JOHN MECRAY, MARINE ARTIST
This painling shows Defender jus/ coming up lo speed on !he wind, as her pi:edecessor, Vi gilant , rounds a mark as1ern . Th ese !rials f or !he ninlh def ense of !he America's Cup in 1895 were holly con/es!ed races wilhfouls and charges marring !he even! hef ore !he challenger, Valkyrie 11 , arrived from England. Defender was designed and huill hy Na!hanael Herreshoff and was 124 f eel overall with an 88 fo ol waterline and 23 f ool beam . She drew over 19 f eel and displaced over I 00 Ions. Her use ofmanganese bronze hollom plaling and aluminum lopsides demonslra!ed !he kind of engineering 1ha1 kepi Herreshoff al lheforeji¡onl of yachl design. " Vigilant and Defender," 16" x 45"
• The fif!h challenge for !he America's Cup produced two of !he mos! widely disparale designs in America' s Cup history. In 1885, !he New York Ya ch! Club se/ec/ed Puritan lo def end !he Cup . Designed hy Edward Burgess/or the Eas/ern Yach! Club , Puritan was heamy with a shallow draji . By con1ras1 , !he English challenger Genesta, designed hy J. Beavor-Wehh , was very narrow with a deep drafl . Bolh yachls were a hour 95 f eel long, bu! Puritan displaced 105 tons and raised nearly 8,000 square f eel of sail, while Genesta displaced 141 tons with a sail area of just over 7,000 square f eel. The first race was postponed because off og. The next day Puritan was disqualified aflerfailing 10 respond 10 a luff hy Genesta al !he slarr. Sir Richard Sul/on was offered a win if he sailed over !he course, hut in a show of /ru e sportsmanship he declined the win
saying Iha! he had come over f or a race, nor a walko ver. Th e nexl al/empt was postponed f or lack of wind. On Sep/ember 11th !he firs/ race go! underway . Puritan look !he slart and in a lack/us/er race in a dying breeze won hy nearly seven1een minutes. The second race, sailedfi ve days /a/er, was hy all accounls one of the fin est of all America' s Cup races. Genes ta go! !he bes/ of the s1ar1 and was well on her way lo victory in a good breeze. Ar the last mark the wind freshened for the beat to the finish , and Genestasel her gaff topsail. Puritan ' safterguardjudged!he wind loo s/rong for a topsail and housed her topmast. The def ender s/eadily gained and, as captured in !his painting, pulled ahead of !he overcanvassed Genesta to finish two minutes ahead of !he challenger. " Puritan andGenesta," 18" x 46"
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96