Cup History: Northern efforts laughed off water

"Her hull was as rough as a nutmeg grater with sails like a purser's shirt on a handspike." - description of the first Canadian challenger Countess of Dufferin.

By the mid-1870s, the British, unimpressed with the antics of the New York Yacht Club, had had enough of the America's Cup for a while. So it was Canada's turn to try to wrest the Auld Mug off the Americans.

But both attempts, in 1876 and 1881, were disastrous.

Captain Alexander Cuthbert, a boat designer and builder, wanted to promote his business across the border. But he invested little time and even less money in both his campaigns.

His first boat, the schooner Countess of Dufferin, was doomed from the start. She was hastily built and poorly rigged and laughed at by the old salts at the New York Yacht Club.

One thing the Canadians did achieve was to make sure the defenders could sail only one boat in the match. In a two-boat defender trial, the Madeleine was chosen to sail. Her copper bottom was burnished with sperm oil until she shone like gold.

She won both races easily, even after the Canadians took an American skipper and crew into the second race. Even America, the original cup winner who was allowed to follow the race, beat the Countess across the line by 20 minutes.

Cuthbert returned to New York five years later with his new boat Atalanta, but the syndicate had even less money. Atalanta was towed through the Great Lakes - often by mules - to get to the start line.

New York had a boat specially built for the first time, but Pocohontas was a dud. On the morning of the first race, the club created a stir by choosing an English-owned iron boat, Mischief. Nicknamed the Iron Pot, she crushed Atalanta by huge margins - 28m and 38m. But both boats were beaten by the yacht many argued should have been the defender, Gracie.