As we wait for the new class rule for the America’s Cup, spirited debates rage over whether Luna Rossa is making the Cup more “traditional” by imposing monohulls on Team New Zealand for the next match. Many people, perhaps most, applaud. They envision a return their notion of a “Golden Age” of the America’s Cup. Many people want sailors in polo shirts and deck shoes rather than body armor and helmets. They want boats with control lines and spinnakers. And, don’t even start to talk about the cyclors!

Surely it is more traditional to race for the America’s Cup in monohulls - big boats, with lots of different tasks for the crew. In interviews, neither Patrizio Bertelli nor Grant Dalton would say whether the new yachts will have foils or canting keels, only that they will be technologically advanced, large and powerful. The fast, foiling multihulls we saw in Bermuda gave us apparent wind sailing with no downwind sails, no sail handling and gybes that are indistinguishable from tacks. Five of the AC Class cats had only one line, to trim the wing, and the sixth yacht, the winning Kiwi design, even dispensed with that function, turning it over to Glenn Ashby’s video game controller. When considering tradition in the America’s Cup, we need to pay special attention to speed. Going back to monohulls will mean slower boats. How does that square with the traditions of the America’s Cup?

In 1907, after the expense of three challenges in 90 footers, Lipton sent a challenge suggesting 68 foot waterline yachts. In discussing how to reply, Commodore Ledyard of the New York Yacht Club addressed his members about the objectives of the America’s Cup: “We may have different views of what a trophy may stand for. … we might devise terms and conditions… upon which is should be competed for and to define the objects, which it was to promote, for his own satisfaction. We are not in that position. We are the true test of a trust… the Club should take a position, not merely with reference to this particular challenge, but with reference to the whole subject of what this America’s Cup stands for.” The club approved a proposal  that the cup should be raced for by yachts “that can be produced with all the money, labor and ingenuity that can be expended.” Commodore J.P. Morgan seconded Commodore Ledyard’s proposal, which stated that the America’s Cup, “… is a trophy which stands pre-eminently for speed… and should be served for by the fastest and most powerful vessels that can be produced.”

When the NYYC confirmed these principles, the previous four matches had been sailed in the 90 footers of Dunraven and Lipton against defenders designed and built by Captain Nat Herreshoff. What would Captain Nat make of the current decision to return to monohulls? He designed, built and, with Vigilant in 1893, helmed the huge monohulls that defended in six matches. He experimented with the most advanced composite materials of his day. He made technical advance including winches, tracks on the mast rather than hoops for the mainsail and even Reliance’s rudder with a pneumatic pump and variable water ballast. But Herreshoff had also designed, built and raced a catamaran, Amaryllis, finishing first in the US Centennial Regatta, when he was 28 years old. About catamarans, he had this to say, “As I look back to the past, I enjoyed sailing my catamarans more than any type I ever had. I am sure that a half day’s sail in the Amaryllis would spoil anyone for the old-fashioned sailing.”

In 1876, the New York World reported on the Centennial Regatta, saying of Amaryllis,

“The defeated yachtsmen in yesterday's race are entitled to sincere commiseration. Yesterday all the yachts of the approved model were beaten ridiculously by a vessel of outlandish model and rig. …none of the boats engaged in the race with her are supposed to be good for much except to engage in such races. The tendency of yacht-racing is everywhere to-produce 'racing machines;' in England by narrowing, deepening and ballasting yachts out of all reason, and here by making broad and shallow 'skimming-dishes.' In either case the result is not a good type of sea-going vessel. So the owners of racing-machines have really no reason to complain that somebody should invent a racing-machine to beat them. This the inventor of the Amaryllis has done. It behooves the owners of the large schooners, however, to take counsel together lest somebody should build an Amaryllis a hundred feet long and convert their crafts into useless lumber.”

Of course two somebodies each did “build an Amaryllis a hundred feet long” and raced them for the America’s Cup in 2010. That led to the AC72’s of 2013 and the further refinements in the AC Class of 2017. To the surprise of many, the foiling AC Class cats engaged in match racing, with covering tacks, dial-downs and high speed tactical decisions about which gate mark to round. The AC Class yachts certainly met the NYYC’s 1907 principles about speed, but they were not grand enough for the America’s Cup. The AC62 would have been about right.  I have to think that Captain Nat would approve. Perhaps his cat’s name was inspired by Thomas Campion’s 1601 poem “I Care Not for These Ladies.” Are “these ladies” monohulls?

 I care not for these ladies,
That must be wooed and prayed:
Give me kind Amaryllis,
The wanton country maid.