AMERICA’S CUP HISTORY 1983 - 2013
In 1983 'LIBERTY' lost the America's Cup to the innovative 'wing-keeled' 'AUSTRALIA II', ending a 132 year
U.S. winning streak. The cup moved to the Royal Perth Yacht Club in Australia.
Liberty U.S. 40: NYYC's luckless loser of the AC 1983
1983 was the first year of the Louis Vouitton Cup (LVC)
where the challenging Yacht Clubs had to evaluate the
winner who sails against the AC defender. A similar selection
has been organized by the New York YC which was called
defender series.
The defender selection has been organized in 2 groups.
The first one with the veteran Courageous and the new
Defender. The second one with the AC 1980 winner Freedom
and the new Liberty.
Although the experienced “sailing icon” Tom Blackaller
was the skipper of Defender, the boat turned out to be slow.
No considerable care was taken to improve the performance
of this beautiful yacht.
Courageous was fast and made Liberty a hell of problems .
But she was omitted, probably because an over-aged boat
was not a good reputation in a modern and forward looking
event. Freedom was rebuilt, lost by a great mistake her
12-m rating and could not be used any more. Liberty was
left as candidate. She was therefore considered as
questionable boat.
But the yacht was the only one up to now which forced the
challenger to sail all 7 rounds before she lost finally 4 : 3.
Liberty won the defender selection series but lost the
Americas Cup in 1983.
1989 she was sold to an Japanese broker and shipped into
this country. Nowadays she is lost. Searching for her I received 2009 from the leading Japanese sailing magazine
KAZI following answer :
“ For the boat, Dennis Conner's 'Liberty',we do not know about what she is doing now. However, she had been
in Japan certainly. We know some sailors who had sailed Liberty. Since she has been lost, many people
looked for her, and we received a lot of inquiries about it. May be someone who didn't know about her history
sold or let her die (rusting away) “
But the yacht was the only one up to now which forced the
challenger to sail all 7 rounds before she lost finally 4 : 3.
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http://sandiegoboatmovers.com/
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