{"id":61640,"date":"2024-01-02T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=61640"},"modified":"2024-01-02T12:56:18","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T17:56:18","slug":"silent-running-12-metre-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/yachts\/silent-running-12-metre-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Reminiscing “Freedom”: a 12 Metre Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Naval architecture firm Sparkman & Stephens designed the 1980 America\u2019s Cup winner Freedom<\/i>, the last victorious 12 Metre.<\/span>\n Herb McCormick<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Forty years ago this past September, in the waters of Rhode Island Sound just off the coastal city of Newport, a crew of Aussies shocked the sailing world. The 12 Metre Australia II<\/em> defeated the American boat Liberty<\/em> to win the 1983 America\u2019s Cup and bring the New York Yacht Club\u2019s 132-year defense of the Auld Mug to a conclusion. It\u2019s safe to say the Cup, and my hometown of Newport, have never been the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent a lot of time on the sound that summer taking in the action, so when I signed up to volunteer on a marshal boat for the latest edition of the 12 Metre World Championship<\/a> regatta in August, I found myself on the very same waters, which turned into a pretty nostalgic voyage down a nautical memory lane. But the graceful Twelve I couldn\u2019t take my eyes off wasn\u2019t the winner of the Modern Division, Challenge XII<\/em>, or even the victor of the Traditional\/Vintage Division, Columbia<\/em>. Nope, I was more or less transfixed on the runner-up to Challenge XII<\/em>, a striking-blue yacht called Freedom<\/em>. Of all the entries in the 10-boat fleet, to me, Freedom<\/em> was easily the most historic and memorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years before the Australians absconded with the Cup, in 1980, with the estimable Dennis Conner in command, Freedom<\/em> won the contest in dominant fashion, and it seemed like the New York Yacht Club\u2019s winning streak would go on forever. It was designed by the legendary naval architecture firm Sparkman & Stephens, which had drawn the lines of every Cup winner but one since 1936. Conner was back on the helm in the losing effort in \u201983, but he would find redemption, winning the Cup back for the United States in Western Australia in 1987. But for S&S, Freedom<\/em> marked the end of an illustrious era. The firm would never again create a Cup winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 12 Metre Worlds, ironically enough, the navigator aboard Freedom<\/em> was a lanky old Aussie mate of mine called Grant Simmer, who\u2019d served in the same capacity aboard Australia II<\/em> for his country\u2019s winning effort way back when. With the exception of the gray hair, he looked exactly the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, however, Simmer couldn\u2019t work his magic. Unlike the America\u2019s Cup, where boats compete in one-on-one match racing, the World Championship event is fleet racing, with everyone out on the track at the same time. It\u2019s a different game. And Challenge XII<\/em> had a ringer of its own: the president of North Sails, Ken Read, also a longtime America\u2019s Cup veteran. As far as I was concerned, Freedom<\/em> was easily the prettiest of all the Modern yachts. When push came to shove, though, it was no longer the fastest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s America\u2019s Cup competition, conducted on closed-course race tracks in skittish foiling catamarans\u2014about as far removed as possible from a stately 12 Metre racing in the open ocean\u2014bears little resemblance to what the event looked like in the early 1980s. And Newport has undergone a radical makeover as well. The shipyards where the Cup boats used to reside between races have been replaced by condos and hotels, and the only real remaining trace of the America\u2019s Cup is the boulevard of the same name. It\u2019s a reminder that the only true constant in life is change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for a few afternoons last August, I could shut my eyes for a moment of reminiscence and open them up to see what I can only describe as a fleeting image of a bygone time. Freedom<\/em> may be a footnote in the history of yacht racing, but the big, beautiful blue boat still looks powerful and fantastic all the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This renowned 12 Metre yacht didn\u2019t win the race, but it won the heart of our writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":61641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Herb McCormick","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[309,2139,2115,614,180,2067,164],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}