The guy who probably should be given a lot of the credit is Ben Lexcen whos first design the Southern Cross was beaten. He decided they needed to come up with something that was going to give them an edge - the result was Australia 2 and the winged keel .. He also designed Australia III & IV for the title defence but it was beaten in the runoffs by Kookaburra - it came out later that some radical last minute design changes had been ordered by the upper echelons at Bond Corporation that made Australia III uncompetative.

Lexcen actually started a mechanical apprenticeship on the railway in Newcastle before leaving and doing a sailmaking apprenticeship in Qid. .. fortunately for us he found out that his real talent lay in designing sailing boats rather than getting filthy dirty working on steam locos.

Albo recenty tried to get a free ride on the Matildas popularity by declaring we should have a public holiday but as most of us usually ignore politicians who jump on bandwagons he didint get much mileage from it.  Back in the early 80s when Australia II won the Americas Cup Aussies already knew that Bob Hawke was a bit of a larrikin so his comments about bosses being bums became legendary ....I was running late for work because like most people I had been glued to the TV watching the events unfold, Bobs declaration had me tossing up whether I should chuck a sickie (I didnt and probably like plenty of others around the country I showed up late).

BB