PERTH, Australia — Businessman Kevin Parry, who backed Australia’s 1987 defense of sailing’s America’s Cup, died Friday in an automobile accident. He was 77.
Police said Mr. Parry, of Western Australia state, was fatally injured when the vehicle he was driving rolled near his home at Bullsbrook, north of Perth.
Mr. Parry funded the yacht Kookaburra III, which beat Alan Bond’s Australia IV to earn the right to defend the America’s Cup off Fremantle, West Australia, in 1987.
The defense ended in failure as Dennis Conner, sailing Stars and Stripes, reclaimed the America’s Cup for the United States four years after losing it to Bond’s Australia II.
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.