When the schooner America arrived in the Solent in 1851, she took part in just one race, around the Isle of Wight on Friday August 22nd at the tail-end of that year's Cowes Week. She won. This resulted in the Royal Yacht Squadron's 1848-donated £100 silver cup crossing the Atlantic1848-donated £100 silver cup crossing the Atlantic to be held by the New York Yacht Club through many international contests until 1983, when it was finally wrested away by the Australians racing in boats of the International 12 Metre Class off Newport, Rhode Island.
The first chink in the armour – the Australian 12 Metre Gretel surfs past American defender Weatherly to win one race of the 1962 America's Cup series. However, it was not until 1983 that Australia finally won overall
This morning, Saturday 12th October 2024, the final of the 37th series for the America's Cup gets under way off Barcelona in very special foiling AC 75s. But no Spanish team is involved, for though it is now indisputably the world's oldest international sporting contest, it has developed in ways which would have seemed like the hallucinations of the craziest of sailing fantasists 173 years ago.
Lights, action….the opening ceremony for the final stage of the 37th America's Cup on Thursday night
STILL ABOUT WIND POWER AND MUCH MONEY
Yes, it still very much involves wind power and much money. And yes, the Royal Yacht Squadron is still in the mix, albeit after a gap of 66 years while other clubs and nations won through to challenge after the RYS had failed to re-take in 1885, 1893, 1895, 1934, 1937, and 1958.
But the club-and-boat combination that the RYS's foiling AC75 Ineos Britannia is meeting in the final is the Auckland-based Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's Emirates Team New Zealand. This latter machine's main funding is drawn from the international airline of the Gulf States. And the venue is Barcelona, the vibrant independently-minded port - in effect a city state - that is the wealthy capital of Catalunya on Spain's Mediterranean coast.
SERENE LAWN OF THE ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON
On the evening of Friday 22nd August 1851, when the serene lawn of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes was - for the day - the very heart of the British Empire at the height of its power as the Queen Empress Victoria witnessed this unscripted America win, New Zealand had only been acknowledged as a fully-fledged British colony for eleven years, and it was 1909 before it became a semi-independent dominion.
Seat of power – the Royal Yacht Squadron castle in Cowes. Although already in use by the Squadron as the start point for racing by 1851, it was not fully occupied by the RYS until after the death in 1854 of the owner, the Marquess of Anglesey, who in 1848 had donated the £100 silver ewer which was won by America in 1851, becoming the America's Cup after 1857
As for Auckland, it was founded by settlers from Sydney, across the Tasman Sea in Australia. While it was the capital of the new colony until 1865 when the port of Wellington came centre stage, in 1851 it was still no larger than its namesake village of Bishop Auckland in the far north of England, with a very long way to go in order to develop towards its current status as New Zealand's "City of Sails" with a population of 1.5 million.
Auckland in 1851 – it had been established by settlers from Sydney
Meanwhile in 1851, the shores of southeast Arabia were still known to many as the Pirate Coast. Although the people there had developed a viable way of life in harmony with their extreme climate, for most Europeans it seemed an impossibly hot and barren place. In some parts, where a mucous-like black substance polluted the sand, it was regarded as an inconvenience, while real wealth locally was achieved through trade and pearl fishing with traditional dhows.
Traditionally (and efficiently) rigged deep sea dhow of the Gulf, used for trade and pearl fishing
CURRENT CONTESTANTS WERE NOT RECOGNISED ENTITIES IN 1851
But now, in the broad sweep of history, independent-minded New Zealand is an international sailing super-power. The United Arab Emirates make up a great oil-enriched world wealth focus. And the contest for the America's Cup has become a moveable feast, going to the highest bidder with the most suitable sailing climate, and a generous package of civic or government-provided budget support.
The popular historic vision of the America's Cup – the final race of the 1899 series, with America's Columbia (131ft LOA) leading Thomas Lipton's Shamrock I of the Royal Ulster YC. Note the two men aloft on Shamrock – this was no sport for sissies
CRUEL CONTEST FOR VENUE SELECTION
Back in the day when the venue for the 2024 contest seemed to be up for grabs, Cork Harbour was cruelly led into thinking it was a viable contender. Despite us pointing out here that, except for the original race in 1851, no America's Cup series has ever been staged further than 41.5 degrees of latitude from the Equator north or south, the promoters in Cork at 51.9N persisted in their enthusiasm.
Yet that was despite the fact that few round Ireland cruises start and finish in Cork, which reflects climatic realism by those with real experience. For Cork's more accomplished voyagers usually tend to head south, and the westerly location of their home port means they can conveniently by-pass Brittany and head straight for Galicia in northwest Spain, where Denis Doyle is the top name on the Honorary Members list in the Monte Real YC in Bayona.
Out-station of the Royal Cork Yacht Club? The Monte Real YC in Bayona, Galicia
HIGHER LATITUDES LOSE OUT
But the "Cork for the America's Cup" notion persisted despite it being further pointed out that one of the attractions of the massively popular RORC Fastnet Race is that it takes the participants to 51.2N. This is the furthest north that many of the competitors have ever been, and much further from equatorial warmth than many sailors - top talents among them – ever wish to sail on a longtime basis.
BEWILDERING WEATHER, SOME OF IT HARSH
And that "northerly" Fastnet Rock is south of Cork Harbour. For sure, the effects of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift keep Ireland's seas and climate relatively warm, or more accurately not extremely cold. But that same North Atlantic Drift brings a bewildering mix of weather, some of it very harsh. Even with a more compact programme to acknowledge Ireland's distinctly non-Mediterranean span of summer, the 37th America's Cup 2024 as playing out at Barcelona from 29th August until October 27th would have been a national image-destroying disaster if sailed at Cork in our summer of 2024.
The Fastnet Rock is as far from the Equator as most of the world's sailors want to go
Yet it seemed that Cork Harbour and other places pitching for the venue contract were merely being used as stalking horses. At the eleventh hour before bidding closed, Barcelona struck with a package so complete and well-funded that it was tempting to think it had been co-ordinated and in the making for months. Yet it has turned out to be an ideal setup, and it even has experienced a bit of luck in the face of possible disaster.
ONE POSSIBLE DISASTER IS OFFSET
When the one possible total disaster occurred during the preliminary all-teams regatta, with a Barcelona crane dropping one of the boats by a damaging 20ft vertically, the boat it dropped was Emirates New Zealand. This is the vessel most closely associated with the America's Cup circus being in Barcelona in the first place. So that was all right then, and somehow they got it fixed.
The main man – New Zealand's Grant Dalton, who has taken the America's Cup and given it a new direction. For relaxation, he races the TT course at the Isle of Man, and Formula 1 cars too. Photo: Vela
CORK HARBOUR MADE CORK CITY, BUT BARCELONA CITY MADE BARCELONA HARBOUR
From another angle, the final selection of a venue gave us the fascinating comparison of Barcelona and Cork. Cork City exists because of the magnificent natural Cork Harbour. But Barcelona's entirely artificial harbours exist because of Barcelona. What is now one of the world's great cities began as a frontier trading post on the coastal overland route where Christian Europe met what was then Moorish Spain. Its continuously growing commercial skills and global connections meant the exposed roadstead anchorage had to be increasingly used by trading vessels, but shipwrecks became an intolerable nuisance.
Even with the Mediterranean harbour works advantage of a small or non-existent tidal range, it wasn't until the 1800s that Barcelona had a pier that stayed in place. But once it did stay in situ, the sweep of sand along the coastal zone meant that new land was created around the piers. While this did mean that dredging of the ship berths needed to be frequent, on the outer side of the piers the new land could be allowed to build up around the piers to provide room for a maritime quarter with a particularly cherished interaction with the sea.
Barcelona. All the flat land is "new", created by drifting sand after they built a pier that finally stayed in place
Today, this area is Port Vell, the "Old Harbour", where the America's Cup team bases are located in what you'd at first reckon to be a very ancient setting. But it's actually relatively new. You'd be reminded of the fact that the similarly-aged Dun Laoghaire Harbour is sometimes passionately described by its guardians as "this wonderful natural feature of Dublin Bay".
2024 SAILING FESTIVAL
Either way, Barcelona has been a success for a 2024 sailing festival which has included the Louis Vuitton America's Cup preliminaries, regattas for the SuperYachts and Classics (some huge yachts among them), racing for the historic J Class and the International 12 Metres, a Junior America's Cup, the Louis Vuitton AC Challenger Selection, the Super Maxis 2024 Concluding Regatta, and finally this past week the Puig Women's America's Cup, raced in AC 45s, sponsored by Puig, the 1914-founded Spanish fashion and beauty products company.
Go for it! Sweden becoming airborne in the AC 45s racing for the Puig Women's America's Cup title
If all this buildup hasn't ratcheted up the tension in the defending Emirates Team New Zealand crew and the challenging Ineos Britannia squad ahead of today's start of the end game, then they're beyond being superhuman.
But then the Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie, four times Olympic sailing Gold Medallist, reckons he's only getting fully into his big boat sailing stride at the age of 47, whereas two times successful America's Cup defending skipper James Spithill reckons on retiring from sailing at this level at the age of 45, after his mount Luna Rossa of Italy was eliminated by Ineos Britannia with some ferocious racing.
More of the buildup. The Mark Mills-designed 100ft V (ex-Tango) racing off Barcelona, on her way to winning the SuperMaxi Championship 2024
Certainly the great Denis Conner, whose presence haunts the America's Cup story at many turns, reckons he was at his peak at the age of 45. But he was well past that age when he came to Howth to race the Etchells 22 Worlds in 2010. Yet despite last-minute crewing arrangements, he put in a remarkable performance. But then, he did receive much invaluable tactical advice from the late Davy McBride each evening in the Howth YC bar.
1983 America's Cup winning helm John Bertrand of Australia was also at that Howth Etchells World Championship. But as his 1983 America's Cup win was always associated with Alan Bond, and with the fact that his increased confidence was being linked to intensive secret starting technique sessions provided by Harold Cudmore, he came to Howth for six weeks in all to make a very through and extremely successful tilt at the Worlds entirely in his own boat, with no involvement of other well-known names.
THE WAYS OF HOWTH'S WINDS AND TIDES
Thus if you really want to know how the winds and tide of Howth's international sailing area function, you'll have to go out to Melbourne and spend time with John Bertrand - he knows more on the topic than anyone before or since. But although his 78th birthday is now looming, he may well be currently in Barcelona, where one of the items on the agenda has to be "What next?"
America's Cup legends Ted Turner and Dennis Conner racing to success with the catamaran in 1988
WHAT NEXT FOR AMERICA'S CUP?
For although the sail-minded crowds have been pouring into Barcelona in recent days for the America's Cup final, the lead-in has been a very long time to maintain public interest. The people of Barcelona usually gave their own take on things, and they've recently indicated – to put it mildly - that excessive visitor numbers lack charm.
Beyond that, if Ineos Britannia does the business, the expectation is that the next America's Cup will be ultimately staged from the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, even if the racing has to be located at some inconvenient distance from HQ, and regardless of the sometimes very non-Mediterranean sailing conditions in the Solent area.
It will certainly make for a change from Gaudi's Basilica of the Holy Family in Barcelona – Holy Trinity Church in Cowes, whhych provides a special welcome for all sailors at the beginning of Cowes Week
Certainly the current America's Cup top honcho Grant Dalton has a real gra for Cowes, so much so that I seem to remember that he was involved at a wedding in Holy Trinity, the "yachtsmen's church" on the waterfront there. That's where even the unbelievers join the congregation on the Sunday at the start of Cowes Week, in the hope of hearing the Vicar preface his sermon with the timeless annual greeting of how nice it is, once again, to see all the old Cowes faces.
FINDING WHITE ENSIGN LOCATIONS
On the other hand, if a Cowes HQ is proposed, we can expect social media to circulate vids of the 2024 Round the Island Race, with the waters of Wight in a merry mood that would scare off anyone. If that's the case, the RYS might have to select a race venue with a Mediterranean climate, but one where the White Ensign still flies.
Does America's Cup Gibraltar 2027 float anyone's boat?
The sweet serenity of the Solent? The 1913-built pilot cutter Jolie Brise, winner of the first Fastnet Race in 1925, ploughing her way westward through a wintry Solent during the annual Round the Island Race in June 2024. Photo: Tom Hicks
