A taste of the glory days of the America's Cup as 12 Metres race in Newport
Back to ’83: Sperry Top-Siders, Swatch watches, RayBan Wayfarers and Australian band Men at Work’s song ‘Down Under’ blasting out everywhere. Yes, and that was the year that the land ‘where beer does flow and men chunder’ snatched away the America’s Cup from Newport.
While the Cup wades through a legal quagmire that has all but the most dedicated followers thoroughly confused, the 12 Metres gathered again in Newport this week. This photo by Amory Ross shows Victory leading from Freedom and Intrepid.
Aboard the ‘Plastic Fantastic’, Kiwi Magic, Russell Coutts has been sailing with Bill Koch, the businessman behind the campaign that returned the Cup to US hands in 1992.
The occasion was the 12 Metre Worlds and 50th anniversary of the 12s being used in the Cup, and what a tonic it is.