signed 'JE Buttersworth' (lower right)
oil on canvas
12 x 20 in. (30.5 x 50.8 cm.)
Painted circa 1875.

In this painting, the 105 foot centerboard schooner yacht Vesta leads the 84 foot centerboard schooner yacht Magic and another schooner yacht around a mark of the course. The season of 1871 was an active summer for the schooners with competitions extending from Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead to Swampscott down to Massachusetts Bay, and along the East Coast to Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia and Cape May. This competitive fleet included over twenty schooner yachts, both keel and centerboarders racing together to make up a large and dramatic fleet.