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Do you think this was the case? Many thanks to Adrian Morgan who has produced a very detailed piece about the America race.

Adrian had been very influenced by the piece written by A.Brown in 'The Phoney Fame of the Yacht America and the America's Cup'. He was very kind to send me a copy of this publication, which I found of interest mostly about the Aurora and the Wildfire races. Unfortunately, Brown was still mystified by the Laws on the book from 1902, which contained a map of the race showing a wrong position of the Nab lights vessel, which was in 1851 closer to the Foreland by nearly two miles. In fact, Lawson used the new position from 1887 of the Nab Lights vessel instead of that of 1851.

In his previous version, Adrian Morgan had followed Brown on the alleged America ploy at the Nab Lights, and reproduced the wrong Lawson chart which has been copied hundreds of times by the historians since 1902. In his madforsailing article Adrian doesn't comment about what the fleet did at the Nab Lights. He just added a new sentence: "Note that the position of the light was nowhere near that of the present day Nab Tower." He also said: "All the yachts except America headed for the Nab Light Vessel, directly ahead". This was met with strong disagreement.

According to Sir Peter Johnson , the British historian and Chairman of the WSSRC, five yachts rounded the Nab Lights. Aurora, Brilliant, Gipsey Queen, Bacchante and Constance. Arrow and Aurora could have done the same, according a letter sent to 'The Field' many years after the race by somebody who was on board Arrow. So we may have seven yachts rounding the Nab only. The six others and the small cutter Wildfire, which was not officially racing, had followed America.

We sailed half the fleet last July, with some friends from Cowes. We used a GPS to mark the exact position of the Nab Lights vessel in 1851. On that day, the high tide in Portsmouth was exactly the same as it was on the 22 August 1851.

From our yacht position, we could see that the Bembridge buoy was not so far. The distance between the Nab Lights and the buoy was a mere 0,6 mile. So America never got a 3 mile advantage upwind that has been recorded in certain books. This has mystified Lawson for over many years. I guess we should take our hats off to Sir Peter Johnson as he was the first to discover the false position of the Nab Lights twelve years ago and corrected the story.

We know also that Volante and Freak were ahead of America at around midday. The smaller boat Volante had been faster upwind than America. And Wildfire was ahead of America at St Catherine's Point. America had to chase Wildfire for an hour before passing her in Freshwater Bay. According to the Times report Wildfire rounded the Needles at 18:04, 0nly 14 minutes after America.

The great designer and historian Dixon Kempt stated that Wildfire started with the fleet in Cowes and was behind all the fleet at No Mans Buoy. According to the Squadron historian Montague Guest Wildfire was the first to arrive home in Cowes, so was definately before America.

In resume, I totally agree with Adrian Morgan that America was not superior to the remaining fleet inf the RYS (Remember that the best cutters: Alarm, Arrow and Volante had to quit the race earlier). Had the race been half an hour longer then Aurora who arrived only a few hundred meters behind America, could have past her. The powerful schooner of 132 tons, 31 meters long, arrived between two smaller cutters.

Exactly like a Formula One Ferrari finishing between two Formula 3000s. I don't wish to dispute the America victory as she was the first official entry on the finishing line. I just regret that the RYS Race Committee which had followed the race and never published its technical notes of the marks roundings and boat positions around Wight. It could have avoided tons of inaccurate documentation.