Yachting: Grand presence

Larger-than-life Australian cup legend Alan Bond won't get parole in time to see the America's Cup in 2000, but his old superyacht will be here. Southern Cross III, a 165ft boat Bond had built in Asia, has booked a berth in the New Zealand Cup Village with its new owners. Bond, who led Australia in five America's Cup campaigns including the first winning challenge in 1983, is eligible for parole from a Western Australia prison in April 2001. So far, 65 superyachts have booked space in the village, which has room for 88. One of the biggest boats expected is Netscape magnate Jim Clark's Hyperion, one of the largest single-masted boats in the world, which clears the Golden Gate bridge by just 10 metres.