Boat Models, America's Cup Columbia, 1901, Large 68"

A Little America's Cup Information

The America's Cup is the most famous trophy in the sport of yachting, and the oldest active trophy in sports.

The cup, a silver ewer, which the Columbia won 4 times, is awarded to the winner of a match of up to nine races between two yachts from different countries, one representing the yacht club which holds the Cup and the other boat fielded by a club challenging for the trophy.

The race originated on August 22, 1851 when the 30.86m schooner-yacht America owned by a syndicate representing the New York Yacht Club raced 15 yachts representing the Royal Yacht Squadron around the Isle of Wight. America won by 20 minutes.

The British were none to happy to lose what was considered to be British domination of the seas and made many repeated attempts to win back the cup. However, the New York Yacht Club remained unbeaten for 25 challenges over 132 years. This was the longest winning streak in sports history.

After the Second World War, the 12-meter class of yachts were introduced. That's just under 40 feet. To give you some comparison, the yacht America was over 30-meters! That's over one hundred feet of boat!

In 1983 there were six foreign challenging syndicates for the cup. In order to establish who would be the actual "challenger", a series of elimination races were held, the prize for which was the Louis Vuitton Cup. In the challenger series, the Bond syndicate won easily. Then with the yacht Australia II representing the Perth Yacht Club, designed by Ben Lexcen and skippered by John Bertrand, the Australian syndicate won the America's Cup in a seven-race match 4-3 to break the 132-year winning streak.

In March 1997, while the cup was in the hands of then winning New Zealand team, a person entered the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's clubrooms and damaged the America's Cup with a sledge-hammer. The attacker, a petty criminal, claimed the attack was politically motivated, and was sent directly to jail. The damage caused was so severe that it was feared that the cup was irreparable. London's Garrards silversmiths, who had originally manufactured the cup in 1848, repaired the trophy to its original condition, although it took over three months. They did the repairs free of charge, simply because it was the America's Cup.

The Columbia (in different versions), won the cup in 1871, 1899, 1901,(the version shown here) and again in 1958.

If you would like to see the medium version of the America's Cup Columbia 1901, click here!

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