Reliance (yacht)

Reliance crossing finish line

Reliance was the 1903 America's Cup defender, the fourth America's Cup defender from the famous designer Nat Herreshoff, and reportedly the largest gaff-rigged cutter ever built.

Design

Reliance passing the Brenton Reef light ship at high speed, 1903. Photograph by Nanthaniel L. Stebbins.

Her design took advantage of a loophole in the Seawanhaka '90-foot' rating rule, to produce a vessel with long overhangs at each end, so that when she heeled over, her waterline length (and therefore her speed) increased dramatically (see image at left).

Reliance was one of the earliest pure large racing yachts; she was completely unfinished below deck, with exposed frames. She was also the first to employ winches (below deck), in an era when her competitors relied on sheer man-power.

Crew of Reliance

Her sail plan was massive: from the tip of her bowsprit to the end of her 108 foot (32.9 m) boom, she measured 201 feet (61.2 m), and the tip of her mast was 199 feet (60.7 m) above the water (the height of a 20-story building). Everything else was to an equally gargantuan scale; her spinnaker pole was 84 feet (25.6 m) long, and her total sail area of Template:M2 to ft2 was the equivalent of eight 12 meter class yachts.

Career

Reliance leading Shamrock III at starting line, first day of racing

Her racing career was extraordinarily brief – and undefeated. She bested her America's Cup challenger, Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock III, designed by William Fife, in both races they actually finished (the third was called off due to light air). Her designer immediately proposed the Universal rating rule to avoid such extreme, dangerous and expensive vessels, which made Reliance an inadequate contestant in subsequent. Her very successful career was short-lived, and she was sold for scrap in 1913.

"They tell me I have a beautiful boat. I don't want a beautiful boat. What I want is a boat to lift the Cup – a Reliance. Give me a homely boat, the homeliest boat that was ever designed, if she is as fast as Reliance." – Sir Thomas Lipton, after his 1903 defeat

Specifications

Reliance in drydock

• Overall length: Template:Ftm
• Length at water line: Template:Ftm
• Beam (width): Template:Ftm
• Draft: Template:Ftm
• Displacement: 189 tons
• Mast height: Over Template:Ftm
• Sail area: Template:M2 to ft2

Comparison of 87–90ft America's Cup contenders:

	Year	LOA	LWL	Sail Area	Mast height	Displacement
Reliance	1903	Template:Mtf	Template:Mtf	Template:M2 to ft2	Template:Mtf	189 tons
Ranger	1937	Template:Mtf	Template:Mtf	Template:M2 to ft2	Template:Mtf	166 tons
KZ1	1988	Template:Mtf	Template:Mtf	Template:M2 to ft2	Template:Mtf	39 tons

Further reading

• N. L. Stebbins, W. H. Bunting, Steamers, Schooners, Cutters and Sloops: Marine Photographs of N. L. Stebbins Taken 1884-1907 (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1974)
• Temple to the Wind - The Story of America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Masterpiece, Reliance by Christopher Pastore (Lyons Press 2005, ISBN 9781592285570)

External links

• Herreshoff Marine Museum
• americascup.com
• Prints of the Reliance