Footnotes

In this typically spectacular work, Steven Dews has chosen to portray three of the greatest racing yachts ever conceived, one of which, ‘Britannia’, was the King’s boat and widely considered the most successful cutter ever built, whilst the other two are almost the only survivors of the legendary J-Class craft which dominated the sport during the 1930s. Ian Dear, the yachting historian, encapsulated the sheer glamour of the J-Class yachts perhaps better than any other contemporary author when he wrote the following in 1977:-

“Only ten J-Class yachts were ever built and they raced for the America’s Cup and other trophies in British and American waters for a mere eight seasons between 1930 and 1937. There have been many yachts that have been larger and still others that have been faster but no one sailing class has ever gripped the imagination of the public at large as much as the ‘Js’ did…… In fact the ‘Js’ were unique for their combination of size and speed, and for their owners and the social ambience in which they flowered and died so quickly. They dominated the yachting scene on both sides of the Atlantic for less than a decade before their fantastic cost, the death of England’s ‘Sailor King’ and the approach of World War II banished them for ever.”

Of the ten original yachts, three – miraculously – have somehow survived until today and two of them are shown here as they jockey for position during a trophy race in the Thames estuary, off the Mouse lightship, sometime in the mid-1930s.

‘Britannia’, arguably the most celebrated racing cutter of them all, was extremely successful throughout her long life and even though she was re-rigged seven times in all, her hull shape was so efficient that she remained competitive almost to the end. Starting with 33 wins in 39 races during her maiden season, she enjoyed two brilliant but quite separate careers under first, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII (1893-97), and then his son, George V, after 1921. The latter grew so attached to her that, under the terms of his will, she was scuttled after his death in 1936 following the removal of all her salvageable gear.

‘Shamrock V’ was the last in a series of notable racing yachts, each an improvement upon her predecessor, built for the immensely wealthy tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton. Between 1899 and 1930, Lipton mounted no less than five challenges for the elusive America’s Cup – or the “Auld Mug” as he preferred to call it – and, even though all were unsuccessful, his efforts and tenacity rewarded him with an almost heroic status among the British public. The last of the celebrated ‘Shamrocks’ was designed by Charles Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholson in their yards at Gosport in 1930. A centreboarded Bermudian-rigged cutter, she was registered at 104 tons gross (94 net & 163 Thames) and measured 120 feet in length with a 20 foot beam. Despite her failure to capture the America’s Cup in 1930, she was still a magnificent boat and, when Lipton died late in 1931, she was bought by Mr. T.O.M. (later Sir “Tommy”) Sopwith, another of yachting’s most colourful characters. When he tired of her, she was sold again and renamed ‘Sea Song’ but is now racing again under her original name.

‘Velsheda’, another of the legendary J-boats designed by Charles Nicholson and dubbed “the steel-breasted beauty” due to her distinctive metal hull, was built in 1933 for Mr. W.L. Stephenson, the Chairman of Woolworth’s (U.K.). An exceptionally handsome centre-board Bermudian cutter registered at 123½ tons gross (113 net and 205 Thames), ‘Velsheda’ measured 127½ feet in length with a 21½ foot beam and seemed assured of success upon completion in the early summer of 1933. Her first outing was at the Harwich Regatta where, disappointingly, she not only failed to make an impression but also broke her boom. Benefiting from a new boom and some radical alterations to her trim however, she was much improved and at the Clyde Regatta the same autumn she scored five ‘firsts’ to ‘Britannia’s’ and ‘Shamrock’s’ two each. Going on to Belfast Lough, where she broke her boom a second time, she achieved more success and ended her maiden season with a total of twenty 1st prize flags compared to her nearest rival “Britannia” which could only manage twelve. The next season, King George V’s last, brought ‘Velsheda’ further success and she enjoyed an exceptional career until 1939 when she was laid up at the outbreak of the Second World War. Surviving the War, unlike many of her great contemporaries which were destroyed when Camper & Nicholson’s Gosport yard was bombed, she was not refitted for racing and, sadly, was eventually consigned to a mudbank on the Hamble River where she languished for a number of years until rescued for restoration in 1983. Clearly a favourite with Dews, he has painted ‘Velsheda’ on several occasions depicting different events in her long life.