now- before everyone else does.”
One of our most supportive contributors and readers, Milton Green sent me an email this week, telling me about a program that he had come across in his archives, for the Australian challenge for the 1962 Americas Cup.
Every so often I peruse the statistics on SWS that are produced by the platform provider (in this case Squarespace) about the content, geography, and engagement with our readership. Some of the information is amusing but of little use (we had a visitor from landlocked Laos last week…wooden boats on the Mekong?), but some of it is really important in assessing what you, our readers find interesting and worth spending precious time on.
There are always a few articles which surprise with their engagement and a standout from the last few months was the story of DAME PATTIE’s Restoration. It’s by far the most popular story this year with over 4000 views.
So perhaps almost 40 years after AUSTRALIA II’s victory and with only 18 months to the 37th iteration of the event in Barcelona , readers might be interested in this fascinating program, which covers DAME PATTIE’s predecessor’s campaign in 1962.
There are two ways to read about the original Alan Payne designed GRETEL and her nemesis Philip Rhodes’ WEATHERLEY
Either you can click through the flip book below, having made the image full screen.
Or you can download the full PDF by clicking here (its 62MB)
There is so much in this program that catches my interest… Here are a few selected items that are worth highlighting.
Page 12
I love this visual representation of the 12 meter rule. It makes so much more sense than its formulaic equivalent!
Page 17
The Rosenfeld photograph of WEATHERLY is a classic. I like to think that I can see a little of the same DNA in our own Rhodes design FAIR WINDS, drawn only six years earlier.
Page 29
The photographs showing the crew work especially sail handling aboard GRETEL make me wonder whether we have perhaps missed the point with the flying boats of the 36th and 37th Americas Cup. Of course the event has always been about technological development, and I refuse to be seen as a “it was better in the old days” luddite, but surely we are missing the one thing that we can all relate to in sail boat racing, purely physical human technique, skill and achievement?
Page 35
The mini biography of Alan Payne is worth a read. Payne is described as a “slender, softspoken aesthete. “A young man with towering modesty.”
Page 50
The image of the interior of the J Boat ENTERPRISE is wonderful. A purely funcional workspace with its beauty coming from its practicality.
Page 55
The Mercedes-Benz advertisement. All I can say is I want one!
Milton writes…”A matter of interest to me as an ex-car dealer was the Mercedes Benz advertisement. In 1962 distributed in the USA by the Studebaker corporation, long gone while MB has conquered the world.”
Page 68/69/70/71
Glossary of Nautical terms. The Australian ones are indicated with “(Austl.)” Most are well know to all of us… “Bonzer”, “Bottler”, “Crook”, “Iffy”, but some I had never heard of!
“Blue Duck (Austl.)- A failure or disappointment
”Oony (Austl.)-Seasick. Also, Drain the Bilge
”Slos (Austl.)- a beat to windward.
(is this a typo and meant to be “slog?)
Since her loss in 1962, GRETEL has had a chequered history. From 1973 to 1974 she belonged to “Yanchep Estates Pty. Ltd. In 1975 the “Southern Cross America’s Cup Challenge Association, Ltd.” owned the yacht, from 1976 to 1979 it belonged again to the “Gretel Syndicate” and in 1980 she was removed from Lloyd’s Register. From 1982 to 1994 she worked as a charter yacht in the Whitsundays, later she was sold to Europe and sailed for many years in Italy. It was found here by the Robbe & Berking Classics shipyard and has being transported, unrestored, to the shipyard in Flensburg where she is now for sale