Endeavour (yacht)
Endeavour in 2004
|
|
| Yacht club |
 Royal Yacht Squadron
|
|---|---|
| Nation |
 United Kingdom
|
| Class | J-class |
| Designer(s) | Charles Ernest Nicholson |
| Builder |
Camper and Nicholsons Gosport, United Kingdom |
| Launched | 1934 |
| Owner(s) |
Sir Thomas Sopwith 1934 Elizabeth Meyer 1984 L. Dennis Kozlowski 2000 A Hawaii resident 2006 |
| Racing career | |
| America's Cup | 1934 |
| Specifications | |
| Displacement | 143 tons |
| Length | 129 ft 6 in (39.47 m) (LOA) 88 ft 2 in (26.87 m) (LWL) |
| Beam | 22 ft (6.71 m) |
| Draft | 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m) |
| Sail area | 7,651 sq ft (710.8 m2) |
Endeavour is a 130-foot (40 m) J-class yacht built for the 1934 America's Cup by Camper and Nicholson in Gosport, England. She was built for Thomas Sopwith who used his aviation design expertise to ensure the yacht was the most advanced of its day with a steel hull and mast. She was launched in 1934 and won many races in her first season including against the J's Velsheda and Shamrock V. She failed in her America's Cup challenge against the American defender Rainbow but came closer to lifting the cup than any other until Australia II succeeded in 1983.
Endeavour was designed by Charles Ernest Nicholson.Endeavour pioneered the Quadrilateral genoa, a twin clewed headsail offering great sail area and consequent power. This design is still in use in the J's today. The boat also featured a larger and improved spinnaker.
Endeavour challenged for the 1934 America's Cup and raced New York Yacht Club defender Rainbow. However, the campaign was blighted by a strike of Sopwith's professional crew prior to departing for America. Forced to rely mainly on keen amateurs, who lacked the necessary experience, the campaign failed. Rainbow won with 4–2. This was one of the most contentious of the America's Cup battles and prompted the headline "Britannia rules the waves and America waives the rules."
Following the America's Cup, she dominated the British sailing scene until, whilst being towed across the Atlantic to Britain in September 1937, she broke loose from her tow and was feared lost. She was eventually found and returned to England where she was laid up. For 46 years Endeavour languished through a variety of owners. In 1947, she was sold for scrap, saved only a few hours before her demolition was due. In the 1970s she sank in the River Medina, Isle of Wight. She was purchased for ten pounds and patched up enough to refloat. Until the mid-1980s she was on shore at Calshot Spit, an ex-seaplane base on the edge of the New Forest, Southern England. By this time she was in a desperate state, with only the hull remaining, lacking rudder, mast and keel.
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