...the more they stay the same?

An interesting and insightful (if not inciteful) letter in today's Scuttlebutt (North America):

* From Rick Best (edited to our 250-word limit): Santa brought me a copy of
Temple to the Wind, by Christopher Pastore, a wonderful book about
Herreshoff and Reliance. I sat down by the fire looking forward to a trip
to the golden age of racing and the America's Cup, when "boats were
stronger then the men that sailed them," and the American's Cup "was a
contest between nations not hired guns." Imagine my surprise when I read
that the masts of both Constitution and Shamrock II fell down in trials in
1901. The London Daily Graphic called the boats "dangerous monstrosities,"
the New York Times said they were "enormities unfit for ocean."

According to the book the challenger Lipton was not a sailor, but using the
race for advertising for his grocery store chain. Despite being nominated
by the Prince of Wales, the Royal Yacht Squadron of England refused him
admission on two occasions. He challenged for the Cup under the sponsorship
of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. The American effort was bankrolled by
railroad, banking and oil barons who were indulging in their "predatory
habit of life."

But the worst was that the great American sailing legend Charlie Barr was
Scottish! Crews threatened to quit rather then work for the "foreigner."
Editorials were written that the American effort should be lead by "native
born Americans." But the money men, and Nat Herreshoff, wanted to win and
Charlie Barr was man to do it. I haven't even got to the Reliance-Shamrock
III race yet.



Back to the Future.