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| ClassicCupChallenge proudly presents: The America's Cup... Defenders and Challengers
in celebration of the "complexity, beauty, dazzling technology, and historical and political
significance of the America's Cup." (Conner & Levitt, 1998 p.2) |
Remember that on the date of the first America's Cup race in 1851...
- Only 75 years had elapsed since the USA had won it's independence from Great Britain
- It was 10 years before the Civil War
- It was 45 years before the advent of the Modern Olympics
and...
- In 1895, 8 years before the 1st World Series, 65,000 watched the America's Cup races from hired boats off New York City
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In The Lawson History of the America's Cup - a Record of Fifty Years
Winfield Thompson relates the now (in)famous Queen Victoria story...
...As often as the story of the Cup is told, is related the good tale of the
famous dialogue of the Queen (Victoria) with her signal-master, who, peering
from the deck of the Victoria and Albert down the Solent was asked
by her Majesty...
"Say, signal-master, are the yachts in sight?"
"Yes, may it please Your Majesty."
"Which is first?"
"The America."
"Which is second?"
"Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second."
Reporting the results of the race, the London Merchant wrote (pessimistically
if not prophetically),"...The empire of the seas must before long be ceded to America...
America, as mistress of the ocean, must override the civilized world." |
Quoting Dennis Conner (Conner & Levitt, 1998 p.5):
The America's Cup has survived — indeed flourished — because it combines
physical skill, courage, technology, execution, heart, intelligence, and team
play unlike any other sport. It is wholly modern: a competition as much for
scientists, technicians, meteorologists, strategists, organizers, and for
those who allocate resources as for athletes. It is a war game — a space race.
The competition is, I believe, as fitting a measure of a nation's place in the
world as any sport is. It was that way in the beginning, in 1851, and remains today.
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| Presented here are the boats, the people, and the technology
that comprise "The America's Cup experience... |
Use the drop-down menus at the top of each page or the America'sCup
QuickLinks popup menu to search for a race date or a specific yacht. |
Bibliography:
Conner, Dennis & Levitt, Michael, America's Cup, The History of Sailing's Greatest
Competition in the Twentieth Century, St. Martin's Press 1998, New York, NY
Lawson, Thomas W. and Thompson, Winfield M., The Lawson History of the America's Cup,
a Record of Fifty Years, Southhampton Ashford Press Publishing 1986 (a reprint
of the original published privately in 1902), Hampton, England. |
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