Admiral's Cup 1979 - Part 3

This selection of photographs by renowned photographer Sharon Green were taken during the 1979 edition of the Admiral's Cup and featured recently on the Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing Facebook page. Sharon has kindly allowed me to reproduce her photos here - this second set are those that appear to be in the fresher conditions experienced in the second race of the series (2 August 1979), an inshore 28.5-miler. The breeze was up from the first race with the official results recording winds of force 4-6 gusting to 7, and the spring tides running with more vigour. The wind angle enabled use of the Royal Yacht Squadron's line for the start of a long uphill climb to the Delta buoy off Lymington. Ireland had a strong showing in this race, with the Holland 40 Regardless taking first place and her bigger Holland team-mate Golden Apple of the Sun taking second, but overall honours for the day went to Australia, with Police Car, Impetuous and Ragamuffin taking third, fourth and ninth. 

Startline action with Argentina's Red Rock IV to leeward of Germany's Rubin, with Williwaw (blue bow) appearing to tack away

Rubin leads Eclipse and Imp (US-8990) with spinnakers and bloopers set

Australia's Ragamuffin thunders down the Solent with a fully powered spinnaker and blooper

Britain's Blizzard which is remembered in this race for a catastrophic navigation error when she headed off to the wrong mark halfway through the race, giving up a winning position and plummeting to a lowly 42nd place

Sweden's Midnight Sun, a Holland 50 rolls downwind, on her way to 28th in this race

Midnight Sun continues her roll as she passes by the photographer's boat - this may be shortly before another famous photograph of this yacht which can be seen here

Belgium's Indigo sailing upwind and on her way to 24th place

Above and below: Rubin (26th in this race) follows Canada's Magistri (52nd) and Australia's Impetuous (fourth)

A close up of the Evergreen crew as they work their way to windward (46th in this race) - note the bank of hydraulic switches used to control the complex rig

The Dubois Two Tonner design Winsome Gold (British yacht sailing for Brazil) begins a calamitous broach on the flat run - Evergreen can be seen in the distance in the process of dousing her blooper

Things start to get worse for Winsome Gold....

Just before the crash gybe...

Note the S-bend in the rig just after the gybe

Endgame for Winsome Gold, with quite a mess to be sorted - the broach and resulting damage to her rig forced her retirement from the race and the rest of the series

Midnight Sun sails upwind

Spanish yacht Campsa (the earlier Midnight Sun) puts her bow down on her way to finishing 14th in this race, with Golden Apple of the Sun (right, 2nd) and Jan Pott (20th) alongside

Holland's Formidable (18th) sails downwind with spinnaker and blooper in perfect trim

Other photographs from the second race can be seen in 'Part 1' here with other photos of the series available by clicking the 'Admiral's Cup 1979' label below.

Admiral's Cup 1979 - Part 2

This selection of photographs by renowned photographer Sharon Green were taken during the 1979 edition of the Admiral's Cup and featured recently on the Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing Facebook page. Sharon has kindly allowed me to reproduce her photos here - this first set are those that appear to be in the relatively moderate conditions experienced in the first race of the series (1 August 1979), an inshore 30-miler. A second gallery will follow in a future post and feature a little more white water and occasional mishaps as the breeze freshened for the second inshore race. 

British yacht Eclipse (Peterson 39) finished eighth in the first race (of 57 yachts) before going on to be the top individual yacht of the series

The star performer in 1977, the Holland design Imp was back again for the US in 1979, finishing 12th in the first race (and third overall)

The big boat of the British team, the 51 foot Frers designed Blizzard stretched out to win the first race comfortably 

The Official History of the Admiral's Cup (Timothy Jeffery) comments on the first race that "the new inshore race was given a proper committee boat start near Peel Bank (see image below). [Dennis] Connor brought Williwaw off the line beautifully, but Blizzard soon tramped away on a course that suited power, with long beats against the tide. The Hong Kong pair of Uin-na-Mara and Vanguard showed well and Eclipse kept her nose in front of Imp. Impressively, Blizzard saved her time to win by [four minutes] on corrected time, but Hong Kong stood at the head of the leader board for the first time.

Start of the first race

Seymour Sinett's 45-foot Peterson designed Williwaw, part of the second placed US team (second in this race), ahead of Formidable (18th)

The Dubois-designed 45-footer Uin-na-Mara IV from Hong Kong, on her way to fourth place in the first race

 Indigo, the top performer in the last placed team from Brazil (19th in the first race) - Pinta (sailing for Belgium, and who later retired from the race) and Vanguard (Hong Kong) can be seen in the background

Incisif (Belgium), later penalised and dropping to last place, crosses behind Germany's Tina I-Punkt and Canada's Magistri

The Holland designed 44-footer Golden Apple of the Sun, sailing for Ireland, on her way to sixth in the first race

The Peterson 43 footer Yena, powers upwind on her way to 11th place

Bloppers flying, Hong Kong's Pantera III (Hong Kong) chases Indigo (Brazil) and team-mate Uin-na-Mara IV 

Syd Fisher's 45-foot aluminium Peterson design Ragamuffin formed part of the winning Australian team (13th in the first race)

Italy's Vanina (left) leads a group of yachts on a reaching leg, with Eclipse down to leeward

Other photos from the series can be seen in 'Part 1' here, and by clicking on the 'Admiral's Cup 1979' label below.