THE RESOLUTE'S STORY

Category: RESOLUTE

1920 America's Cup defender

Resolute was designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff and built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in 1914 for defend the Cup in 1914. She was christened by Grace Vanderbilt and launched on April 25, 1914. In the 1914 America's Cup defender selection trials, skippered by Charles Francis Adams III, she beat Vanitie and Defiance.

In so doing, she beat the America's Cup course record off Sandy Hook by sailing 30 miles in 3:16:41. Cup defender Vanitie and ResoluteHowever, the outbreak of World War I caused the America's Cup races for 1914 to be postponed. The race was finally held during the 1920 America's Cup.

July 10, 1915 - RESOLUTE'S SKIPPER HAS WINNING DAY; Overcomes Vanitie's Lead in N.Y.Y.C. Race and Wins by Good Margin.
Charles Francis Adams, 2d, skipper of the cup candidate Resolute, demonstrated yesterday that there is more than one way to win a yacht race. He sailed the sloop to a decisive victory over Vanitie in the New York Yacht Club's annual regatta for the Glen Cove cups, notwithstanding that Vanitie had established an early lead so great that it seemed hopeless to catch her.

In 1920 the America's Cup was reconvened and Resolute again prevailed in selection races against Vanitie. before successfully defending the Cup in July, once more with Adams at the helm and Robert Wales Emmons, Jr. as manager.

The races for America's Cup 1920

America's Cup: Resolute vs Shamrock IV, July 1920- from 15 to 27 July 1920, at New York.
- the first yacht to capture three races will be the winner.
- starting signals to be given at 11 o'clock, and delayed only in event of changing the starting-point, fog, or agreed postponement; preparatory gun to be fired fiften minutes before starting signal, and handicap gun two minutes after.
- time limit for races 6 hours.
- the first, third and fifth races to be to windward and leeward, the second and fourth over a triangle, all courses to be thirty miles, and laid to windward when possible.

Resolute is confronted to Shamrock IV, the challenger of Royal Ulster Yacht Club.
Height races disputed.
Three races canceled : time limit.
Resolute beat Shamrock IV three wins to two.

- July 15, 1st race, 30 miles, windward-leeward : Resolute abandoned on accident. Shamrock IV ends in 4h 24 mn 48s.
- July 20, 2nd race, 30 miles, triangle : Shamrock IV beat Resolute by 9 mn 27 s elapsed time and 2 mn 26 s corrected time.
- July 21, 3rd race, 30 miles, windward-leeward : Resolute beat Shamrock IV by 7 mn 1 s corrected time.
- July 23, 4th race, 30 miles, triangle : Resolute beat Shamrock IV de 9 mn 58 s corrected time.
- July 27, 5th race, 30 miles, windward-leeward : Resolute beat Shamrock IV de 19 mn 45 s corrected time.

Resolute lost the first two matches before recovering to defend the Cup 3-2 against Shamrock IV.

After this races, Resolute was hauled out at Bristol where she stay until 1925. In July 1925, The Resolute has been bought by E. Walter Clark, a Philadelphia banker and director of a railroad company and NYYC member.

Resolute and Vanitie as schooners (1926-1928)

On May 18, 1926, Resolute was launched as a schooner at the yards of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. The races against her old rival Vanitie, also converted to schooner rig, can resumed.

On June 28, Harry Payne Whitney's Vanitie won the race for schooners on the ocean course off Brenton's Reef today, defeating Resolute and other crack two-masters with ridiculous ease.

On July 2, in a 148-mile race round Cape Cod from Newport, which, because of unusually light airs, was anybody's up to within a few miles of the finish, the schooner Resolute scored her first victory under her new rig by capturing the Vanderbilt Gold Cup.

Year Date Race Winner Gap
1926 June 28 New York Yacht Club regatta Vanitie 15'
June 29 New York Yacht Club regatta Vanitie  
2 juillet Vanderbilt Gold Cup Resolute  
July 3   Vanitie 0' 46"
August 19 Astor Cup Vanitie  
August 20 King's Cup Vanitie  
August 21 U.S.Navy Cup Vanitie  
August 24 Commodore's Cup Resolute  

 

Year Date Race Winner Gap
1928 June 27 New York Yacht Club regatta Vanitie 7' 34"
July 12 Eastern Y.C.'s run Resolute  
July 13 Eastern Y.C.'s run Vanitie  
July 26 Larchmont race Resolute  
July 27 Larchmont race Vanitie 0' 13"
August 11 Astor Cup Vanitie 34' 33'
August 18 U.S.Navy Cup Vanitie 10'


Vanitie (C3 in foreground) and Resolute

Year Date Race Winner Gap
1927 June 16 New York Yacht Club regatta Vanitie  
June 28 New York Yacht Club regatta Vanitie 0' 4"
July 4 Puritan Cup Resolute  
July 7 Eastern Y.C.'s run Vanitie  
July 8 Eastern Y.C.'s run Vanitie  
July 9 Eastern Y.C.'s cruise Vanitie  
July 21 Larchmont race Vanitie

5'

July 23 Larchmont race Vanitie 14'
August 15 New York Yacht Club Cruise Resolute  
August 16 Commodore's Cup Resolute  
August 17 New York Yacht Club Cruise Vanitie  
August 18 Astor Cup Vanitie 13' 29"
August 19 U.S.Navy Cup Vanitie 1' 34"
August 20 New York Yacht Club run Resolute  


Another Cup Defender, "Resolute", re-rigged from gaff sloop to staysail schooner with quite an array of sails set and charging along. Such power!!

The reappearance of the two America’s cup candidates, Herreshoff’s successful Resolute and Gardner’s handsome sloop Vanitie excited popular interest in the 1926 racing. These 75-foot waterline sloops built in 1914, were bought by E. Walter Clark, owner of Irolita, and Robert E. Tod, owner of the Katouras and completely refitted for cruising. Mr Tod sold his yacht to Mr Harry Payne Whitney before he left City Island. Their new schooner rigs were radically different, because the Bristol designer developed a clever but complicated spritsail arrangement, while Gardner reduced the number of sails to a minimum.
The tables above show a clear dominance of the Vanitie.

Resolute and Vanitie, under their new rigs as sloops, resume their duel

Year Date Race Winner Gap
1929 June 13 New York Yacht Club regatta Vanitie 3' 08"
June 14 New York Yacht Club regatta Vanitie  
July 1st Beverly Y. C. regatta Vanitie 2' 36"
July 2nd Beverly Y. C. regatta Vanitie 2' 31"
July 4 Eastern Y. C. regatta Vanitie  
July 7 Eastern Y. C. regatta Vanitie 7' 05"
July 8 Eastern Y. C. regatta Vanitie 1' 41"
July 9 Eastern Y. C. regatta Resolute  
July 10 Run to Portland Vanitie  
July 11 Eastern Y. C. regatta Vanitie 26' 08"
July 12 Marblehead Vanitie 5' 20"
August 9 U.S.Navy Cup Vanitie  
August 12 Vanderbilt Cup Resolute  
August 15 Vice Commodore's Cup Vanitie  
August 17 King's Cup Vanitie  

Nov, 1928.- Vanitie is sold by H.P. Whitney; purchased by Lambert, owner of the Atlantic.
May 1929.- Vanitie and Resolute are back to their original rigs as sloops; the same rig under which Resolute beat Vanitie for the honor of defending the America's Cup in 1920.
April 1930.- Resolute, the last defender, and Vanitie, her rival, are to be made ready for race against new America's Cup defense boats.

Old Rivals - Vanitie & Resolute - America's Cup - by  Burnell Poole
Old Rivals as sloops Marconi
by Burnell Poole

 

Resolute as sloop Marconi

Vanitie as sloop Marconi

In 1930 Resolute again participated in the America's cup selection races, albeit as a "trial horse" against which the potential defenders could be judged. She was altered to rate as a J but not acceptable for AC as a J-Class yacht because light weight.

Nov. 1930.- Resolute have an entire new rig with lighter spars and stays.
June 07, 1931.- Resolute, now owned by E. Walter Clark of Philadelphia, and Vanitie, owned by Gerard B. Lambert, are at City Island ready for their first race for Glen Cove Cups. Vanitie has dominated Resolute throughout the season 1931.
MARBLEHEAD, Mass., Aug. 18, 1931.- Old Resolute, with her seventeen years on her shoulders, came to life today in the annual regatta of the Eastern Yacht Club. Outsails Vanitie and Weetamoe.
GLEN COVE, L.I., June 16,1932. -- Eighteen-year-old Vanitie, America's cup yacht of 1914 vintage, came forth today in her new sail dress at the New York Yacht Club's special Glen Cove races and showed the way to modern Weetamoe over 25.7 miles by 7 minutes and 45 seconds.
Laid-up at Herreshoff Mfg. and scrapped there in 1939.
January 28, 1939
- "CUP DEFENDER SCRAPPED; Shipbreakers Begin Demolition of Resolute at Bristol".