Thomas J Lipton S America S Cup Campaigns

Thomas J. Lipton's America's Cup Campaigns is the saga on one man's three decade obsession with winning the America's Cup. This is author Richard V. Simpson's fifth title concerning the quest for the America's Cup-the Blue Riband prize for the sport of large ocean racing yachts. In this book, Simpson relates brief stories of some of the most interesting of the early races for the Cup which lead up to the Lipton challenges. The narrative covers the development of the early sloops and schooners from wood, to metal and the challenges faced by designers. For this narrative Simpson has searched century-old tabloids for early sport writers' predictions and observation of the contestants; he has resurrected many long-forgotten contemporary accounts relative to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century yachts built especially as America's Cup racers. This historical account of the Lipton and Herreshoff face-offs is a sterling read for professional, amateur, and armchair sailor.

Today Lipton means tea. However, in his time Sir Thomas Lipton was known for much more than the Lipton tea empire. Raised in desperate poverty, he would build a global empire of markets, factories, plantations, and stockyards. But his epic pursuit of the America’s Cup—a yachting trophy and the ultimate in international sport—made him a beloved figure on both sides of the Atlantic. More than a story of innovation and achievement, A Full Cup also explores Lipton’s most intriguing creation: his public persona, formed by a burgeoning mass media and a shameless self-promotion that made him one of the most recognizable figures of his time. Michael D’Antonio brings to life the surprising careers of this intrepid sailor, gregarious showman, and ingenious self-made millionaire—the world’s very first celebrity CEO.

The schooner America was a technological marvel and a child star. In the summer of 1851, just weeks after her launching at New York, she crossed the Atlantic and sailed to an upset victory against a fleet of champions. The silver cup she won that day is still coveted by sportsmen. Almost immediately after that famous victory, she began a decades-long run of adventure, neglect, rehabilitations, and hard sailing, always surrounded by colorful, passionate personalities. America ran and enforced wartime blockades. She carried spies across the ocean. And she was on the scene as yachtsmen and business titans spent freely and competed fiercely for the cup she first won. By the early twentieth century, she was in desperate need of a thorough refit. The old thoroughbred floated in brackish water at the United States Naval Academy, stripped of her sails and rotting in the sun. Refitting America would be a massive project—expensive and potentially distracting for a nation struggling to emerge from the Great Depression and preparing for a world war. But the project had a powerful sponsor. On a windy evening in December 1940, the eighty-nine-year-old America was hauled “groaning and complaining” up a marine railway at Annapolis: the first physical step in a rehabilitation rumored to have been set in motion by President Franklin Roosevelt himself. The haul-out brought the famous schooner into the heart of the Annapolis Yacht Yard, a privately owned company with a staff capable of completing such a project, but with leadership determined to convert their facility into a modern warship production plant on behalf of the United States and its allies. The Last Days of the Schooner America traces the history of the famous vessel, from her design, build, and early racing career through her lesser-known Civil War service and the never-before-told story of her final days and moments on the ground at Annapolis. The schooner’s story is set against a vivid picture of the entrepreneurial forces behind the fast, focused rise of the Annapolis Yacht Yard as the United States prepares for and enters World War II. As wooden warships are built around her, America waits for a rehabilitation that would never happen. To bring this unique story to life, Annapolis sailor David Gendell delves into archival sources and oral histories and interviews some of the last living people who saw America at the Annapolis Yacht Yard.

Born in Glasgow in 1850, Thomas Lipton was one of the world's first global entrepreneurs. His showmanship, business flair and customer-driven focus created a chain of nationwide grocery stores and the thriving Lipton tea business, making him a multi-millionaire. One key to his success was his complete control of every business he undertook, from production to the customer. A keen yachtsman, he mounted a British challenge against the American holders of the America's Cup on five occasions between 1898 and 1930 but was unsuccessful each time. Yet, in the process of doing so, his fame spread around the world and his name became a byword for sportsmanship and diplomacy. What is more, Lipton's astute association of business with a sport of international dimension established a trend that has become an accepted part of life today. Lipton exemplified the values of competitiveness, sportsmanship, perseverance and leadership in global business. Yet until now, no biography of Lipton has brought together these strands. Published at the advent of the America's Cup in Europe in 2007, this book reassesses and re-evaluates the life of the man whose dream it was to wrestle the Cup from American hands.

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