Cup History: Big money and a big boat

Back in 1903

"It's the greatest disappointment of my life. What can I do?" - Sir Thomas Lipton after losing his third America's Cup campaign.

Names like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt began appearing in the programmes for America's Cup racing in the early 1900s, turning the cup into a showcase for America's mega-rich.

They wanted the biggest and the best, and in 1903 the moneymen ordered Reliance, the largest single-masted racing boat then built.

At 144ft (47.2m), she was the biggest cup yacht ever (New Zealand's big boat in 1988 was 39.3m). Reliance carried over 16,000 sq ft (1740 sq m) of sail with a 175ft (57.4m) mast.

She had two steering wheels and needed more than 60 crew to sail her.

Oil magnate William Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt, of the railroad family, were among seven millionaires who ran the Reliance syndicate.

They commissioned Nathanael Herreshoff to build his fifth cup defender, but even Herreshoff was worried that he had pushed the envelope too far.

Reliance survived the series, but she was good for nothing but America's Cup racing. Like a rich kid's toy, she was discarded and broken up for scrap three months later.

Across the Atlantic, Shamrock III was described as the "most beautiful yacht that had ever raced for the cup." But Lipton was not impressed - he did not want a pretty boat, he wanted the fastest.

Shamrock was a fated yacht from the start. During trials, she lost a mast, and a man overboard.

Then Lipton made a huge mistake: he towed Shamrock I to New York as a trial boat, overlooking the faster Shamrock II.

Reliance won all three races convincingly. The challengers never finished the final race, lost in thick fog.

There were more firsts for the defenders: Mrs Oliver Iselin, on Reliance, was the first woman to sail on an American yacht in international competition; Reliance helmsman Charlie Barr became the first skipper to defend the cup in three successive series.