Dusting cobwebs off Australia II

Andy Rice went sailing on KA-6 for her first outing on British waters

The Little White Pointer is back on the water, and I had the privilege of sailing on board her for her first outing on British waters.

For a museum piece that hasn't got wet for 15 years, KA-6 otherwise known as Australia II, the most famous 12-Metre ever built and the boat which stole the America's Cup off the Americans for the first time in 132 years, is in remarkable condition. Judging by her performances at Skandia Life Cowes Week in IRC Class 0, she has every chance of winning what promises to be a highly competitive Prada 12-Metre World Championship in just over a week's time.

Warren Jones, chief executive of the Australia II campaign back in 1983, has been instrumental in bringing KA-6 back to competitive life. It has not been an easy task. At the helm of Black Swan, the original tender boat and according to Jones, "the only boat ever to have towed", he is clearly delighted to have reached this point.

"It wasn't the original plan to compete with Australia II here. We flew over to Japan to take a look at Australia III and IV (Ben Lexcen's designs for the unsuccessful defence of the Cup in Fremantle), but they were in a terrible state. They had been neglected for years - all the gear had been stolen, and the hulls would have needed a lot of work. That's when we decided to take a look at the Australia II option."

It wasn't going to be easy. Alan Bond's syndicate sold her to the Australian Government who in turn sold her to the Western Australian Government, and she has been in retirement ever since. Jones and his team had to break down a lot of barriers and cut through reams of red tape to release Australia II from the museum. The curators of the museum take their job of preserving Australia's most famous ship very seriously, and two curators have made the trip over to Cowes to keep a watchful eye.

One crewman said: "When we got the boat back there was a load of fluid in the bilges, and it turns out it was left over from the last time the boat sailed, which was pretty much the 12-Metre Worlds in Fremantle in 1986." The hull was corroding with the historic blend of "hydraulic fluid, sea water and piss", as the crewman put it. But the curators are very precise about what the sailors can and can't do even down to what they can and can't remove from the bilges. "We can't even remove the original duck tape marks, they're all part of the history," said the bemused crewman.

Brookes & Gatehouse product manager Campbell Field faced a similar problem in equipping Australia II with the latest electronic race and navigation systems. "We had to build custom brackets for the boat because we're not allowed to drill any holes whatsoever. The structure must remain intact, so that gave us a few interesting challenges." The nav gear will be on board for her brief period of parole in Cowes, and then it will all come straight off again before she gets shipped back to Fremantle. B&G is one of a number of companies who have pitched in to help bring the Australia II dream alive. North Sails has provided a new inventory which appears to be propelling the boat along at impressive speeds, and Shell has pumped in $210,000 (Australian) of much needed cash for the project, according to Jones.

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