Qualla: 1987 America's Cup

1987 America's Cup: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chewy m at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. For 132 years, the America's Cup never left the New York Yacht Club. Then in 1983 an Australian businessman named Alan Bond did what twenty-five previous challengers could not: he won it. The trophy crossed the Pacific to Perth, and suddenly the world's oldest international sporting prize belonged to the Royal Perth Yacht Club. What followed was a frenzy of ambition, infrastructure, and wind-blasted competition that turned the port city of Fremantle into the center of the sailing universe.

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Image: Chewy m at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

1987 America's Cup: A Streak Broken, a Nation Electrified

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chewy m at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. The backstory begins off Newport, Rhode Island, in 1983. Dennis Conner, the American skipper considered the finest match racer of his generation, lost the Cup to Bond's Australia II in a series that went the full seven races. It was the most dramatic upset in sailing history. The...

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Image: Chewy m at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

1987 America's Cup: Gage Roads and the Fremantle Doctor

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chewy m at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. The racecourse sat in Gage Roads, the open water northwest of Fremantle Harbour, where the Indian Ocean meets the mouth of the Swan River. These are not gentle waters. A precursor regatta in early 1986 shattered four 90-foot masts, destroyed a dozen booms, and washed five crewmen...

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Image: Chewy m at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

1987 America's Cup: A City Remade for Yachts

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chewy m at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. Western Australia threw itself into the event with transformative energy. Challenger Harbour was built from scratch alongside the existing Fishing Boat Harbour to berth the competing syndicates. The state government set up an Office of America's Cup Defence to coordinate logistic...

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Image: Chewy m at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

1987 America's Cup: Conner's Comeback

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Port of San Diego from San Diego, CA, CC BY 2.0. The final act was swift and decisive. Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes 87 won the Louis Vuitton Cup to earn the right to challenge, while Iain Murray's Kookaburra III emerged as Australia's defender after sweeping Alan Bond's Australia IV five races to nil. For the first time in t...

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Image: Port of San Diego from San Diego, CA | CC BY 2.0

1987 America's Cup: The Last of the Twelves

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ihavethe1987americascup, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1987 regatta was the final America's Cup sailed in 12-metre class yachts, the elegant sloops that had defined the competition since 1958. Future Cups would move to larger, faster, and increasingly exotic designs. Fremantle's transformation, meanwhile, proved permanent. The ha...

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Image: Ihavethe1987americascup | CC BY-SA 3.0