1958 America's Cup

17th America's Cup
Date	20–26 September 1958
Defender	New York Yacht Club
Challenger	Royal Yacht Squadron
Winner	New York Yacht Club
Location	Newport, Rhode Island, United States

The 1958 America's Cup marked the first Cup match sailed in 12-metre class yachts. With twenty years having gone by since the last Cup match in 1937 the New York Yacht Club looked for a cheaper alternative to the J-class yachts in order to restart interest in the Cup. In 1956 Henry Sears^[1] lead an effort to replace the J-class yachts with 12-metre class yachts. The Royal Yacht Squadron of Great Britain agreed to challenge with a new yacht, Sceptre. The New York Yacht Club defended with their new 12-meter yacht, Columbia, winning the Cup four races to none.

Defender Series

Four yachts competed in a summer long regatta to determine which yacht the NYYC would name as defender in the match. Competing were Columbia (US-16), Weatherly (US-17), Easterner (US-18), and the Olin Stephens designed Vim (US-15) from 1939. Columbia, the new Olin Stephens boat, was chosen as defender after a very close set of races only beating the 19-year old Vim by 12 seconds in the final selection race.

The Races

References

External links

• Columbia article at AC-Cyclopaedia
• Sceptre article at AC-Cyclopaedia
• Current owner of Columbia in Newport, RI

America's Cup Competitions