Back in 1851: America starts it all

Queen Victoria to her signalmaster: "Which is first?"

"The America."

"Which is second?"

"Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second."

America stunned them all. She was the boat no one in England wanted to race against. She was the yacht who unwittingly began the contest for one of the world's great sporting prizes.

When the America - a 101ft, 146-tonne schooner - won the Hundred Guinea Cup in a race around the Isle of Wight, no one foresaw what melodramas the next 149 years would hold.

The boat was built by the first commodore of the New York Yacht Club, John Cox Stevens, and a syndicate of businessmen who wanted the fastest yacht in America. Shipbuilder William H. Brown promised that if it did not beat every boat in the United States - and England - he would build it for free.

An invitation was circulating in New York for a yacht to show off America's ship design skills at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. Stevens took up the invitation and with Captain Dick Brown at the helm, America became the first yacht to sail across the Atlantic.

Sailing up the harbour to Cowes the boat was met by British cutter Laverock. America eased past her with such grace that no one would take up Stevens' challenge for a race. He then offered prizemoney - still no takers.

The Times of London scolded the British sailing fraternity, so the Royal Yacht Squadron let America sail in one of its races, for the Hundred Guinea Cup.

America was the last boat to start in a fleet of 15 of the finest British craft - she could not raise her sails until she had lifted her anchor. Nevertheless, she made her way through the pack, and won the race by eight minutes from her nearest rival, the 47-ton cutter Aurora.

As was to become tradition, there was a protest before America was handed her cup. She had sailed inside the Nab lighthouse instead of outside, but Stevens successfully argued his crew had been given the wrong racing instructions.