SYDNEY'S SAILORS

The big and busy city of Sydney, Australia stretches from the Pacific inland across fingers of land that hold the finest harbor in the world—a haven for shipping that serves also as a playground for yachtsmen. Sydney's sailors are grand gamblers who pile on sail and take their chances bluffing for the right of way (following pages), on courses crisscrossed by ferryboats and ocean freighters. The sight of game losers hanging onto their capsized boat (right) is a common one; when a squall pounces on sail-heavy 12-footers, every crew may go into the water. Next September off Newport, Rhode Island, Sydney's sailors will be out to win yachting's finest prize, the America's Cup. The story of the stormy skipper who is staking Sydney in this ultimate gamble begins on page 30.

Dragon class sloops in Sydney Harbor jam up in a flutter of collapsing spinnakers

Sail-heavy 12-footers run before the wind toward the mist-veiled Harbor Bridge

THREE PHOTOS

DAVID MOORE