America's Cup - Daniel Forster's summary about Alan Bond

by Daniel Forster on 11 Jun 2015 America's Cup - Alan Bond lived life larger than life!

He had two lives: Alan Bond, the yachtsman and Alan Bond, the rogue businessman.
He won and he lost in both lives.

His greatest achievement in business was to transcend from painting houses to buy one of the most expensive paintings in the world:

'Vincent van Gogh's 'Irises' sold at auction for $53.9 million, click here for more details.

But the yachting world's greatest achievement was definitely his victory against Dennis Conner's Liberty in the 1983 America's Cup.

After challenging in 1974, 1977 and 1980.

People said: ' It is like Australia putting a man on the moon', notes Paul Barry.

He was appointed as an officer of the Order of Australia the following year. He had already been named Australian of the Year.

He then lost in the 1987 defender trails against Kevin Parry's Kookaburra III .

To quote from the Guardian: 'Bond was an ocker's ocker, a man who called a spade a bloody shovel, and who paraded his earthiness at every opportunity.'

But on the other side of the medal were people and banks investing with Alan Bond and not exactly getting the return they expected…

'He was putting five cents of his own money and 95 cents of someone else's,' business reporter Neale Prior said.

Alan Bond bounced back and later in 1989 built an 82ft Maxi named 'Drumbeat' and won the 1989 Sydney to Hobart Race

In 1992, he was declared bankrupt, with a personal debt of AUS $1.8bn.

In 1997, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years jail for syphoning $1.2bn from Bell Resources to shore up the cash reserves of the failed Bond Corporation, a scheme the crown prosecutor in the trial described as 'enormous in its magnitude, audacious in its execution and redolent of the most serious dishonesty.'

'To a lot of people dad was a larger than life character who started with nothing and experienced so much,' John Bond, his son, said. 'To us he was just a dad.'