Yachting: Defeat shows Australians are human after all

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Twenty-year-old James Spithill doubted whether he would win a race as the youngest skipper in America's Cup history.

But he will go home to Sydney next week with at least two victories next to his name in the history books - even though he never got past the first cut.

The Young Australians - famous for the youngest crew, the oldest boats and the smallest budget - bowed out of contention last night when they dropped off the mathematical probability scale of making the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals.

They will sail out the four races they have left before packing up their base on the floating crane they have worked off for the past three months.

Spithill and his crew, many of them teenagers, may have sparked a new era in cup racing. Millionaire septuagenarian Syd Fischer's scheme to run a youth syndicate on just $1 million was nowhere near a failure.

"I think we have exceeded expectations. When we got over here, I wondered if we would ever win a race," Spithill said. The Young Aussies, in fact, beat the Swiss boat twice.

"This was something we'd never experienced before in our lives - most of us were just out of school.

"We'd never been sailing in a boat of this size. Our learning curve was almost vertical."

But at times it was frustrating to work with old gear dating back as far as the '92 cup.

Fischer has vowed that the Young Australians will return in the next Cup, so they will try to keep the same guys together. "But maybe they've had enough," Spithill laughed.

"After what we've been through and learned, though, it's important to stick together. It should help them in life."

Spithill was adamant last night that the Australians would not "sell" any of their remaining races to help desperate syndicates sneak into the semis.

"We would like nothing more than to get a couple of upsets out there to finish it all off."