Lot Notes
For the third year in a row Edward
Burgess designed a defence candidate for the Boston syndicate headed by General
Charles Paine. Named Volunteer in honor of Paine's Civil War service, the
defender met the challenger from the Royal Clyde Yacht Club, Thistle, in
September of 1887. Thistle, designed by the brilliant and imaginative George
Watson, was conceived with an eye towards specific New York sailing conditions.
Watson anticipated light winds and therefore piled on the canvas, and cut away
the lateral profile of Thistle's keel in order to reduce resistance. When the
two boats finally came together in the same water, observers were astonished
that they were so similiar.
1887 was an America's Cup landmark
as it was the last time that a race for the America's Cup was sailed over the
old Club course. The first race, won by Volunteer by 19 minutes and 23¾ seconds,
was sailed on September 27th in a light southerly wind which took the yachts
down the harbour on a winding inshore track around Southeast Spit buoy, out to
Sandy Hook lightship, and back again to the finish at buoy 15 off Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn. The second race off Sandy Hook was a much more fiercely fought
contest. Run over a course of 40 miles, in breezy conditions, it included a long
beat to windward at the start and a downwind leg to the finish - Volunteer
winning by 11 minutes and 48¾ seconds.
Soon after her triumph
Volunteer was purchased by John Malcolm Forbes, the owner of Puritan, who re-
rigged her as a schooner in 1891. Thistle was ultimately sold to Kaiser Wilhelm
II. Re-rigged and renamed Meteor, she was the first of five magnificent racing
yachts, each called Meteor, which he was to own over the next 25 years.
This magisterial and spirited work shows the second race with
Volunteer (leading, seen on the left) and Thistle gybing downwind. The New York
Yacht Club committee boat is in front of them and numerous spectator craft are
astern, witnessing one of yachting's grandest events during the so-called
'Golden Age of Yachting'.
signed and dated 'JAMES G.
TYLER/1892' (lower right)
oil on canvas
36 x 54 in. (91.4 x 137.2
cm.)
NOTES AMERICA-SCOOP :