Before taking flight - The America’s Cup

BEFORE TAKING

FLIGHT By Isla McKechnie

The America’s Cup as we know it now is a marvel of technology, big budgets and courses that flit between New Zealand and the Mediterranean. While the big budgets have remained from the start, the Cup’s origins lie in a different name, and a different part of the world.

The 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup semi finals in Valencia Emirates Team New Zealand vs Desafio Espanol

© ACM 2007/ Carlo Borlenghi

Cino Ricci at the helm of

Azzurra 1987 © ACE | Carlo Borlenghi

Early years

It started in Cowes. Long before it was the America’s Cup, it was known by the catchy title of the Royal Yacht Squadron £100 Cup, and was first awarded in 1851 for a race around the Isle of Wight.

Its roots were earlier still though, and had a transatlantic footing. In the early nineteenth century yacht racing was a time of gentleman’s wagers and a method for the wealthy to prove their yacht’s capabilities.

The founding of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1815 cemented this, as did the first recorded wager the same year between two cutters weighing in at 60 and 65 tons respectively (The Charlotte and The Elizabeth).

Sums got larger, competition became more intense, and over on the other side of the pond in 1844, the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) formed aboard John Cox Stevens’ schooner Gimcrack. This was to be a crucial step to the formation of what would be the America’s Cup, but first up, back on the other side of the Atlantic, a new commodore was appointed to the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Earl of Winton, and at the May meeting in 1851, a £100 Cup was set for a race around the Isle of Wight.

The five founding members of the NYYC took it upon themselves to create a vessel capable of showcasing the great skills and innovations of US shipbuilding to compete in the British Royal Yacht Squadron £100 Cup. The sum of $30,000 was bet by US East Coast boat builder, William Brown, with a letter sent to NYYC founder George Shuyler, stating that he could build a craft ‘faster than any vessel in the United States brought to compete with her’.

The NYYC agreed and the the yacht America was commissioned. Built to withstand an Atlantic crossing, she was 93ft long, and weighed 170 tons. She made her way to Cowes and her visible speed, so the story goes, had the effect that wagers which had been placed on competitors quickly dried up.

An example of the International 12metre Class, Eagle races in the America’s Cup 1987.

© Carlo Borlenghi

She was seen as radical. The first in a long line of radical America’s Cup competitors, with a refined rigging arrangement, smaller sail area and sleeker form.

That 1851 race was won by the groundbreaking schooner America, and the New York Yacht Club swung into action.

It was to hold the Cup for 113 years; a startling feat in any sport.

The winning syndicate took the trophy home and permanently donated it to the NYYC, under a Deed of Gift that renamed the trophy as the ‘America’s Cup’ after the first winner and required it be made available for perpetual international competition.

In 1870 Englishman James Ashbury issued the first challenge for the America’s Cup. While his challenge to race on both sides of the Atlantic was rejected, he was soon racing in American waters. Ashbury found himself in a race pitted against 17 American schooners from the New York Yacht Club Fleet, coming a respectable tenth in the daunting challenge. In the post-war boom, new money meant new challengers taking over from the blue bloods and railway tycoons who had been early backers. Their campaigns would later pale however, in comparison to the heavyweight supporters; Koch, Gardini, Bertelli, Bertarelli, Ellison, and the tiffs that came with them as the Cup entered the age of contention.

It wasn’t until 1956 that the clause was eliminated which said a challenger must sail to the race; a contentious rule which meant challengers were heavier than defenders. An obvious disadvantage.

And until 1995, the winner of the America’s Cup competition was a best four of seven races. From 1997 until 2007 it required five of nine races to win.

The Controversial Cup

In 1988 the modern personality of the Cup began to emerge and its flavour was controversy. The Americans had regained the Cup and racing was staged in San Diego between an 18 metre American catamaran and the New Zealand team’s 40 metre monohull. That was the catalyst for the race to be decided via the courts and instigated a redefinition of the rules governing future races.

Peter Blake with the America’s Cup flies to

New Zealand in 1995. © ACE | Carlo Borlenghi

The America’s Cup

© ACE | Studio Borlenghi

An Oracle Team USA member during the 34th America’s Cup in 2013 @ Carlo Borlenghi In 2013 the America’s Cup final saw Emirates Team New Zealand versus Oracle

Team USA @ LUNA ROSSA/Carlo Borlenghi

34 metre Abeking & Luna Rossa AC45 Rasmussen, Baiurdo VItraining in 2017

@ Luna Rossa/ Carlo Borlenghi

Emirates Team New Zealand fly to Auckland with the America’s Cup

@ ETNZ | Carlo Borlenghi

Those rules saw the 1992 Cup raced between a new, faster class of yacht known as the International America’s Cup Class over a 36.4 kilometre course, while the 1995 event was raced with the same class over a shorter course.

It did the trick for the Kiwis, giving them their first win of an America’s Cup and only the second victory by a non-American challenger in the history of the competition. It was to be the start of an endeavour which would form part of the national identity in New Zealand, but a mere continuation of the off-course squabbles that had come to characterise the Cup.

From course controversies, to cheating accusations, to self-serving protocols created by the Challengers of record, to big moves by the Cup’s big backers, it’s become a sport packed with off-course drama and personality politics.

In 2013, the dramatic makeover from monohull to foiling catamaran both thrust the sailing far into the future and took the Cup back to its roots of innovation. Here was sailing for the joy of going faster. Here was a race to innovate, do better, find new ways to win. It was reminiscent of that first America which came to race and shifted the needle on what we expected from yachting.

Boundary-pushing yachts which were exciting to watch – while not without the Cup’s trademark controversy – were simultaneously blisteringly modern, and a nod to the Cup’s innovative past.

The controversy continues. The debate about racing the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona has riled many New Zealanders. A number of purists feel that the AC 75s, with their foiling cant-arms and hydraulics are too far removed from the monohulls of old, and the flying speeds of 50 knots seem beyond what we’d expect from a regatta.

One thing’s certain when it comes to the race for this Cup though, there’ll be controversy, there’ll be opinions, and the innovations will keep coming.

America’s Cup Match, race day 1, 36th America’s Cup. @ ACE