The story goes that on the eve of Alan Bond’s crack at the final race in the 1983 America’s Cup challenge which would decide the event, one Australian newspaper had two headlines ready. One said ‘Alan Bond wins America’s Cup’. The other was alleged to have said ‘Pommy sign-writer loses America’s Cup.’

Truth or urbane myth, hero or villain, it could be said that it was a fair indication of the regard in which a suspicious Australia held the man who rose from rags to spectacular riches. But somehow, we couldn’t help but think that somewhere along the line something was seriously rotten. And it was.

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