The recent induction of Lord Dunraven into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame gives us a convenient incentive to have a look at history, and to enjoy reflecting on the similarities and differences between the Cup’s golden age of 90 footers and the flying catamarans of 2013 and 2017. Captain Nat Herreshoff designed and built Defender for the 1895 defense against Dunraven’s Valkyrie III. Like the current Cup boats, Defender’s construction featured composite materials. Not carbon fiber, Kevlar and aluminium honeycomb, but steel frames, aluminium deck beams, Tobin bronze plating below the waterline and aluminium plating above. Using aluminium above the waterline saved 17 tons – weight that could be better used as ballast. Defender had a fin keel with a lead bulb – the first American yacht since America to have a keel rather than a centerboard.

Defender was also the first American AC yacht with an all American crew. Skipper Hank Haff recruited fishermen from Maine – the “Deer Isle Boys.” Four years later, with Charlie Barr as skipper, the Deer Isle Boys were on board Herreshoff’s Columbia to defend against Lipton’s first Shamrock. Scotsman Barr found his American crew not respectful enough of his authority and in 1901 he went back to Scandinavia for his crew on Columbia and again in 1903 for Reliance. It was not until the New York Yacht Club’s “Interpretive Resolution” of 1980 that crew nationality became part of the rules. For the 2017 Cup we have three largely national crews – the challengers from Britain, France and New Zealand – and three highly international teams, flying the flags of Japan, the US and Sweden. Russell Coutts, like Barr, a fierce competitor and multiple time Cup winner, has, like Barr, also won with a national crew, at Team New Zealand, and highly international teams, at Alinghi and Oracle. Alinghi and their Challenger of Record Oracle did away with the crew nationality rules for the 2007 Match.

That ninth America’s Cup Match, in 1895, is probably best known for turning decidedly unfriendly. The best technology of the day – photographs – showed that Valkyrie III fouled Defender at the start of Race 2, damaging Defender’s rigging in a collision at the start. The collision was probably in part caused when the spectator boat City of Yorktown steamed into the starting area. Defender’s syndicate head Charles Iselin offered to re-sail the race, but Dunraven refused the offer. For the third race, Valkyrie III crossed the starting line but then withdrew, unhappy with the spectator fleet, giving the win to Defender. After returning home, Dunraven published a pamphlet with charges that additional ballast had been loaded on Defender to lengthen her waterline. The New York Yacht Club conducted a hearing on Dunraven’s charges but found them without merit. Since then the America’s Cup has had periods of friendly competition – Lipton’s five challenges being perhaps the best example. But the acrimony of 1895 has been repeated, with low points surrounding Australia II’s winged keel in 1983, the Big Boat vs catamaran mismatch of 1988 and the lawsuits that ended with Deed of Gift match in giant multihulls in 2010. Even the relatively peaceful current cycle has seen two Challengers of Record drop out and a not-so-secret arbitration over the venue for the round robin phase of next year’s racing.

An important constant in the America’s Cup history is the advanced technology of the yachts. From America’s radical hull design, raked masts and tightly woven sailcloth in 1851, to Herreshoff’s innovations over six Cup cycles, to the influence of the aircraft industry on the J Class, to the foiling, wing-sailed catamarans of 2017, America’s Cup yachts have shown the creativeness of the designers and the ability of the sailors to master the technical advances. The current AC Class yachts test the designers in new ways – control systems and hydrofoil performance rather than hull shape and sail design. These yachts will test the sailors’ ability to fly these machines around a tight race course on Bermuda’s Great Sound. Let’s hope the evolution of the class continues to test the designers. Recent rumblings say that the class may become almost completely one design after 2017. That would be a very big change indeed, and “now” would no longer be like “then.”