Lot 52: Firth, Richard - The America’s Cup 1934…

The America’s Cup 1934, Endeavour and Rainbow Racing off Rhode Island The American teams had a stranglehold on the America’s Cup by the time the 1934 event came around, having never lost the world’s most famous yacht race. Sir Thomas Sopwith sought to bring the cup back to Great Britain when he commissioned the Endeavor, a J-class yacht built to challenge the American team’s Rainbow. Before departing for America, Sopwith’s crew went on strike over their pay, and at the last second Sopwith recruited a group of amateurs from the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club to take over. The ragtag group captured the first two races before falling to the Rainbow in a controversial series 4-2, the closest the British had gotten to reclaiming the cup and the closest anyone came to knocking off the Americans until the Australians did it in 1983.

28"” x 42"

Oil on canvas

Signed