(Sydney, Australia)- Just about every morning in
the summer of 1983, Alan Bond, Skip Lissiman, John Bertrand and many of
the Australia II America’s Cup team could be found parked inside the
west part of the famous Ranger Shed at the old Newport Offshore Shipyard on lower Thames Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Bondie’s large 92 foot white yacht, SOUTHERN CROSS, was also seen parked at the end of the dock, often flying the green “boxing kangaroo” flag, much to the chagrin of the New York YC and some of the challenging teams.
Next
door in the eastern part of the Ranger Shed, J/World Sailing School would have Sunday evening cookouts for
their new students each week. More often than not, Bondi, Skip for
sure, and sometimes John, would swing down the dock to join the J/World
students for burgers’n’dogs “on the barby” and tell more than their
fair share of yarns and jokes over copious amount of beer. Those were
great memories and we miss those days.Drake, Jeff, and I (Stu J) are sad to hear about the passing of the larger-than-life Bondi. We wish his family our heartfelt condolences. While Bondi may be best known amongst the sailing world for wresting the America’s Cup from the hands of the Americans after 132 years in 1983, we remember Bondi for having raised the profile of the sport in Newport, Australia and around the world over many decades. To say that Bondi and friends (Skip, etc) were colorful, engaging and humorous would be a bit of an understatement; they made for one of the most fun and entertaining summers perhaps any one of us have had in recent memory!
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