America's Cup

AMERICA'S CUP

Origin

Although yacht racing in America began informally with the Dutch burghers of New Amsterdam, the first recorded race featured John Cox Stevens's Wave defeating John Cushing's Sylph in 1835. Stevens, a wealthy New Jersey real estate broker and sports promoter, spearheaded the organization of the New York Yacht Club in 1844. As commodore of the New York Yacht Club, he organized a syndicate of five other club members that commissioned William H. Brown in 1850 to construct a yacht "to race against the best the British had to offer." Following the design by George Steers, Brown finished America in 1851, in time for Stevens to accept an invitation from the Royal Yacht Squadron to enter its race around the Isle of Wight. Pitted against seventeen seasoned British boats, America started poorly but finished with a commanding lead and won the hundred-guinea cup offered by the Royal Yacht Squadron. In response to the win by America, the Spirit of the Times observed that "old England was no match for young America." Stevens accepted the cup and kept it on display at his Annandale, New Jersey, estate. After his death in 1857, it became a trust of the New York Yacht Club "as a permanent challenge cup, open to competition by any organized yacht club of any foreign country."

The Lipton Era

American yachtsmen, by 1899, had defended the cup successfully against two Canadian and eight British challenges. In 1895 Lord Dunraven's charge that the interference of spectator boats caused his Valkyrie II to lose to J. P. Morgan's Defender led to such acrimony between England and the United States that the New York Yacht Club did not expect to receive another English challenge for the cup until the next century. However, in 1899 the Yacht Club received a challenge from Sir Thomas Lipton, the Scottish-bred Irish tea merchant. Lipton's challenge was the first of five that the New York Yacht Club would accept from him during the next thirty-one years. Lipton, who had amassed a great fortune first as a grocer and meatpacker and then as a tea merchant, became enthralled with sailing through his friendship with Edward, Prince of Wales (soon to become King Edward VII). Despite his lack of racing experience, Lipton announced to his friends in 1898 that "I think I'll have a shot at the ould mug," meaning the America's Cup. A shrewd businessman and artful self-promoter, he recognized that competing in the America's Cup would bring great publicity to himself and his tea business. Although Lipton failed to bring the cup back to Britain, his convivial character and raffish charm erased the bitterness of earlier races and ushered in an era of warm feelings and friendly but intense competition between American and English yachtsmen.

Shamrock versus Columbia.

The New York Yacht Club scheduled the 1899 America's Cup for early October, but dense fog and calm winds delayed the competition until the middle of the month. Lipton's boat, Shamrock, built by William Fife, a third-generation Scottish shipbuilder, was more "a pure racer than a practical yacht," with so much play in her towering 140-foot steel mast that "she wore out six separate suits of sails in her first year." Rather than sail the Shamrock across the Atlantic for the event, Lipton towed her with his steamship, Erin. The American boat, Columbia, was the third America's Cup defender designed and built by Nathanael Herreshoff. Commissioned by a syndicate led by J. P. Morgan, Columbia, "the largest and costliest vessel ever designed for sport," according to the New York Journal, won the first race by more than ten minutes. Strong gusts during the second day snapped the topmast of the Shamrock and carried away her topsail, causing Captain Archie Hogarth to retire her from the race. Although Shamrock performed magnificently in the third race, clipping along at thirteen knots in a strong northerly gale, Columbia was even faster, finishing the course more than six minutes ahead of the challenger. Once again, an American yacht defended the cup. Gracious in defeat, Lipton announced at a farewell banquet that "I shall be back." New York high society, charmed by the jovial tea baron who had entertained them lavishly on the fully appointed Erin, heralded him as "the world's best sportsman."

Shamrock II versus Columbia.

Lipton, as promised, returned in 1901 to challenge for the America's Cup. His second boat, Shamrock II, was designed and built by George Watson, the architect of Dunraven's Valkyrie. Described by the marine editor of the Scientific American as "the most refined form ever seen in a Cup challenger," Shamrock II was much longer than her forerunner and" had a nearly flat body with a keel so deep and narrow it resembled a fin." Columbia, the 1899 defending cham-pion, was selected to race Shamrock II, since it had out-performed the Constitution, a new racer designed by Herreshoff. Having the opportunity to race against Columbia again delighted Lipton, who believed that the radical design of Shamrock II insured his victory. In fact, he had the support of many Americans, including Thomas F. Day, the editor of The Rudder, America's foremost yachting journal, who wrote that he "would like to see Sir Thomas Lipton win. As it is, the contest is too one-sided, but if the Cup could be passed and repassed across the ocean it would be better for yachting on both sides." Although Shamrock II performed better than her predecessor and at times led Columbia by nearly a minute at the halfway point, Columbia emerged triumphant in three consecutive races to retain the America's Cup for the New York Yacht Club. After the third race, Lipton implied that he would return for a third challenge as he reminded his adoring American fans that "the shamrock has three leaves."

Shamrock III versus Reliance.

In 1903 Lipton returned for a third attempt at bringing the America's Cup, now dubbed the Lipton Cup, back to England. As the toast of the nation, he dined at the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt and visited Boston, where he praised Boston Tea Party revolutionaries for dumping three ship-loads of tea into the harbor, because "it wasn't Lipton's." His boat, Shamrock III, resembled its predecessors in shape and size, "following the evolutionary trend toward light and lively vessels with large amounts of sail." In designing the American craft, Herreshoff took full ad-vantage of the gray areas in the New York Yacht Club's specifications for racing vessels, especially those regarding the shape of the hull and displacement, to develop "the biggest, fastest sloop ever to race for the America's Cup." His final product, Reliance, with its shallow hull and massive sails, was described as nothing more than a "skimming-dish," whose sole purpose was to race. Reliance, wrote Thomas Day in The Rudder, "is an overgrown, ugly brute." With 16,160 square feet of sail area, 2,000 more than Shamrock III, Reliance was penalized with a one-minute, fifty-seven-second handicapped start but easily overtook the British challenger to defend the America's Cup in three straight races. Lipton later remarked that he considered the defeat by the Reliance as "the greatest disappointment of my life," and, although he was not a gambling man, he added that he would have been "willing to bet the Erin" that Shamrock III would win the series.

Close of the Lipton Era

As a result of the 1903 America's Cup series, the New York Yacht Club issued new specifications for racing yachts, collectively called the Universal Rule. By setting limits on minimal displacement, standardizing hull shape and size, and penalizing excessive sail area, highly specialized, unseaworthy "skimming dishes" such as Reliance were outlawed. Ironically, the Universal Rule, intended to produce "a whole-some type of yacht," was formulated by the iconoclastic Herreshoff, who smashed the old rules with Reliance. The Universal Rule, which defined boats in different classes designated by letters of the alphabet, was quickly adopted for yacht races throughout the United States. European yachting organizations adopted similar measures under the International Rule, which defined boats according to a metric formula. Controversy ensued over the applicable rules in 1907, when Lipton issued another challenge for the America's Cup with the proviso that both boats meet the specifications of the Universal Rule. The New York Yacht Club maintained that in its selection of a defending craft, it should not be limited by any regulation. Lipton withdrew his challenge and did not issue another until 1912, but the club had not changed its position. The club accepted Lipton's unconditional challenge in 1913, but the series scheduled for 1914 was postponed because of the outbreak of World War I. Lipton raced for the cup twice more, in 1920 and 1930 with Shamrock IV and Shamrock V, but he never succeeded in wresting the "ould mug" away from his American competitors.

Sources:

John Rousmaniere, America's Cup Book, 1851-1983 (New York: Norton, 1983);

A.B.C. Whipple, The Racing Yachts (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1978).