yacht race 1851

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

This Day In History : August 22

Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. You can navigate days by using left and right arrows

U.S. wins first America’s Cup

On August 22, 1851, the U.S.-built schooner America bests a fleet of Britain’s finest ships in a race around England’s Isle of Wight. The ornate silver trophy won by the America was later donated to the New York Yacht Club on condition that it be forever placed in international competition. Today, the “America’s Cup” is the world’s oldest continually contested sporting trophy and represents the pinnacle of international sailing yacht competition.

The history of the yacht America began with five members of the New York Yacht Club, who decided to build a state-of-the-art schooner to compete against British ships in conjunction with England’s Great Exposition of 1851. Designed by George Steers, the 100-foot, black-hulled America had a sharp bow, a V bottom, and tall masts, making it strikingly different from the traditional yachts of the day. In June 1851, the America set sail from its shipyard on New York City’s East River, bound for England. Manned by Captain William H. Brown and a crew of 12, the America raced and overtook numerous ships during the Atlantic crossing.

After being outfitted and repainted in France, the America sailed to Cowes on the Isle of Wight to challenge the best British sailboats in their own waters. At Cowes, America welcomed all comers for a match race, but no English yacht accepted the challenge. Finally, on August 22, the America joined 14 British ships for a regatta around the Isle of Wight. The prize was the Hundred Guinea Cup, a 2-foot-high silver jug put up by the Royal Yacht Squadron.

In the 53-mile race, the America trounced the competition, beating the cutter Aurora by 22 minutes and finishing nearly an hour ahead of the third boat, the schooner Bacchante . Queen Victoria watched the race from her royal yacht, and at one point asked, “What is second?” after seeing the America come over the horizon. Her attendant reportedly replied, “Your Majesty, there is no second.”

A few weeks after its victory, the America was sold to an Irish lord for about $25,000, giving its owners a slim profit over what they paid for it. It later went through a series of other owners, one of whom changed the America ‘s name to Camilla . As the CSS Memphis, it served briefly as a Confederate blockade runner during the Civil War . The Confederate navy sunk it in Florida to keep it from falling into Union hands, but it was found, raised, and rebuilt by the U.S. Navy, which renamed it the America and used it as a Union blockade ship.

Meanwhile, the first owners of the America deeded the Hundred Guinea Cup to the New York Yacht Club in 1857 to be put up as the prize in a perpetual international challenge competition. The first race for the trophy, renamed the America’s Cup, was not held until August 1870, when the British ship Cambria competed against 14 American yachts in Lower New York Bay. The Cambria finished 10th. The schooner Magic won the race, and the America, refitted by the navy for the occasion, finished fourth. After service as a navy training ship, the America fell into disrepair under private owners. Today, it exists only in fragments.

From 1870 until the late 20th century, New York Yacht Club-sponsored U.S. yachts successfully defended the America’s Cup 24 times in races generally spaced a few years apart. Since the 1920s, the America’s Cup race has been between one defending vessel and one challenging vessel, both of which are determined by separate elimination trials. In 1983, the United States lost the trophy for the first time in 132 years when Australia II defeated Liberty off Newport, Rhode Island.

Also on This Day in History August | 22

Juan Marichal hits catcher with bat, instigating epic MLB brawl

This Day in History Video: What Happened on August 22

Michael collins assassinated, zager and evans end a six‑week run at #1 with their smash‑hit “in the year 2525 (exordium & terminus)", first geneva convention establishes red cross aid for war wounded, shootings continue at ruby ridge.

Wake Up to This Day in History

Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Get all of today's events in just one email featuring a range of topics.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

Battle of Bosworth Field

Demonstrators disrupt republican national convention in miami beach, nolan ryan registers 5,000th strikeout, pulitzer prize‑winning author annie proulx is born, theft of "mona lisa" is discovered, czechs protest against soviet invasion, president lincoln replies to horace greeley, citroen helps de gaulle survive assassination attempt, redcoats land at long island.

A DAY IN HISTORY: AUGUST 22 1851 & 2024

The start of the third, and final, Preliminary Regatta of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup begins on the August 22 – an historic date for the formation of the America’s Cup - as it was on that day, back in 1851, 173 years ago, when the oldest competition in international sport truly began.

When ‘Old’ Dick Brown guided the schooner ‘America’ deftly across the finishing line at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes in dying breeze and light, against the tide, and with the cutter ‘Aurora’ closing up fast, little could he imagine what the resultant racing some 173 years later would look like.

The prize back in 1851, like today, was an elaborate Victorian silver ewer, incapable of holdings liquids that had been purchased in 1848 by the Marquess of Anglesey, on spec from the Royal warranted jewellers, R&S Garrard of Panton Street, just off Piccadilly in London.

Having been gifted by the Marquess to the Squadron, it was originally named the ‘RYS £100 Cup,’ and a trial of speed around the Isle of Wight was suggested when the ‘America,’ an east coast Pilot Boat design of George Steers, came to England to take on the best of the British fleet in a happy coincidence with Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition taking place, that year, in Hyde Park in 1851.

At the time, the Royal Yacht Squadron was keen to test its fleet against the best and had rather hoped that the aged Russian Tsar, Nicholas I, would send over representatives of the newly-formed Imperial Yacht Club of St. Petersburg to trial.

That failed to materialise as the Russians, one of the great flax exporters and manufacturers of the time, entered the Thames for the Great Exhibition and never came further south, so it was the syndicate-owned ‘America’ of the New York Yacht Club with its first Commodore, John Cox Stevens, who arrived amidst a flurry of publicity in both the mainstream and satirical news outlets of the day.

An air of invincibility was almost immediately created around the speed of the ‘America’ after an opening encounter a few miles down the coast when the newly-built cutter ‘Laverock’ courteously escorted the Americans up the Solent on their first morning in British waters from Ryde to her mooring off Cowes. A good deal of bluff was in place too, as the swashbuckling, stylish American syndicate owners were keen to wager outrageous sums of money on speed trials which were declined or simply ignored by the cautious and stilted owners of the British fleet.

Eventually on August 22, a race around the Isle of Wight was arranged and the legend of ‘America’s Cup’ began. Now, 173 years later to the day, we are at the start of the Louis Vuitton 37 th America’s Cup that still at its very core has the guiding ‘Deed of Gift’ that accompanied the original donation of the trophy to the New York Yacht Club by George L. Schuyler in 1857. Updated in parts, the Deed of Gift remains true to its central tenet of: “a friendly competition between foreign countries.”

Technology today has brought us to carbon fibre vessels capable of flying above the water on foils and hitting speeds – unimaginable back in 1851 – in excess of 50 knots. The crews today are elite, cross-discipline athletes, many with Olympic and endurance sport backgrounds whilst the helms and trimmers are Olympic medallists and World Champions. 

Back in 1851, a government shipyard in Cherbourg was used to fit-out the ‘America’ into racing trim after her voyage from across the Atlantic before she crossed the English Channel to Cowes. Today, the boats are designed on super-computers, using the latest in Artificial Intelligence and simulation technology to create the fastest vessels on the planet.

Rumour and myth, just like in 1851, swirls around the Port Vell on a daily basis. What nobody knows for certain is just how fast all the competitors really are – and we may not know the true answer to that question until the Louis Vuitton Cup starts on the August 29 when everything gets ultra serious and every point, every race, matters.

In 1851  the schooner ‘America’ seemed invincible. Today the competition is simply too close to call with every team expected to be extremely similar in performance with only small differences across a wide range of conditions.

The skill of sailing, however, remains very much the same. ‘Old’ Dick Brown and the crew of ‘America’ (including a certain 15-year-old Henry Steers) had in their employ a skilled British navigator, Robert Underwood, who guided the schooner to victory around the tricky waters of the Isle of Wight. In Barcelona in 2024, the sailor’s skills will be tested to the extreme with the venue able to throw up a huge variety of wind and sea-states on any given day. Mother Nature will, just like in 1851, have a big part to play in the outcome and destiny of the Louis Vuitton 37 th America’s Cup.

August 22 is a legendary day for America’s Cup fans and aficionados. From 1851 to 2024, a lot has changed but an awful lot stays very much the same. It is the pinnacle of international yacht racing and 2024 promises to be the truest test of speed, seamanship and skill before the winner is crowned and the America's Cup awarded.

(Magnus Wheatley - Author of 'There is no Second' - the definitive account of the first race in 1851 for what would become 'America's Cup.' Available to buy here: There is no Second )   

The J Class has its roots in the oldest international yacht race in the world, The America’s Cup. This International Event was born from a race around the Isle of Wight, hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron and called the R.Y.S. £100 Cup (a.k.a. One Hundred Sovereigns Cup).

Image Credit: 

R.Y.S. £100 Cup Race

Pre j class.

1929 - 1937

This site uses cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to browse the site, you consent to the use of cookies. View our Privacy Policy for more information.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

• National History Day
• Find a Museum
• Sea History Magazine

DISCOVER MORE

The america’s cup, the america’s cup—that go-fast modern sailing race where millions of dollars are spent on boats and gear, where the sailing crews are muscular tanned guys (and some women too), where national pride and rivalries run high, and where most of the rest of us don’t know a lot about it..

Schooner Yacht America , 1851, Currier & Ives.  Today’s America’s Cup boats are multi-million dollar enterprises and very high-tech.

The America’s Cup is the oldest trophy in sports. It was originally called the “Hundred Guineas Cup,” and it was renamed the “America’s Cup” (named for the winning boat, America, not for the country) after a famous race in 1851 when the New York Yacht Club accepted an invitation by Great Britain’s Lord Wilton, the Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, to send over a boat to race against the British yachts. Think about this—1851 was 45 years before the first modern Olympic games were held; the America’s Cup precedes soccer’s World Cup, tennis’s Davis Cup, hockey’s Stanley Cup, and golf’s Walker Cup. The actual cup, or trophy, itself was one of three solid silver ewers (a fancy, vase-shaped pitcher) made in 1848 by the Royal Jeweller in England. The Royal Yacht Squadron acquired it in 1851 and offered it as a prize for a race around the Isle of Wight.

This was no small race. The course around the Isle of Wight was approximately 53 miles; throughout the race, the lead changed hands plenty of times, but at the end, America trounced her competitors—8 cutters and 6 schooners. With her victory came the cup, which was brought home to the New York Yacht Club. Since then, the Cup has been challenged 30 times and will have its 32nd competition in June 2007.

The winning boat’s home country (actually, its yacht club) gets to take the trophy home and keeps it until another competitor challenges and wins it from them. The New York Yacht Club held onto the Cup from 1851 to 1983 when the Australians upset the American team and took the Cup home to Australia. Since that time, the Cup has been won by New Zealand two times, the US three times, and most recently by a Swiss team.

In the early races, the boats were one- or two-masted, made of wood, and sailed to the race location across the oceans. There have been several evolutions of the rules and design of the boats in the last 150 years. Today, the race itself is a “match race” between just two boats, and the boats are very high-tech both in design and materials used to construct them. About 50 years ago, rules were changed so that the new smaller-class boats, the 12-meters, were not required to sail to the race locations across the oceans.

Today, competitors’ boats are transported across the oceans in larger ships and even on airplanes. The Cup has been challenged by the US, England, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and Switzerland. In 2003, the Swiss team, sailing in Alinghi, brought the Cup back to Europe for the first time since that first race in 1851. Look for news of the 32nd America’s Cup in June 2007.

Did You Know?

Today, shipyards have a number of ways to get a ship out of water, either by hauling it out or by floating it into a basin and the water pumped out.

Historically though, sea captains would careen their vessels in shallow water by either heaving it over on its side while it was still afloat or by anchoring in shallow water at high tide and then waiting for the tide to go out. The vessel would touch bottom, and, as the tide went out, lay over on its side.

How does one go about getting a ship, especially a big ship, high and dry out of the water today?

Learn more at A Ship Out of Water