America's Cup Jubilee Preview

Everything from racing schedules to social extravaganzas for next week

Eleven boats that have actually sailed in an America’s Cup Match as either Challenger or Defender are present in Cowes for the America’s Cup Jubilee. Here they are listed.

America (replica)
1851

Designer: George Steers (Original)
Builder: Goudy & Stephens of East Boothby, Maine.
LOA: 130 ft / 39.6 m
LWL: 90 ft 5 in / 27.6 m
Beam: 23 ft / 7 m
Draft: 11 ft 5 in / 3.5 m
Sail area: 5,583 ft2 / 519 m2
Launched: 1967

This is a replica of the boat that started it all, the original yacht America, which won the 100 Guinea Cup on 22nd August 1851, and changed the course of international yacht racing for ever. The replica will not be racing in the Jubilee, but will be there in Cowes as a backdrop for the celebrations.

The original was designed by George Steers, who worked for the company that built her, William Brown Shipyard, in New York, and was launched 3rd May 1851, and sailed across the Atlantic leaving its home port 21st June.

When the original arrived in England, she was described by the London Illustrated News as a, "rakish piratical-looking craft", while the Marquis of Anglesey commented, "if she is right, then all of us are wrong."

The replica that will be in Cowes was commissioned by Rudi Shaeffer, an American brewer, and launched 3rd May 1967, exactly 116 years after the original, having taken only seven months to build.

The replica was later bought by the Friendly Ice-Cream Company, then in a state of disrepair the US Navy bought her for $1. However, it was not until Argentinean Carlo Perdomo bought her that a major refit was undertaken, back at the yard that built her.

In 1996, a syndicate headed by Paul Deeth, a crew member on the boat, bought the America replica, and carried out another major refit, this time in English Harbour, Antigua.


Shamrock V
1930 Challenger

Designer: Charles E. Nicholson
Builder: Camper & Nicholson, Gosport
J-Class
Sail No: K-3
LOA: 120 ft / 36.5 m
LWL: 81 ft / 24.6 m
Beam: 19 ft 8 in / 6 m
Draft: 14 ft 9 in / 4.5 m
Sail area: 7,524 ft2 / 699 m2
Launched: 1930

The oldest of the three surviving J class boats, Shamrock V was built for Sir Thomas Lipton's fifth and final challenge for the America's Cup, he was 82 at the time, and died the following year.

The boat then passed into the ownership of Sir Thomas Sopwith, who took up Britain's quest for the America's Cup, and she was used for a benchmark in the design and construction of his first challenger, Endeavour.

Her next owner was Sir Richard Fairey, then during the war years she went to the Mediterranean, where she was modified, and had a smaller rig put in her.

It wasn't until the seventies that she returned to England, by that stage renamed as Quadrifoglio, and in a bad state of repair, she went initially to Camper & Nicholsons in Southampton.

In 1986 the Lipton Tea Company bought her, and donated her to the Museum of Yachting in Newport, Rhode Island, where she continued to sail with her reduced rig.

Her present owner bought her in 1998, and she underwent a major restoration at Port Pendennis shipyard in Falmouth, returning her to virtually her original configuration.

Shamrock V is the only J class yacht that has never been out of commission, and the only one, of the remaining three, built of wooden planking on composite steel frames, and in 1999 beat both Endeavour and Velsheda when they raced in the Antigua Classic Regatta.


Endeavour
1934 Challenger

Designer: Charles E. Nicholson
Builder: Camper & Nicholson, Gosport
J-Class
Sail No: K-4
LOA: 130 ft / 39.6 m
LWL: 87 ft / 26.5 m
Beam: 22 ft / 6.7 m
Draft: 15 ft / 4.5 m
Sail area: 5,996 ft2 / 557 m2
Launched: 1933

The first of Sir Thomas Sopwith's Cup challengers, and the boat that came closest to taking the Cup away from the New York Yacht Club, before Australia II finally won in '83.

Endeavour went 2 - 0 up against the defender, Rainbow in 1934, and was leading the third race, when Harold Vanderbilt lured Sopwith into a tactical blunder, which allowed the American to grab the lead and win.

Vanderbilt then steered Rainbow to three more victories, and the Cup stayed bolted down in the New York Yacht Club, but the holders took notice of this warning.

There is no doubt that Endeavour was a fast boat, and her bid for Cup glory was not helped when the professional crew walked off mid way through the series, in a dispute over money.

This was neither the first nor the last time that a faster boat had failed to win the America's Cup, and Endeavour's potential was underlined three years later, when during the New York Yacht Club cruise, she became the only yacht ever to beat the legendary J class Ranger.

Endeavour was the first of the remaining J's to be fully restored, being bought initially for £1 by John Amos in 1977, when she was lying derelict in a mud berth on the Hamble.

However he found he had bitten off more than he could chew, and the project was rescued by American publisher Elizabeth Meyer, who took the boat to the Royal Huisman Yard in Holland, and no expense was spared on a total restoration.

Endeavour is now owned by Dennis Kozlowski, who is also behind the Tyco entry in the Volvo Race around the world.


Columbia
1958 Defender

Designer: Olin Stephens
Builder: Nevins Yacht Yard
12 Metre Class
Sail No: USA-16
LOA: 69 ft 8 in / 21.3 m
LWL: 45ft 10 in / 14 m
Draft: 9 ft / 2.7 m
Sail area: 1,846 ft2 / 172 m2
Launched: 1958

Columbia, built of wood, was the first 12 Metre to successfully defend the Cup, when competition for the trophy was revived after World War II, and she left potential challengers in no doubt that the New York Yacht Club would not give up their prize easily.

In the hands of Briggs Cunningham, a millionaire sportsman and racing car driver, and with her designer, Olin Stephens as tactician, Columbia inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Royal Yacht Squadron's challenger Sceptre.

The challenger was steered by Graham Mann, an Olympic bronze medallist, but the British were never a threat to Columbia, which won in four straight races, taking every race by more than seven minutes.

Adopting the 12 Metre for Cup competition required an amendment to the Deed of Gift, in the New York Supreme Court, because they were smaller than the original deed allowed for.

With the immediate post war austerity, the 12-Metre class was considered to be the largest boat that could economically be built to contest the America's Cup.

The class was to go on to become the most enduring vehicle for Cup competition in its 150 year history, being used until the 1987 series off Fremantle, a period of 29 years, which encompassed nine matches.

Columbia also marked the start of Olin Stephens' domination of Cup design, which was to last until 1980.


Sceptre
1958 Challenger

Designer: David Boyd
Builder: Alex Robertson
12-Metre Class
Sail No: K-17
LOA: 58 ft 6 in / 17.8 m
LWL: 46 ft 6 in / 14.2 m
Draft: 9 ft / 2.74 m
Sail area: 1,832 ft2 / 558.3 m2
Launched: 1958

Sceptre was the first post-war challenger for the Cup, representing Britain's Royal Yacht Squadron, and the first 12 Metre class challenger, some would say she marked the nadir of England's Cup performances.

The boat was totally out classed by the American defender Columbia, in every way, hull design, sail design, crew work, and tactically.

Sceptre was skippered by Graham Mann, who had won an Olympic bronze medal for sailing at the Melbourne games, but at this level of sailing he was not in the same league as Briggs Cunningham, who steered the defender.

Sceptre had done her tuning up in England against the pre-war 12 Metre Evaine, owned by Owen Aisher, but she had even found it hard to out perform this old war horse with any regularity.

After her Cup defeat Sceptre languished in the back of the Berthon yard in Lymington for many years, but is now owned by the Sceptre Trust, and operates mostly in Scottish waters, though for the Jubilee is representing the Royal Ulster Yacht Club.


Soverign
1964 Challenger

Designer: David Boyd
Builder: Alex Robertson
12 Metre class
Sail no: K-12
LOA: 69 ft / 21 m
LWL: 46 ft / 14 m
Draft: 9 ft / 2.7 m
Sail area: 1,876 ft2 / 571.7 m2
Launched: 1963

Sovereign was Britain's second 12 Metre challenge, this time through the Royal Thames Yacht Club, and came after Australia had made their Cup debut in 1962.

This boat came with the same pedigree as the woeful Sceptre, designed by David Boyd and built by Alex Robertson, there was very little improvement in performance, with Constellation handing out a 4 - 0 drubbing.

Sovereign was skippered by the very successful dinghy sailor Peter Scott, but he could do little to make this boat competitive, losing one race by more than 20 minutes.

After this second successive humiliation, Britain were not seen on the America's Cup campaign scene for sixteen years.

Sovereign is now in French hands, and sails regularly in the South of France, participating in the growing circuit for vintage boats.

See page 1 for information about the racing...
See pages 2,3, and 4 for boats to watch out for...
See pages 5,6, and 7 for people to watch out for...