Previous pages: With some wind Shamrock V powers up! Left: her impressive boom. Right: the titanium nitride has lasted well
Above: How the crew stay fit! Above right: the mate finds a way to quickly cool off mid-race!
I 30 CLASSIC BOAT JULY 2011
t began with me staring incredulously at an email on my computer screen after an otherwise humdrum day in May. It was from Elizabeth Meyer, the legendary millionairess Classic Boat once called Queen of the J-Class. She wrote: “I have chartered Shamrock V at the Portofino Regatta and I hope you can come and help me sail her. Please let me know asap.”
Sail a J-Class; are you kidding? It was one of those moments when you feel like looking behind you – to see if she had meant someone else… “Who me? You mean me?”
Then it was just a sense of Wow! And, with a week to go, getting organised…
Along with Velsheda and Endeavour, Shamrock V is one of the last remaining true Js – the dominant class of America’s Cup superyachts from the most opulent era of sailing – 1930 to 1937. Built to the Universal Rule on a waterline length of 75 to 87ft (22.8m – 26.5m), and with consequent overall lengths out to as much as 135ft (41m), they were enormous sailing machines which used the relatively new bermudan rig to carry a cloud-raking sail area. Shamrock’s windward sail area is 7,879sqft (732m2
(1,207m2
) – her reaching sail area increases to 13,000sqft ) and yet, she’s the ‘small’ J.
At 119ft 1in LOA (36m) on a waterline of 81ft 1in
(24.7m), Shamrock V was Thomas Lipton’s last big challenger to try to wrest America’s Cup from the
DAN HOUSTON
EMILY HARRIS
EMILY HARRIS
OPENING SPREAD EMILY HARRIS
CARLO BORLENGHI
EMILY HARRIS
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