Australia will have a challenger for the world’s oldest international sporting trophy for the first time since the turn of the century, with retail rich-lister John Winning Jr backing a bid for the America’s Cup next year.
Australia has a treasured association with the 175-year-old competition, having won in 1983 with the John Bertrand-skippered Australia II.
That victory in Rhode Island retains a place as one of the most memorable sporting occasions in Australian history, with then prime minister Bob Hawke famously saying on the morning afterwards that “any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum”.
While Australian sailors have featured on America’s Cup crews since, the country has not mounted a challenge since 2000.
That is about to change, with Winning Group chief executive and Appliances Online founder Winning Jr behind an entry from Sydney’s Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club at Point Piper, according to sources with knowledge of the plans and pending announcement.
There is speculation that Olympic gold medallist Tom Slingsby, the strategist for the United States’ Oracle Racing team that won the America’s Cup in 2013, could skipper the Australian contender.
The team faces a race against time to prepare for the challenger series in Naples, Italy next year, the winner of which will come up against trophy holder Team New Zealand at the same venue in July 2027 to determine the 38th America’s Cup winner.
Winning Jr, himself a world champion sailor and winning skipper of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, was patron of the Australian team which competed in the inaugural women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024.
But an Australian vessel in the time-honoured original event is a major development.
The prohibitive costs of mounting an America’s Cup campaign have turned many off sponsoring another challenge until now.
It is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars to launch it even at this late stage, with only 12 months until racing takes place.
Late businessman Alan Bond bankrolled Australia II, which was known for its winged keel design and which Bertrand skippered to come from behind to defeat Dennis Conner’s Liberty 4-3 in the seven-race America’s Cup series of 1983.
It was the first time the United States had surrendered the America’s Cup in the event’s then 132-year history.
Iain Murray’s Kookaburra III was unsuccessful in Australia’s defence of the trophy four years later off the coast of Fremantle, with Conner reclaiming it on the US boat Stars and Stripes.
The Australian entry in 1995, OneAustralia, which was also skippered by Bertrand, notoriously split in two and sunk 90 seconds into a race against the New Zealand team during that year’s challenger series off the coast of San Diego.
The most recent challenger was Young Australia in 2000. Its skipper was 20-year-old Jimmy Spithill, who went onto win two America’s Cup with US teams, but it finished well down the standings.
Teams from Italy, the US, Britain, France and Switzerland have already confirmed their participation in next year’s challenger series.
Entries to the America’s Cup must be made by individual yacht clubs and Winning Jr has a long family association with the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club.
Team New Zealand have held the America’s Cup since 2017, successfully defending it in Auckland in 2021 and Barcelona in 2024.
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Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
