Few sailors have seen highs as high, and lows as low, as Grant Simmer. He was just 26 when John Bertrand, the Olympian yachtsman, asked him to navigate in the 1983 America’s Cup at Newport, Rhode Island. He hadn’t navigated before, but the young engineer was good with programmable calculators and had developed some rudimentary boat positioning and wind prediction programs. So he was shipped Stateside as part of the Australian crew.
It didn’t start well; Australia II was down three-one in a best of seven. But everyone knows what happened next. The Australian boat with the revolutionary winged keel took the last three races straight, shocking the American defenders and breaking their 132-year hold on the cup, the longest winning streak in international sport.
Gift articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.
