NEWS

New "America" 1851, Isle of Wight painting.


14th Aug 2018
The painting depicts the 170 ton schooner "America" sailing between the 205 ton schooner "Wyvern"( under a cloud shadow) and the large 3 masted 392 ton schooner "Brilliant", on the right hand side of the painting. The 218 ton schooner "Constance"can be seen behind the paddle steamer on the left hand side of the painting. Astern of the "Brilliant" is the unofficial starter, the cutter "Wildfire". With 2 to 3 tons of ballast able to be shifted from side to side, the "Wildfire" was unable to be include in the fleet, but actually finished ahead of "America". A large variety of spectator boats surrounded the racing fleet at the start. Large crowds of spectators also lined the shoreline.

The schooners and cutters in the race started from anchor at 10am, off "The Castle", with the cutters in a line approximately 300 metres ahead of the schooners. "The Castle" can be seen in the background. A few years after the race it became the home of The Royal Yacht Squadron.

The wind was light at the start, but against the west going tide and thus created rougher patches of water as seen in the foreground of the painting. The mist is clearing from the hills and it is turning into a beautiful day. Sunlight reflects from the water onto the underside of both "America's" and "Brilliant's" sails. "America" can be seen carrying her brand new jib boom and flying jib. The jib boom broke whilst racing past Dunnose and "America" finished without her flying jib.

"America" finished first in the 100 Guineas Cup, round the island race at 8.37pm.

Trip to Italy 9th Sep 2011
Pacific Trip 2012 29th Aug 2012
Trip to France in May 2014 2nd Sep 2014
New J Class painting 13th Mar 2016
Another new "America" 1851, Isle of Wight painting 14th Aug 2018
Trip to Tonga and Fiji, 2019 24th Jun 2020
New paintings uploaded to the website 16th Aug 2022

 


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