The boat was skippered by Buddy Melges and included Bill Shore, Larry Mialik, Andreas Josenhans, Jim Gretzky, Wally Henry, John Stanley, Fred Stritt and Dave Dellenbaugh.
This 12 meter was close in size to Liberty, but due to a very low center of gravity winged keel design was optimised for Fremantle conditions.
The first (built by Stephens Marine in Stockton, California) yacht was a conventional 12-Metre code named "E-I" (for evolutionary one) (12/US-49) with a winged-keel.
On R-1, the classic "trim-tab" of previous 12-meter yachts was moved from the trailing-edge of the keel to the front of the boat, and renamed "the bow-rudder".
Steering the bow-rudder from the stern cockpit presented the engineers with a mechanical challenge and the helmsman with a "never drove one of these before" steep learning curve.
Unfortunately, the 20+ knots of breeze and 5–6 foot waves on the race course offshore of Fremantle, Australia didn't provide the ideal sea-state for the world's first bow-ruddered boat.
While, the bow-rudder was seldom imitated, the "bulb keel" innovation has endured and been copied by virtually all racing monohulls since its introduction on USA-61 in 1987.
The management: Cyril Magnin, Honorary Chairman; Bob Scott, Founder and chairman; Bob Cole, Vice Chair; Tom Blackaller, President and Skipper; Ron Young, General Manager and Development; Gary Mull, Naval Architect; Heiner Meldner, Hydrodynamicist; Alberto Calderon, Aerodynamicist; Ken Keeke, Director Onshore Operations.
The crew: Tom Blackaller, Skipper; Paul Cayard, Tactician; Craig Healy, Navigator; Stevie Erickson, Mainsail Trimmer; Russ Silvestri, Hank Stuart and Jim Plagenhoef Jib and Spinnaker Trimmers; Brad Lewis, Mikey Erlin and Jeff Littfin Grinders; Kenny Keefe, Pit; Bruce Epke, Mastman/Sewerman; Tom Ducharme, Scott Easom, Scott Inveen, Bowmen.
Tom had skippered "Defender" in the 1983 America's Cup, with Paul Cayard as tactician and Peter Stalkus as navigator.
[citation needed] Tom Whidden was the tactician, Peter Isler the navigator and the crew included Scott Vogel, Kyle Smith, Jon Wright, Jay Brown, Adam Ostenfeld, Jim Kavle, Henry Childers, Bill Trenkle and John Barnitt.
Unfortunately she was largely outclassed by the competition, winning just one race (over Challenge France) but losing to the major contenders by eight to ten minutes an outing.
The boats were skippered by Flavio Scala and Aldo Migliaccio, with Italophile Rod Davis in the afterguard alongside Tommaso Chieffi and Stefano Roberti.
[11] The skipper was Olympian Mauro Pelaschier with support from Tiziano Nava, Matteo Plazzi,[12] and Francesco de Angelis.
[5] Originally backed by Marcel Fachler, and later Michael Fay, the team consisted of several Fibreglass boats designed by Ron Holland, Bruce Farr and Laurie Davidson.
Skippered by Chris Dickson, the crew were: Brad Butterworth, Ed Danby, Simon Daubney, Brian Phillimore, Mike Quilter, Tony Rae, Jeremy Scantlebury, Kevin Shoebridge, Andrew Taylor and Erle Williams.
[15] David Barnes was the alternative skipper and the crew included Warwick Fleury, Alan Smith,[16] and Ross Halcrow.
The deadline for acceptance of challenges was 1 April 1986 and Admiral Sir Ian Easton wrote his own personal cheque for $16,000 as an entry fee deposit.
Harold Cudmore acted as skipper-tactician and starting helmsman who then handed over the helm to Chris Law for the remainder of each races.
USA with her unique design was finally showing her potential, as Tom Blackaller became better versed in handling the boat with the forward canard or rudder.
[21] KZ 7 was the top qualifier of the round robins, followed in the points competition by Stars & Stripes 87, USA and French Kiss.
In the Challenger semi-finals (28 December – 7 January) KZ 7 easily defeated French Kiss 4–0, with none of the races closely contested.
In the end though Tom Blackaller couldn't quite find the speed he was looking for constantly, and the result was Stars and Stripes 87 winning the semi 4–0.
She was clearly a fast boat in both light and heavy air, had beaten Stars and Stripes 87 twice, and had won an incredible thirty-seven of thirty-eight match races.
The third race started out much as the previous two, with both boats taking a long tack out to the left hand side of the course in what Dennis Conner termed a "speed test".
The New Zealanders closed the gap, gibing back and forth across Conner's stern until they achieved what they were looking for, an inside overlap on the bottom mark.
[22] The fourth race saw a complete turn in fortune, as now KZ 7 experienced a number of uncommon structural failures which snowballed due to the actions of the skipper and crew, the result being Kiwi Magic blowing her backstay in an abrupt gibe, losing to Stars & Stripes by 3 minutes 38 seconds.
All hands went forward to clear the wreckage and hoist the Number 7 genoa, and Stars & Stripes held on to the slimmest of leads throughout the next four legs.