I’ve covered this territory before, but with the event finally upon us, I wanted to provide an update to my article that appeared over a year ago.
By CaptaIn Ray
Published: September, 2013
I’ve covered this territory before, but with the event finally upon us, I wanted to provide an update to my article that appeared over a year ago. The America’s Cup is the oldest sports trophy in the world and it represents the longest winning streak in the history of competitive sports. In the sailing world, this is a big deal.
It all began in 1851, when a group of yachtsmen from the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) sailed their yacht America to England. They commissioned George Steers to design and build her in order to compete in a series of British yacht races. When they asked, "Is she fast?" Steers responded, "If she doesn’t win, you don’t have to pay for her!"
He designed a long (101 feet), low schooner (a particularly American rig), painted her black, and gave her sharply-raked masts making her look fast even at anchor. Her appearance made quite an impression and the speed she exhibited caused English yachtsmen to shy away from competing with her. Finally, they invited America to compete in the season-ending Round the Isle of Wight Race where—because of the many unmarked shallows and complex currents—it was thought she wouldn’t do well. Not only did she do well, she handily beat all entries. The Cup was taken back to the New York Yacht Club, where it acquired the name America’s Cup in honor of the first boat to win it.
In 1857, the surviving owners of America deeded the "Auld Mug" (as it is known in the sailing community) to the NYYC as a perpetual challenge trophy "to promote friendly competition among nations." The first challenge (unsuccessful) came in 1870, followed by a long series of unsuccessful challenges. Most of these challenges have been by single boats, funded by one wealthy individual. An outstanding example of this was Sir Thomas Lipton of Lipton Tea fame who mounted five unsuccessful challenges between 1899 and 1930, all with vessels named Shamrock.
Both world wars interrupted these contests. Occasionally, legal questions distracted from the racing. The types of boats changed from the original schooners to include the magnificent J Class yachts of the 1930s, the 12-meter yachts in the years after World War II, catamarans (of several sizes) and one enormous trimaran.
Indeed, the America’s Cup races have always been as much a designer’s race as a sailor’s race. The rules, which have been altered through the years, allow for variations within certain parameters so the boats racing in any particular challenge have never been identical. By the 1980s, technology was having a strong influence on design of the yachts, introducing such things as fiberglass hulls and winged keels. With the advent of carbon fiber construction and rigid wing sails, multihulls are being built that are so light, strong, and fast that underwater foils (generating lift like an airplane wing) elevate both hulls completely clear of the water. This is what we are seeing during the current competition.
American boats established the longest winning streak in the history of competitive sports: 132 years, from first winning the Cup in 1851 until 1983, when Australia took the Cup down under. The United States promptly won the Cup back at the next challenge, but this time the San Diego Yacht Club won it. From there the Cup traveled to New Zealand (in 1995) and then (in 2003) on to Switzerland. In 2007, Switzerland successfully defended the Cup in Valencia, Spain, but lost in 2010 to Team BMW Oracle Racing, sailing for the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC). Larry Ellison brought the America’s Cup to San Francisco Bay, and for the first time in its long history, spectators can easily view the America’s Cup races from nearby shorelines. The GGYC selected the AC72, a new 72-foot, wingsail catamaran that has been developed just for this America’s Cup challenge.
As the number of boats wanting to challenge for the Cup increased, a separate, preliminary regatta, called the Louis Vuitton Cup, was created to select the challenger. The finals for the Louis Vuitton Cup were held in late August and Emirates Team New Zealand beat the Italian Team Luna Rossa 7-1 to become the challenger of record for the 34th America’s Cup against defender Oracle Team USA in September.
Ray Wichmann, is a US SAILING-certified Ocean Passagemaking Instructor, a US SAILING Master Instructor Trainer, and a member of US SAILING’s National Faculty. He holds a 100-Ton Master’s License, was a charter skipper in Hawai’i for 15 years, and has sailed on both coasts of the United States, in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Greece. He is presently employed as the Master Instructor at OCSC Sailing in the Berkeley Marina.
