The Schooner Yacht America

30x40 inches — oil on canvas

The schooner yacht America was built for speed. She became the country’s most famous racing yacht when she won the first America’s Cup race in 1851. Built by members of the New York Yacht Club, and designed with the sleek lines of swift pilot-boats, she crossed the Atlantic to compete in the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Regatta in England. At the finish line she was so far ahead of all the other yachts that, when Queen Victoria inquired about who had come in second, she was told, “There is no second, your Majesty.” The race developed into the world’s most-prestigious annual sailing event, the America’s Cup, named after the race’s first victor.