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).

America's Cup, sailing's most important competition as well as the oldest continuously held event in international sport. The name is that of the event's trophy, a silver ewer originally called ‘the Squadron Cup’, or (referring to its cost) ‘the £100 Cup’ or ‘Hundred Guinea Cup’. It was first awarded in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron to the winner of a race around England's Isle of Wight. It came to be called by the name of the American schooner yacht America, which first won it. Since then there have been 31 contests for it, held between 1870 and 2003.

When the surviving members of America's syndicate donated the trophy to the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) they ruled in the deed of gift that it was to belong to the club which won it, and that it was to be ‘perpetually a Challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries’. Races occur when the yacht club that holds the Cup is challenged by a yacht club from another country. Since 1871 it has been a match race, that is, between two competitors only.

Traditionally, the competition was always sailed in the largest boats of the time—some of them 27.5 metres (90 ft) on the waterline—and was held in waters of the defender's choice. A ‘mutual consent’ provision encourages the defender and challenger to negotiate many of the conditions, such as the type of boat, the number of races to be sailed, and the maximum wind strength so as not to damage the boats, many of which have been fragile. It is because of the simple, flexible structure of its rules that the America's Cup has thrived for so many years.

In the first challenge, in 1870, James Ashbury, an Englishman, had to face a fleet of yachts in a single race, just as America had done, though he had argued for a match race. He came tenth on corrected time and when he challenged again in 1871 the Americans relented and agreed to a match race—though in the best-of-seven series they claimed the right to have more than one defending yacht. Ashbury did win one race, but lost the other four against two different boats. From that time there was only one defending yacht.

After two Canadian challenges, Britain challenged thirteen times from 1885 to 1958. In the event's low point, in 1895, the challenger, the Earl of Dunraven, charged the NYYC with cheating. Bad feelings hung over the event until 1899, when Sir Thomas Lipton, a genial Scots-Irish food and tea merchant, issued the first of his five challenges. An exemplar of the rule that grand events attract grandiose personalities, Lipton came close to winning in 1901 and 1920 but none of his five Shamrock challengers managed to take home what he called ‘the auld mug’.

Between 1930 and 1937 the matches were sailed in the high-tech J-class yachts as large as 41.8 metres (137 ft) on deck. But they cost too much for a world impoverished by war and in 1956 the deed of gift was altered to permit the largest international metre class boat then sailing, the 12-metre, to be used. About 20 metres (65 ft) long, they had crews of eleven, most of them amateur. The NYYC beat the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1958, then met an Australian challenge in 1962. In this, their first try, the Australians won one race and came close to taking a second. They subsequently challenged regularly, often with very fast boats. The Americans kept winning because their teams were better organized, their boats were better sailed, and their crews were more familiar with the waters off Newport, RI, where the races were moved in 1930.

From 1970 the NYYC permitted multiple challenges from two or more foreign yacht clubs. Because all the challenging clubs underwent lengthy elimination trials while racing for the Louis Vuitton Cup, even a losing team gained experience at Newport. In 1983 a challenger finally won, beating the NYYC's defending yacht. Australia II, owned by Alan Bond, was faster than Dennis Conner's Liberty, in part due to an ingenious winged keel. Conner had already won the Cup twice before this bitterly fought series came down to the final race for the second time in cup history—the first was in 1920—and the Australians came from behind to win. Four years later Conner, representing the San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) of California, earned the right to challenge and won the first America's Cup match held outside the United States, at Fremantle, Western Australia.

Feelings have always run high in the America's Cup, but mutual consent about the conditions for a match did not collapse until 1988. This led to legal action and a bizarre mismatch between a 36.6-metre (120-ft) overall keel boat from New Zealand and Conner's much faster catamaran, which won easily. After more legal action, yacht designers developed the new International America's Cup Class of 24.4-metre (80-ft) sloops, and in 1992 the new design was used when SDYC's defending yacht, sailed by Bill Koch and Buddy Melges, defeated the Italian challenger. Three years later New Zealand, the world's most successful sailing nation in the late 20th century, beat Conner in a dominating performance by Russell Coutts and his team. When racing resumed at Auckland in 2000, Coutts defended successfully against Italy.

John Rousmaniere

AMERICA'S CUP

AMERICA'S CUP, yachting's preeminent competitive event, is a quadrennial race dating back to 1851, when the America defeated the Aurora and a fleet of other British vessels in a race around the Isle of Wight. Britain, then the world's premier naval power, was stunned by the defeat. The cup itself was donated to the New York Yacht Club, where it remained for the next 132 years, as American defenders defeated no fewer than twenty-five challenges, five of them by Irish tea tycoon Sir Thomas Lipton.

In 1983, Alan Bond's Australia II of the Royal Perth Yacht Club, using a revolutionary winged keel, defeated the American defender Dennis Conner in a narrow 4–3 victory. Conner regained the cup for the San Diego Yacht

Club four years later. The cup then entered a bitter phase when Michael Fay of New Zealand challenged the Americans to an unusual rematch just one year later. Conner won using a sixty-foot catamaran, a design that Fay unsuccessfully challenged in court. Bill Koch's America3 successfully defended the cup in 1992 using the new standard boat size. In 1995, Peter Blake's Team New Zealand soundly defeated Dennis Conner's Young America and brought the cup to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. In 1999, for the first time in the cup's history, no American boat was present in the final, when Team New Zealand beat Italy's Prada. While popular mostly with the well-to-do, the America's Cup race grew into one of the major international competitions, attracting challengers from eight different countries in the 1999 competition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Conner, Dennis, and Michael Levitt. The America's Cup: The History of Sailing's Greatest Competition in the Twentieth Century. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Lester, Gary, and Richard Sleeman. The America's Cup, 1851–1987: Sailing for Supremacy. Sydney, Australia: Lester-Townsend, 1986.

Kathleen B.Culver

Philippe R.Girard

See alsoSailing and Yacht Racing ; Sports .

America's Cup see sailing .