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.