As the 40th anniversary of Australia II’s victory approaches, strangers still tell the boat’s skipper where they were when he crossed the finish line.
, is sitting next to me, warm and relaxed and, a few grey hairs aside, looking much as he did back then.“I get reminded literally every day by someone in a street not telling me what I was doing, but what they were doing when we crossed the finishing line,” he says.“For people who are old enough to remember, it’s part of the culture of this country: the America’s Cup and Bob Hawke and ‘anyone who fires anyone for being late today for work is a bum’.
Competitive yachting is hardly a national spectator sport, but winning the America’s Cup was a big deal, in part, because the country was still reeling from the Ash Wednesday bushfires, which killed 75 people that February, along with the effects of a local and global recession. The most noted innovation was Ben Lexcen’s winged keel, an invention kept secret from the Americans until the very end.
Leading a team with brilliant members was a challenge, so Bertrand focused on providing a vision and direction before letting them get on with their work.“The vision of the Australia II America’s Cup challenge was: ‘Let’s endeavour to understand what the game will look like in the year 2000; let’s get there faster than anyone else in the world.’
Before Bertrand and his crew could even challenge for the America’s Cup, they had to beat the Canadians, French and the British, among others. In the five months leading up to the Cup, they won 47 of the 56 qualifying races. And all the time they kept the keel design a secret. Since that momentous time, Bertrand has been busy in a variety of roles. He is the president of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, the former president of Swimming Australia, an Olympian and world champion, a businessman and climate activist.“We’re in the process, very detailed process, of selecting the team from 130 applicants around the country: 40 yacht clubs represented down to a team of probably eight for women and eight for the youth. The quality of the people is fantastic.
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