What’s new?
With the passage of time, plus all the obfuscation surrounding the event, as well as the many ‘informed rumours’ that over the years assumed more credible form, Christian Février is sure we will never run out of fresh reveals about the 1851 Royal Yacht Squadron Regatta that begat the America’s Cup
Surely everything has been written about the history of the schooner America and the historic regatta in Cowes in 1851? Yet, after sifting through more than 100 books, this Breton enthusiast is sure that plenty of mysteries still remain. Iconoclastic thoughts perhaps, scratching away at famous legends concerning the first international sailing meeting which was also a big show… So here is another look at the first fleet race of the America’s Cup ‘revised and corrected’.
Hot atmosphere in Cowes On 22 August 1851 Cowes had never been more deserving of its name as a yachting Mecca. The Times of the day described a
42 SEAHORSE
frenzy never seen before in living memory: ‘A good 100 yachts are anchored at the entrance to the Medina River. The road- stead is swarming with boats, while from the sea and the shore rises a confused backdrop of voices, mixed with the sound of oars striking the water, the furling of sails and the hissing steam of excursion boats preparing to follow the race.’ Thousands of tourists have been pour-
ing in since the day before aboard steamers from Southampton and Portsmouth, and there is congestion along the long piers of Ryde and Cowes. They come for the race, but also with the secret hope of catching a glimpse of the young Queen Victoria, who has just turned 32. Six years earlier she and her husband Albert had acquired the Osborne estate east of Cowes, on the heights overlooking the Solent, to build an Italian Renaissance-style castle. Cowes has a permanent royal endorsement. There’s not a single bed left in town. At
the rear of his rather dark premises Joseph Atkey, son of Pascall, the island’s first shipchandler, can fill his pipe with satisfac- tion. His green-fronted store is always busy. It’s a veritable Ali Baba’s cave, crowded with landlubbers and yacht sailors. Members of the Royal Yacht Squadron
meet along the wall of the small castle built at the entrance to the river to defend the island against raids by French privateers. In front there was a long, broad beach, but this has long since disappeared. An old engraving shows washerwomen
spreading their laundry on the pebbles. This is the home of the Governor, the 83- year-old Marquis d’Anglesey, founder of the RYS. At the helm of his 1815 schooner Pearl the Marquis had sailed against the American yacht Brenda in Bermuda two years earlier. The latter beat him by just 55 seconds on 14 May 1849. With only a few hours to go before the start of the Tour de Wight, this is the second time that the United States and England have faced each other at sea in an international regatta.
America in Cowes On 31 July the yacht America leaves Le Havre for Cowes. She has been preparing for three weeks in the French port; 31m overall, her hull is sheathed with copper. Her five owners are John Cox Stevens, Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, Edward A Stevens, George Schuyler, (who would later write the first version of the Deed of Gift governing the Cup), Hamilton Wilkes and J Beekman Finley. To compete, the Americans initially requested a wager on the race... but the Squadron declined. Architect George Steers concluded that,
measured against her English rivals, America was under-canvassed. The schooner had only one large boomed-jib forward and a single jib on the aft mast. The Stevens brothers decided to add a flying jib forward. Aboard AmericaDick Brown, skipper of
one of New York’s finest pilot boats, the Mary Taylor, disagrees and advises against making the expenditure. So the owners go
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