An Australian team from way Down Under won the Bell Mumm 30 world championship in Toronto.

While most eyes were watching whether hometown favourite Fred Sherratt’s frontrunning Steadfast, with Andy Roy as skipper, could fight off Tom Ritter’s Tramp from Michigan and the Kahns, father and son, from California and Hawaii on the fourth and final day Friday, the issue became a Foreign Affair.

That’s the name of Perini’s boat from Sydney that won the class at Key West in 2002 and 2003 and arose from fifth place to bite all the contenders with a runaway flourish in the last race. Pending the outcome of some protests, that left Foreign Affair three points ahead of Steadfast, four ahead of 15-year-old Shark Kahn’s Pegasus 20 and five ahead of Tramp. Nelson Stephenson, the Mumm 30 World Council president from Connecticut, was fifth with TeamBOLD.

The 15-year-old Shark led the regatta after two days and again after winning the first race Friday. Then his comeback from the previous day’s belly flop fizzled when he became entangled with Carlo Alberini’s Calvi from Italy at the leeward gate. Forced wide by the Italians and two other boats, Pegasus 20 was passed by several and protested by Calvi, as well, for not giving room at the mark on its way to 15th place.

Steadfast, meanwhile, struggled to 11th and 13th places, leaving the door wide open to Perini for the 49-year-old businessman’s first class world title in five tries. Overall, he scored two firsts and three seconds in the nine races and seemed a popular winner as one rival after another came by his boat to congratulate him.

“There were six boats that could have won it today,” Perini said, “which is a tribute to the depth of this class. We went into today 13 points behind the leader, so we just said we weren’t going to give up, that’s not an insurmountable lead.”

His start in the second race set the tone. Foreign Affair was a boat length ahead of the pack coming off the line and controlled its own destiny from there, as directed by tactician Steve Flam, a 42-year-old real estate manager from Long Beach, California.

“We had a nice gap and were going full speed when we hit the line,” Perini said. “Then Steve did a fantastic job in picking our way up that first beat.”

They didn’t waste time looking for the other contenders. “We had no idea where they were,” Perini said. “We just wanted to do our best in that situation.”

Protest hearings involving Calvi against Pegasus 20 and Steadfast and Dan Cheresh’s Team Intermec from Michigan against each other were being heard well into the evening but would not affect Foreign Affair’s victory.

Overall Results

1. Foreign Affair, Richard Perini, Sydney, Australia, 2-12-13-2-17-1-2-7-1, 57 points

2. *Steadfast, Fred Sherratt, Toronto, 8-2-4-6-2-11-3-11-13, 60

3. *Pegasus 20, Samuel Kahn, Honolulu, 3-1-17-3-1-2-18-1-15, 61

4. Tramp, Tom Ritter, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., 1-7-7-15-4-5-5-p-10-8, 62

5. TeamBOLD, Nelson Stephenson, Southport, Conn., 15-11-14-9-3-4-1-2-10, 70

6. *Team Intermec, Dan Cheresh, Holland, Mich., 6-10-9-10-7-6-6-17-2, 73

7. Groovederci, Deneen Demourkas, Santa Barbara, Calif., 4-18-2-14-6-14-4-9-7, 78

8. Pegasus 591, Philippe Kahn, Honolulu, 5-3-5-1-5-19-9-18-17, 82

9. Calvi, Carlo Alberini, Pesaro, Italy, 16-5-11-7-13-7-10-6-9, 84

10. Cygnet, Richard Swann, Fairfield, Conn., 13-8-1-12-10-8-19-2-12, 85