1934 Americas Cup

The Challenge

The 1934 challenge was to be quite a story with the Challenger in spite of a strike by her crew just 8 days before departing for America almost lifting the Cup and the titanic struggle between two boats and two cities to defend the cup.

In September 1933 the New York Yacht Club received a new challenge from T.O.M Sopwith one of a new bread of yachtsman in England. Sopwith and experienced 12m sailor had bought Shamrock V in 1931 after the death of Sir Thomas Lipton and had raced her successfully in the British big class circuit of 1932 and 1933.

Sopwith  was a prominent Airplane manufacturer who brought his huge recourses and knowledge of aerodynamics and airframe construction to the challenge. For a designer he chose Charles Nicholson the only man to have designed and built two Js. Nicholson had learnt a lot from designing Shamrock V then Velsheda for Bill Stephenson the chairman of Woolworth in 1933. For Sopwith he produced Endeavour.

To meet the challenge only Weetamoe of the Js built in 1930 had been kept racing and the older Vanitie. The Depression had hit American hard and most of the wealthy yachtsman raced the smaller M class and 12m yachts.. Of the old boats Whirlwind had proved a failure, Yankee was considered unsuited to the light conditions expected and Enterprise due to changes in Universal Rule was considered too small.

Harold Vanderbilt who had skippered the successful Defender offered to form a syndicate to build a new boat to meet Sopwith’s challenge. Accordingly, Starling Burgess was again commissioned to design a new J. Though late starting Vanderbilt was lucky in that Burgess had already designed a new J as the result of an expectation that Sir Thomas Lipton prior to his death in 1931 was about to make a new challenge. This design he used with modifications and became Rainbow which was built in the record time of 100 days by the Herreshoff manufacturing Company.

A Boston syndicate was formed in the winter of 1933-34 to modify Yankee with the intention of making a second bid to defend the America’s Cup. These modifications proved very successful and made her a very serious challenger to Rainbow.

Changes to the Universal rule had been made in 1931 and influenced the yachts of 1934. A minimum mast weight was set to stop the use of light weak spars. No running or standing rigging was to be set up or worked below the deck except forestays. The hight of the forestay was fixed and normal cabin fittings where made obligatory and the weight fixed . The idea of these restrictions was to promote a wholesome yacht that could  have a wider use after racing.

( for full details see Ian Dears Enterprise to Endeavour)

During the early races particularly at the Observation races Yankee administered a series of defeats on Rainbow becoming the clear favourite to defend the Cup. After a poor start to the New York Yacht Club Cruise Vanderbilt had more ballast added to Rainbow which improved her stability and improved her sail carrying ability. With these changes Rainbow finally defeated Yankee at both the Kings and Astor Cups.

With both boats now equal in the eyes of the selection committee the Selection trials proved very memorable with Rainbow winning the final race by just 1 second and was selected to defend the cup amongst some criticism from the Boston camp.

1934 Americas Cup September. Endeavour vs Rainbow

Race 1 15 mile course windward leeward

Mark 1 Rainbow rounds with an 18 sec lead setting a new record for a 15mile windward leg of 2hrs 4min 25 sec defeating Vigilants 2 hr 6min 40 sec record set on October 13 1893

Mark 2 finish Endeavour wins by 2 min 9 sec

Race 2 30 mile triangle , reach ,beat and Reach

Endeavour defeats Rainbow by 51 sec

Race 3 course 15 mile to windward and return wind light 6.2 miles NE by E start 11.40

Leeward mark Endeavour rounds at 2:00:38 Rainbow over 7 mins later

Finish Rainbow 4:15:34 Endeavour 4:19:00

Race 4 30 mile triangle ,beat followed by 2 reaches. Wind 11.5 mile breeze

Mark 1 Endeavour rounds with a 23 sec lead

Rainbow wins by 1 min 15 sec

Note Endeavour had removed 3360 pounds of ballest on the preceeding layday whilsrt Rainbow had added 4000 pounds.

Endeavour made protests  in this race

Race 5 course 15 mile dead to Windward and return . wind fresh 14 mile NE breeze

Mark 1 Rainbow rounds with a 4min 38 sec lead

Finish Rainbow looses 37 sec on the beat home but wins by 4mins 1 sec in a time of 3 hrs 54 sec.

This was the only decisive defeat administered by Rainbow during the whole series.

Endeavour has replaced the 3360 pounds removed after race 3

Race 6 30 mile triangle, broad reach,beat then a run. Wind 9.5 mile NE breeze start 11.40

Mark 1 Endeavour rounds12:51:50 Rainbow 12:52:59

Mark 2 Rainbow turns 2:12:28 Endeavour 2:15:12

Mark 3 finish Rainbow 3:20:05 Endeavour 3:21:00

Endeavour came so close to winning the cup and was the faster boat, she was fitted out with all the latest equipment and technologies the Aircraft industry could bring to bear. However it was  Sopwith’s reliance on instrumentation, his refusal to invite advice and the fateful strike only 8 days before leaving for America probably account for the defeat.

Sources

Ian Dear “Enterprise to Endeavour”

Harold Vanderbilt “On the winds Highway”

Norman L Skene “ Elements of Yacht Design”

Charles Lane Poor “Men against the Rule”