The America’s Cup has always been won on land / Part One

In the dock, both the real and virtual (read: social) ones, there are many voices “against” the America’s Cup. A regatta with the rules of the game changing all the time, where the defender makes the best of things, where more important than the challenge at sea is what happens ashore, in the builders’ warehouses, in the unexplored meanderings of the rulebook and (Ellison and Bertarelli proved this, some time ago) in the courts. Whoever has the most money wins. And those who should win but lose throw tantrums and create their own anti-Cup (Ellison and Coutts).

But we should not be surprised. This has always been the case in the history of the America’s Cup. We combed back through the years, with the help of Mario Oriani’s book “America’s Cup, the True Story, “ finding controversy and mutual accusations between challengers and defender since the first edition of the Cup! Happy reading!

1851 – AMERICANS CUT THE BUOY.
Already the first Cup edition, on August 22, 1851 in the waters of the Isle of Wight (the “100 Guineas Cup”), was tainted by alleged irregularities and protests. Among the 15 starters, the British made a “blockade” against the schooner America, which the Americans managed to get rid of, however. They turned the first buoy fifth, then took the lead in the stretch leading to the second buoy. And therein lay the rub: in local English regattas, the course of which involved going around the Isle of Wight, it was a customary but unwritten rule to round the lightship Nab about 5 miles from the eastern end of the island, but the instructions for the “100 Guineas” simply read: “… the course is laid around the Isle of Wight, around Noman’s buoy (the first buoy, ed.) and Sandhead buoy and outside the Nab ship…” America, spotted a white buoy (which was at least a mile below than the lightship) left it and continued the race, the others instead continued until the ship and left it after passing it by taking a more outward and certainly longer route. America wins ahead of Aurora. The British boats that had managed to spot the American maneuver raised the protest flag. Protest that was discussed the following night at the Royal Yacht Club Squadron: the British behave like gentlemen. How could they be declared the winner thanks to a protest based perhaps on cleverness on the part of the Americans, but which takes its start from an oversight or inaccuracy on the Notice of Race? Protest overruled, Cup to America.

1871 – MORE YANKEE “CUNNING”, BRITISH GET ANGRY
The second edition of the Cup, in October 1871 on State Island, New York, took on the connotations of the modern America’s Cup. Match-race, seven trials planned (whoever reached four wins first would win. The British with Livonia, the Americans with four boats (Columbia, Sappho, Dauntless and Palmer). In the first challenge, Columbia’s owner, before the start, ascertained from the jury how the doubling of the last buoy, right or left, should be performed, in the absence of instructions to that effect. The jury replied that it could be done as one preferred. At the buoy the Livonia commander, who had not asked for instructions from anyone, felt, as was the custom in England, that if there were no provisions to the contrary the buoy should be left to starboard. He was ahead and passed the buoy by gybing (a difficult maneuver for the time, with 1,600 square meters of sail!). Columbia’s captain did the exact opposite and knowing about the “no rules” rule left her to the left, tacking, managing to get to windward in a much shorter time and going on to win the race. To no avail was the heated protest of the British. The Americans, in the following races, manifested superiority and on 4-1 declared the challenge won (in theory out of seven races it is a mathematical victory), but according to the British Columbia should have been disqualified in the first race, bringing the score to 3-2. Ashbury, the owner of Livonia, announced that he would be at the starting line the next day, but he was ignored: the New York Yacht Club boats remained at the berth and the crews of the four boats prepared for the awards ceremony, while the British went home with their feet up after making very heavy statements about the sportsmanship of American yachting.

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Transat Café l’Or: Francesca Clapcich strike, overtaking Macif and second place in Martinique!

1956 – CLASS CHANGE TO REDUCE COSTS WHAT A CONTROVERSY!
Let’s take a time jump in the history of the Cup. Returning to postwar racing had to wait thirteen years, but the most important hurdle to overcome was to renew the Cup’s holy grail, its gospel, the Deed of Gift, which, for example, mandated that boats must be at least 65 feet long at waterline. Conservatives wanted very large boats at all costs, and to change needed the New York Supreme Court (the Supreme Court! The one that also decides death penalty appeals, the highest judicial body in the United States) to approve the amendment on a unanimous motion. And the change was related to a question: would it have been appropriate to abandon the J Classes? Continue with a tradition of beautiful boats or open up to new technology? Endless controversy. In December 1956 the Court accepted the Deed of Gift variants paving the way for the era of the 12-meter International Tonnage. The reasons why the Supreme Court accepted the variances were very “topical”: lower costs in the first place. And then to allow the challenger not to arrive in America exclusively by sea, but by being able to load the boat on a cargo ship. Curious how only the U.S. was mentioned in this rule, as if it were impossible for clubs from other countries to become defender…

…CONTINUED.

This story is taken from the volume “America’s Cup, the true story” by Mario Oriani. The America’s Cup as you’ve never known it. In the story, which is an exciting novel of men, adventures, great successes and disastrous flops, you will finally discover the background of the world’s most famous regatta. The story of hundreds of boats and men, competing to the last tack to try to grab that lumpy, ungainly Silver Cup, never out of fashion from 1851 to the present. More than 200 historical images in the appendix!

COSTS ONLY 6.99 EUROS, YOU CAN FIND IT HERE!