A Very Short History of the America's Cup, Part IV

The Mercury Bay Challenge

In 1987 the America's Cup was back in the USA but this time it was bolted to the floor of the San Diego Yacht Club. However, no one had time to relax because New Zealand mounted a challenge by proposing a huge boat that somehow met the requirements of the "Deed of Gift", which is the original document that established the America's Cup event. The New Zealand I (KZ I) out of Mercury Bay, was 120 feet long and wasn't anything like a 12- metre. Dennis Connor, the skipper that lost the cup to Australia, won it back, and now was responsible for not loosing it again, knew a 12-metre would not prevail against New Zealand's really big, fast boat.

Dennis needed to seriously think out of the box. What he though up was a 60 foot catamaran named Stars and Strips. Yachties around the world fell right out of their Topsiders and howled that catamarans were not proper boats for the AC. Still, Stars And Stripes handily defeated the massive New Zealand yacht and kept the Cup safe (for a while).