Thoughts of a Sailing Enthusiast Who Does Not Sail

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

I've always been a fan of sailing and the ocean. There is no more majestic sight than that of a sailboat under full power on the open water.

Sailing's ultimate prize is the America's Cup. The Cup waa originally won by an American team that entered a sailing regatta for the "Hundred Guinea Cup" around the Isle of Wight in Great Britain in 1851. Legend has it Queen Victoria was watching the regatta when she saw the clipper America cross the finish line. She turned to someone and asked who came in second.

"Ah, Your Majesty," the signalmaster replied, "There is no second."

This began the longest winning streak in sports history. For 132 years, the Americans would successfully defend the Cup against several international contenders including the British and the Australians.

The New York Yacht Club would hold the Cup regatta in Newport, Rhode Island; known around the country as the playground for the wealthy captains of industry like Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Rockefeller. Many of these rich robber barons had summer homes and vacation homes there.

That all came to an end in 1983 when the Australians brought a technologically advanced Australia II to challenge for the cup against Dennis Conner and his red 12 meter yacht, Liberty. Despite having the faster yacht, the Australians almost lost to the Americans.

But alas, almost doesn't count in yacht racing and the Aussies took the silver ewer still known as the America's Cup down under.

Dennis Conner would stage a comeback that would make any Hollywood producer jealous. With the help of the San Diego Yacht Club, he would build an armada of new 12 meter yachts and eventually settle on Stars and Stripes US-55, a sleek gunsmoke blue yacht that would lay waste to the competition and completely annihilate the dedender, Kookaburra III. In a 4-0 romping, Conner would bring the Cup back to the United States to a hero's welcome, complete with a visit to the White House to visit President Reagan.

In 1992, the Cup was successfully defended by billionaire Bill Koch, and in 1995, Dennis Conner would have the dubious honor of losing the Cup to longtime challengers New Zealand. After that, the Cup would be won by the Swiss, won back by the Americans, and lost again to New Zealand. The Kiwis successfully defended the Cup against the Italians earlier in the year.

In 1992, Carroll Ballard directed a film loosely based on the exploits of Dennis Conner's 1987 campaign to win back the Cup. Wind didn't do that well in the box office, but it has earned a cult following among sailors and 90's sports/action/adventure films. As all movies often are, authenticity is sacrificed for the sake of dramatic action and majestic cinematography, and Wind definitely has that. The sailing scenes aboard the 12 meter yachts is exciting and thrilling. The film is the directorial debut of The Black Srallion's cinematographer and was produced by Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios.

The film follows the journey of one of America's best match racers as he is recruited to sail on the rich yacht owner's 12 meter as he defends the Cup against the Australians. Unfortunately, due to a series of mishaps and tactical errors, Radiance loses the final race to Boomerang. This leads the hero, Will Parker, to partner up with a renegade aviation designer to build a new 12 meter — Geronimo, go down to Australia, and wrestle the Cup away from the clutches of the Australians and their defending yacht, Platypus.

Sorry, I forgot to say "spoiler alert."

Several real-world yachts were used in the filming of Wind. For years, I have scoured the internet and sailing forums to find out what yachts were used in the film. In the credits, it mentions the boats were provided by the Kookaburra Challenge, Phillip Freedman, Lennard Gullson, Joe Krawczyk, and Fishhawk Sportfishers.

The movie was filmed in Newport, Hawaii, Utah, and Australia. For the Australian portion of the film, according to all the research I've done, Kookaburra I, II, and III were used as the hero boats. 

For the Newport filming, my personal favorite boat, the American loser Radiance, was portrayed by the New York Yacht Club's design for the 1987 America's Cup, America II, US-46 (for a while, America II sailed under the name Fiddler). She was white and repainted a deep dark blue  with a thin red and white pinstripe. A radiant sun logo next to the yacht name "RADIANCE" adorned the side of the yacht along with the pinstripe. She had the sail number US-70 (although the opening shot shows Radiance using America II US-42's spinnaker sail).

The Australian boat Boomerang was portrayed by a couple of different yachts. Some of the closeup shots of Boomerang were played by an older American boat named Intrepid (US-22). She was fitted with a more modern stern to make her look like a modern-era 12 meter.

The second American hero boat, Geronimo, was played by US-46's sister ship, America II US-42. She was repainted from her original plain white paint scheme to a bold bright red with blue tribal striping along the hull. She was assigned US-91 in the film.

The second Australian hero boat, Platypus, was probably one of the Kookaburras. She was painted a dark forest green with golden yellow and orange waves ending with a flying platypus. The color scheme paying homage to the national Australian colors of green and gold.

For many years, US-42 sat on land, still painted as Geronimo on the West Coast. Eventually, she'd make her way back to the East Coast where she would join her sister ship US-46. Today, both US-42 and 46 have been restored and repainted the same dark blue as Radiance and are under the care of the New York Harbor Sailing Foundation. You can follow their Facebook page for more information on when you can see these former movie stars sailing around the Statue of Liberty.

If you've made it this far, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with Brownsville. Don't try to figure it out — it doesn't. It was just some information about one of my favorite movies. Not everything has to be about me complaining about the city commission.