Lot 76: Thomas Oliver (b.1979)

Thomas Oliver (b.1979)
The pre-competition time trials for the America's Cup, 1930: Yankee, Enterprise and Weetamoe showing their paces, with Cleopatra's Barge close inshore
signed 'Thomas Oliver' (lower left)
oil on canvas
24 x 36 in. (61 x 91.4 cm.)

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This work depicts three of the worthy contenders from which the New York Yacht Club had to select their boat to defend Sir Thomas Lipton's final America's Cup challenge in 1930. All three were specially commissioned earlier that year as potential defenders and each was owned by a syndicate rather than an individual.

Yankee was built for John S. Lawrence and his associates by G. Lawley at Neponset, Massachusetts. Designed by Paine, Belknap & Skene, she was classed as a sloop and was registered at 136.5 tons gross (136 net &228 Thames). Measuring 130 feet in length with a 22.5 foot beam, she carried 7,550 square feet of canvas under full sail and was a magnificent vessel.

Enterprise, a very similar composite steel sloop was built for the consortium headed by Harold Vanderbilt and Winthrop W. Aldridge and was designed by W. Starling Burgess. Built in the Herreshoff yards at Bristol, Rhode Island, she was registered at 206 tons gross (122 net) and measured 121 feet in length with a 22 foot beam. Sporting 7,583 square feet of sail, she too was a stunning yacht and the favourite from the outset.

Weetamoe was designed by Clinton Crane for Junius Morgan's syndicate and was also built in the Herreshoff yard on Rhode Island. Another sloop, she was registered at 123 tons gross & net (193 Thames), measured 126 feet in length with a 20 foot beam, and, like Yankee, sported 7,550 square feet of canvas under full sail.

Cleopatra's Barge a steel schooner designed and built by Herreshoff in 1916, was the 'odd man out' amongst the quartet. Launched as Mariette, by 1930 she was owned by Francis Crowninshield and seems to have been included in the trials simply as the pacemaker.

In the event, Enterprise was selected as the defender, and she went on to win the Cup series decisively that autumn.