L'HISTOIRE DE DEFENDER

Catégorie : DEFENDER

The Lawson History of the America's Cup - Winfield M. Thompson, Thomas W. Lawson - Google LivresDefender de la Coupe de l'America en 1895

Defender a été dessiné par Nathanael Greene Herreshoff et construit par la Herreshoff Manufacturing Company en 1895. Ce sera le deuxième dessin de Herreshoff victorieux de l'America's Cup.
Il a été construit entièrement en métal : acier, aluminium et bronze et manganese.

Defender appartenait à un syndicat composé de William Kissam Vanderbilt, Edwin Dennison Morgan et Charles Oliver Iselin,et il était skippé par Henry C. Haff.

Entre le 20 juillet et le 8 août, Defender participe à une série de régates de préparation, en particulier contre Vigilant qui a été préparé spécialement pour l'occasion.

Du 20 au 30 août, Defender bat le bateau du New York Yacht Club, Vigilant, dans les régates de sélection du defender pour affronter le cotre à quille britannique Valkyrie III.

Les courses de l'America's Cup

Defender Prints by Henry B. Snell at AllPosters.com- du 7 au 12 septembre 1895, à New York.
- Au meilleur de trois courses sur cinq.
- Tous les parcours font 30 miles nautiques.
- départ à partir du bateau-phare de Sandy Hook.
- Le signal du départ doit être donné à 11 heures, et retardé qu'en cas de changement de point de départ, de brouillard ou de renvoi accepté; le signal préparatoire sera tiré dix minutes avant le signal de départ, et le signal de handicap deux minutes après.
- Parcours aller-retour au vent de quinze miles pour première, troisième et cinquième courses.
- Parcours triangulaire pour les deuxième et quatrième.
- Premier bord au vent si possible.
- Un jour de repos entre les courses.

Defender se voit opposer Valkyrie III, le challenger du Royal Yacht Squadron.
Trois manches sont "courues". Defender bat Valkyrie III, trois victoires à rien.

- 7 septembre, 1e manche, 30 miles, aller-retour : Defender bat Valkyrie III de 8 mn 49 s en temps compensé. Réclamation de Lord Dunraven pour modification de la longueur de flottaison de Defender. Réclamation rejetée : Defender 1 - Valkyrie 0.
- 10 septembre, 2e manche, 30 miles, triangle : Valkyrie IIIbat Defender de 47 s en temps compensé. Réclamation de Charles Oliver Iselin pour non-respect de la priorité. Réclamation acceptée : Defender 2 - Valkyrie 0.
- 12 septembre, 3e manche, 30 miles, aller-retour : Valkyrie III prend le départ et se retire. Defender 3 - Valkyrie 0.

Un défi à oublier, un véritable fiasco.

Columbia and Defender in the trial races - The "America's" cup racesAprès la Coupe, Defender a été remorqué à New Rochelle où il ne naviguera pas pendant 4 ans.

Il fut remis en activité pour les qualifications de la coupe de l'America 1899 face à Columbia.

Après les courses de sélection de 1899, DEFENDER passe entre les mains des démolisseurs. Thomas W. Lawson a fait une offre provisoire de plusieurs milliers de dollars pour DEFENDER au printemps 1901. Il avait besoin de lui comme lièvre pour INDEPENDANCE. DEFENDER était trop corrodé et W. Butler Duncan l'a emmené de New London à City Island où il a été démoli.

Juin 1901: Defender a été détruit en 1901.

Nathanael Greene HerreshoffThe fall of 1894, a challenge for the America's Cup was received from Lord Dunraven and I was looked to [for the] design [of] another defender. ... The next craft, which was finally named DEFENDER, was owned by a syndicate headed by C. Oliver Iselin, and he took Hank Haff as skipper. The yacht had many novel features that we put on her. I insisted that she be fitted with a deep draft keel, instead of a centerboard, and [this was] very much to the opposition of all our American yachtsmen. She was the first to be framed with bulb angles, without reverse angles, and we had to pay for the mill-rolls to make them, as the sizes we needed were not in existence. We induced the rolling mill to roll the deck beam bulbs of aluminum and they made a good job of it.

The yacht was plated with Tobin bronze on the bottom and aluminum on [the] topsides and deck. She was fitted with galvanized steel wire cables, instead of chains, and had a special very light capstan, instead of [a] windlass. We were convinced cross-cut sails were best, and when asking Wilson and Silsby to make them, they absolutely refused that way, and so did [the] other makers. We, therefore, had to fit up a larger sail loft in the attic of the North Construction Shop, and we hired the Infantry Hall in Providence for laying down and cutting the canvas, which we had specially woven by the Lawrence Manufacturing Company. The sails turned out very satisfactory.

It is interesting that Mr. Iselin was very skeptical about our ability to make good sails, so he got a set of drawings from us and had Wilson and Silsby make a suit on his own hook. I never saw them, but they were bent on when the yacht was up Sound and tried only one day, then our sails put back. This was the beginning of the cross-cut sail era, and now they are made that way all over the world.

DEFENDER'S original mast was of light wood and weak and had to be replaced. (A piece cut off upper end of the timber is still in our playroom) [This piece is now on exhibit at the Herreshoff Marine Museum] The second mast was much heavier and Mr. Iselin gave us an order for making a steel mast. This was lighter and [more] satisfactory and was used in the trial and Cup races. This was the first steel mast in racing yachts.

DEFENDER never had a good chance to show her ability with Haff as skipper, but she got chosen against VIGILANT for defending the Cup. She was easily faster than VALKYRIE III, Watson's latest design. The series of races was spoiled by Lord Dunraven's singular doings [Complaints, protests, and official investigation].

After the races, Mr. Iselin moored DEFENDER in a deep creek only a mile away from his home, using her wire rope cables. It was only a short period before DEFENDER was found adrift, for electrolysis between the bronze hull and steel cables had eaten them up. DEFENDER lay in this creek for three years, [un]til after Lipton had sent another challenge for [the] America's Cup. Mr. Iselin got her out to be fitted for a trial vessel against a new defender and sailed her to Bristol under trysail. We, in the meantime, had built a new marine railway and hauling gear into our South Shop. We found much to do to her, for the aluminum, in parts, was in bad condition.

....

After the trial races [in 1899], DEFENDER went into the junk dealer's hands [In "The Fate of the Cup Defenders", Yachting, March, 1936, William Upham Swan notes that Thomas W. Lawson put in a tentative bid of several thousand dollars for DEFENDER in the spring of 1901. He needed her as a trial boat for his INDEPENDENCE. DEFENDER was too corroded and W. Butler Duncan took her from New London to City Island where she was broken up]. She had well performed her mission and that was all she was constructed for, and, from the start, durability was put aside."

(Source: Herreshoff, N. G. "Some of the Boats I Have Sailed In." Written 1934. In: Pinheiro, Carlton J. (ed.). Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Bristol, 1998, p. 62-65.)