New boys bring fresh impetus to famous Cup
Saturday June 09 2007
SAILING'S World Championship has come down to a final between the crews representing one very isolated and mountainous little country against the sailors of another very isolated and mountainous little country from the opposite side of the world.
It's not Peru versus Nepal. But, had you suggested to the folk racing around the Isle of Wight in 1851 for the rather horrible silver trophy which soon became the historic America's Cup, it would have seemed equally unlikely.
Yet, for the next week and more, 156 years down the line, Switzerland will be battling it out for that same America's Cup against New Zealand in the finals off Valencia in Spain.
Back in 1851, neither New Zealand nor Switzerland would have figured at all in a global review of international competitive sailing for sport.
Any sailing done in connection with New Zealand was an unpleasant ocean voyaging experience in search of a new life.
And the Swiss? Well, they might have been experimenting with early stop watches to be used by pioneering yacht racers in more advanced countries like England and America and France.
As for the Mediterranean's potential for yacht racing, it had been way down the popularity polls for nearly two thousand years, ever since St Paul had published very damning reports about the place's unsuitability as a sailing venue.
But history has moved on, and then some. The Americans then lost the America's Cup to the Australians in 1983 and they never really forgave Californian skipper Dennis Conner for doing that. So when he brilliantly won it back in 1987, it went to California, much to the annoyance of the New York Yacht Club, who had regarded the America's Cup as their own until 1983.
Then the New Zealanders won it, but it was the Swiss took it in the most recent contest. And now the Swiss are defending it against the New Zealanders, and the racing is taking place off Valencia. Simple, really.
Classic
But Connor is on the prowl in the Mediterranean, and it's expected he will be rustling the undergrowth in Valencia. Most recently, he was racing successfully off Antibes in his own private classic boat, the immaculate Cotton Blossom, which was superbly restored by Dublin shipwright Johnny Smullen.
Irish fans would be familiar with Connor who raced an Etchells 22 in Howth just 18 months ago. But in Howth, they are otherwise occupied this weekend, as it's the 150th anniversary of Howth Regatta, which is being celebrated with today's popular Lambay Race for all comers.
Among those present will be Captain Tom Rickard with his lovely classic Howth-based yawl Twiga. His great-grandfather Stephen Rickard, with a sailing fishing boat called Rock, raced for the ten guinea purse which the St Lawrence family of Howth (resident in Howth Castle since 1177) had been involved in putting up as one of the prizes in Howth Regatta in 1857.
It was all a sort of noblesse oblige by Stephen Richard, as the Rickards had already been living long in Howth - they were one of four families resident there when the St Lawrences arrived in 1177.
Racing today round Lambay will be the Tyrrell family of Arklow with their handsome J/109 Aquelina, which won her class in the Lambay Race a couple of years ago, and then went off to compete in the biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, as she will tomorrow in a fleet of 31 boats racing the superb 280 mile course from Dublin Bay to Kerry.
Meanwhile, did Stephen Rickard's boat Rock win the ten guineas purse 150 years ago?
And what became of the Howth Cup, value £30, and put up for competition in Howth Regatta in 1857? If it hasn't been melted down, it's nearly as old as the America's Cup.
As for the ten guineas - all contributions are still welcome.
- WM Nixon
