Lot 267: Richard M. Firth (British, 20th Century)

Shamrock V and Enterprise in the 1930 America's Cup
signed 'Richard M. Firth' (lower right)
oil on canvas
39 3/4 x 60 in. (101 x 152.5 cm.)

The Shamrock V J-Class yacht was designed by Charles E. Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholson in 1930 for Sir Thomas Lipton as an America's Cup Race challenger, built to the American Universal rule, to race against Enterprise, launched on April 14th, 1930. Shamrock V was of semi-composite construction, with her stem, sternpost and counter timbers of teak and her wooden keel of English elm. Her lead keel weighed 78 tons; her frames were entirely made of steel with a longitudinal trough of steel plates. The planking was mahogany and the main deck yellow pine. The mast was 162 feet from truck to heel and was constructed from about fifty pieces of silver spruce. Shamrock V's sail plan was 152 feet high. During Shamrock V's first season, she won fifteen races and came in second in four, an outstanding record by all measures. Before crossing the Atlantic, she had been raced and tested in races totaling nearly 720 miles, far more than any of her potential adversaries. No previous challenger had been so well tuned, none so highly praised.
Nevertheless, Shamrock V did not defeat the defender Enterprise in the 1930 America's cup. However, in the 1931 season, Shamrock V did not miss one of the thirty-two starts, and easily came out top of the class with eighteen firsts and six seconds. On October 2, 1931 Sir Thomas
Lipton died. Apart from the King, Lipton had done more for big class racing than any other man. Shamrock V was bought by T.O.M. Sopwith, a newcomer to the big class, but an experienced yachtsman. By 1934 Shamrock V, now simply called Shamrock had been given a new mast and main sail and was being raced by her new owner, airplane manufacturer, and expert helmsman, Richard Fairey.
In 1974 a million pound refit was started on Quadrifoglio, (which was what Shamrock V was called at the time) at her original builder's, Camper & Nicholson. However, she was not re-rigged as a J-Class yacht, but was refitted as an ideal cruising yacht for the Mediterranean, where her Italian owner based her after her re-launch in 1980. She is now called by her original name, Shamrock V and has the most up to date aids to seamanship, including satellite navigational equipment. Her accommodation has been thoroughly modernized though the silver plated door furniture and bird's eye maple paneling has been retained in the main saloon. In the spring of 1986 she was purchased by the Museum of yachting at Newport, Rhode Island, with the help of a grant from the Lipton Tea Company and in 1988 a private grant enabled her to be restored to her original racing trim.