Monday, July 27, 2009

[#silly week kicks off] 1934 america's cup


IT'S #SILLY WEEK!!!

Brought to you by Man in a Shed [L'Homme dans un Hangar]


This week, different bloggers around the sphere will post on silly, weird or bizarre things, as some sort of relief from the dire news.

I haven't made a good start this morning, finalizing how to neutralize the Central Bankers so my Cunning Plan is as follows:

To post one sensible post each early morning and follow it up during the day with silly and unusual posts. To start with:


1934 Rainbow defeats Endeavour after rule change


The American defender, Harold Vanderbilt's Rainbow, has defeated Tommy Sopwith's Endeavour, 4 races to 2, the closest margin in a long while. The English have refused to race since 1895, when the Americans changed the rules to reverse a victory by the Earl of Dunraven's challenger and in 1934, it's now happened again, prompting an English wit to exclaim:

Britannia rules the waves but America waives the rules.

The Americans, on the other hand, hotly dispute that there has been sharp practice, maintaining that everything is above board and that the English simply failed to read the slight rule adjustments before the race. Silly oversight by Tommy Sopwith.

Either way, America remains undefeated on the ocean waves. The picture below is of Rainbow and Endeavour, the beautiful new J Boats which now race for the coveted trophy.


8 comments:

  1. Very good!

    Loved the line Brittania rules the waves but America waives the rules.


    Very clever.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My favourite J-boat story:

    The Kaiser comes to visit his cousin (Edward VII), only to be told that The King cannot receive him because "he is out sailing with his grocer" - that being Sir Thomas Lipton, of course.

    Apparently The Kaiser was not amused.

    (Or would not have been, if it really ever happened. Nice thought, though, eh).

    I think I read somewhere that the new J still can't catch Endeavour. But perhaps that was before they got it sorted out. What's the latest?

    Isn't it great the in this parsimonious and shabby world, there are still people rich enough and daft enough to build and sail boats like these? Three cheers for Elizabeth Meyer!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's old too, Uber - 75 years old.

    Anon - I'd love to see Reliance come back too with that amazing sail area.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So 1895 was just a practice lap for 1913.
    Garet Garret wrote that without the Federal Reserve Act, the First World War would have run out of gas in six months.
    But look at the positive side. History would be robbed of the Second World War.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 'Either way, America remains undefeated on the ocean waves.'

    Not so, Higham. I can't remember when, and can't be arsed to look it up, but The Australians took the cup sometime in the late 80s or early 90s, and with considerable dash as I recall. The Yanks had to unbolt the cup from the table to which it had been smugly attached for some time. They weren't too pleased.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1983, with Australia 2 and its winged keel. 26 seconds in the last race.

    I meant at that time, in that particular competition.

    ReplyDelete

Comments need a moniker of your choosing before or after ... no moniker, not posted, sorry.