A Very Short History of the America's Cup, Part IV

The Mercury Bay Challenge

In 1987 the America's Cup was back in the USA but this time it was bolted to the floor of the San Diego Yacht Club. However, no one had time to relax because New Zealand mounted a challenge by proposing a huge boat that somehow met the requirements of the "Deed of Gift", which is the original document that established the America's Cup event. The New Zealand I (KZ I) out of Mercury Bay, was 120 feet long and wasn't anything like a 12- metre. Dennis Connor, the skipper that lost the cup to Australia, won it back, and now was responsible for not loosing it again, knew a 12-metre would not prevail against New Zealand's really big, fast boat.

Dennis needed to seriously think out of the box. What he though up was a 60 foot catamaran named Stars and Strips. Yachties around the world fell right out of their Topsiders and howled that catamarans were not proper boats for the AC. Still, Stars And Stripes handily defeated the massive New Zealand yacht and kept the Cup safe (for a while).

A Very Short History of the

America's Cup, Part III, 12 Meter Design

and a word about the

Louis Vuitton Cup

1956 rolled around. The world, including the United States, was still shaking the cinders from World War II out of it's hair. There hadn't been an America's Cup race since the J-Class yachts last competed in 1937, and no one was interested in spending the money it would take to campaign a J-Class boat. Also, there were no American J’s in existence at that time because they had all been dismantled for the war effort. It takes lots of lead to ballast a 132 foot sailboat.

Henry Sears, Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, convinced the world to fire up the 12-meter rule to be used in an America's Cup event. Approximately 135 12-meters are currently afloat. They are big, 75 to 80 feet in length, but not J-Class mammoth. They sail well, are sexy, and, in 1956, comparatively inexpensive, thus, the yacht Columbia was launched by the NYYC. The Royal Yacht Squadron picked up the challenge for England and built the yacht Scepter.

In April of 1958 the Columbia and Scepter, squared off to sail in the renovated America's Cup Race. The Columbia easily protected the United State's hold on the Cup.

The 12-meters continued to slug it out every 4 years. However, in 1983 the 135 year American control of the America's Cup trophy ended abruptly. Australia had attempted to capture the Cup three times previously but she succeeded on the fourth attempt. The yacht Australia II, out of the Royal Perth Yacht Club, out raced The New York Yacht Club's entry, the Liberty. The Cup left for Perth, Australia, along with the Australia II and the ceremonial golden wrench used to unbolt it. It was also the end of the era of using 12-meters for the America's Cup event.

By 1971, the America’s Cup race started attracting international interest. The racing model for the America’s Cup is match racing, and because of that, too many teams and clubs were lining up to compete. Therefore, the Louis Vuitton Cup was introduced into the mix. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup gets to race as the challenger for the America’s Cup.

By Hal Nauman

East End Basin Boat Ramp

It's not often that we have to walk uphill to get onto the dock at the East End Mooring Basin boat ramp. The concrete start of the sidewalk is completely underwater. These pictures were taken on 11-23-11. According to NOAA tide recordings, the actual observed high tide was 2 ft. higher than predicted, with a high of 12' at Tongue Point.

Olson 30 video

Great video, sent to me by Stuart. There is a very nice knock-down around the 3:30 mark, where a couple members end up on the wrong side of the life line.

Correction to Newsletter

Oooo! Made a Mistake!

The AYC Annual Meeting on

Saturday 11-19-11 is at

Alderbrook Hall on 4509 Leif Erickson Drive (aka: Hwy 30 and 45^th street),

Astoria at 6:30 PM

and NOT at 1997 Marine Drive as printed in the Astoria Yacht Club’s November newsletter!

Sorry if this has caused you some inconvenience.

A Very Short History of the America's Cup

Part II, J-Class

The evolution of the America's Cup event and the yachts racing in it has been irregular and uneven. As with any sporting activity at that level, the story is largely about money and egos with the addition of long water lines. It wasn't until 1870 when the first serious attempt to wrest the Trophy away from the New York Yacht Club was made by James Asbury, out of the Royal Thames Yacht Club. He challenged the New York Yacht Club with his 264 ton yacht Livonia. At this time fleet racing, and not match racing, was the model for competition, therefore Asbury would have to have beaten every single boat in the NYYC in order to capture the Trophy. The New York fleet didn't let the Livonia get any where near to capturing the trophy.

Over the following 33 years, the competition for the America's Cup resembled cats in the a bag with a lot of squabbling back and forth across the Atlantic. England wanted the cup badly and mounted a series of extremely aggressive challenges for it. On occasion, she came close to winning the America's Cup but each time New York beat the challenging boat back. However, according to Wikipedia, the NYYC spent WHAT EVER it took to keep the Cup in New York, including through the depression in the 1930’s.

Both sides of the Atlantic continued to build bigger and bigger boats but two great names in yachting, Nathaniel Herreshoff and Sir Thomas Lipton, attempted to bring sanity back into the process by recommending the use of smaller, more sane boats. In 1914 a new rule was implemented that effectively restricted Cup boats to 75 feet, however the race was put on hold until 1920 because of World War I.

The 1930’s arrived along with the 12 meter rule and the J-Class rule. The three Cup races from 1930 to 1937 were raced with boats built to the J-Class rule. The yachts were huge, but at least there was a rule. The American and the British yachts were also drop dead beautiful as well as big. According to the J-Class Association web site, the reproduction of the Ranger, American defender in 1937, will have an over all length around 136 feet and weigh around 120 tons. Compare that to a ton and a half Olson 30.

The J-Class Association is responsible for keeping at least five boats on their keels. Three are original British boats with the other two being newly constructed reproductions. Rainbow, Lionhart, and Svea are under replication. Check out the J-Class Association web site at www.j-classyachts.com to see how the modern iteration of these very classy boats is progressing.

Hal Nauman

Short History of America's Cup Part I

A Very Short History Of The America's Cup

In Three Parts, Part One

In 1851, John Stevens, commodore of the New York Yacht Club, set out to build the fastest yacht possible for the time. On May 3, 1851 his sleek 101 foot, 130 ton schooner was launched and christened America. According to Wikipedia, the project had nothing to do with winning yacht races to glorify a young emerging USA, or even to glorify the New York Yacht Club. Steven’s objective was to take his really fast boat, the schooner America, to the British Isles, hustle the local yacht owners, and make big money by winning their races. (See painting by Fitz Hugh Lane, 2nd picture above.)

The yacht race sailors remember best took place around The Isle of Wright on August 22,1851 when the schooner America raced against 14 other boats from the Royal Yacht Squadron. It’s not be hard to imagine how all 14 boats were seriously gunning for the Yankee upstart rather than participating in a sporting match. The America easily won the 53 nautical mile race by getting in front and staying there.

When Queen Victoria asked who was winning the race, she was told the American yacht was in front, so she asked: “who is second?”. The answer, and also the most famous quote in all of yacht racing was: "Your Majesty, there is no second".
That sentiment has been cast in stone because even when there is fleet racing, no one pays much attention to second place for very long. When the America's Cup boats match race, second place is even less significant than being the Vice-President of the USA!

Commodore Stevens went home with what was then called the Queen's Cup. However, some called it the 100 Guinea Cup because that was it’s worth at the time. The American's Cup trophy was given to the New York Yacht Club in 1857. There it remained, bolted to the floor, until in 1983 Australia II out of the Royal Perth Yacht Club, took the Cup back to Australia to break the longest sport winning streak in history.

The America went on to live a very eventful life including racing again in 1871. By that time the event was formally known as the America's Cup. The yacht was also used as a blockade runner by the Union during the Civil War and a training vessel by the US Navy. Unfortunately, the original America was scrapped in 1945.

I am still gob smacked by that sentence, ‘she was scrapped’. See “First Photo of the yacht America” above.

The America's Cup trophy (pictured first, above) is truly among the ugliest pieces of serving ware in existence. Commodore Stevens considered having the trophy melted down and converted into individual medallions to be presented to the significant individuals involved in its capture. Still, who could have imagined, back in 1851, the billions of dollars that would be spent over the next 161 years by folks attempting to take the Cup back to their hometown yacht club!

Hal Nauman