Genesta

For the magician, see Gilbert Genesta.

Genesta

Genesta
Yacht club	Royal Yacht Squadron
Nation	United Kingdom
Designer(s)	John Beavor-Webb
Builder	D. and W. Henderson and Company, Glasgow, Scotland
Launched	1884
Owner(s)	Sir Richard Sutton
Fate	Broken up in 1900
Racing career
Skippers	John Carter
Notable victories	Brenton Reef Cup Cape May Challenge Cup inaugural Round Britain Race (1887)
America's Cup	1885
Specifications
Type	Cutter, converted to yawl
Displacement	141 tons
Length	29.45 m (96.6 ft) (LOA) 24.7 m (81 ft) (LWL)
Beam	4.57 m (15.0 ft)
Draft	4.09 m (13.4 ft)

Genesta was the unsuccessful English challenger in the fifth America's Cup in 1885 against the American defender Puritan.

Design

The cutter Genesta was designed by John Beavor-Webb and built by the D&W Henderson shipyard on the River Clyde in 1884, for owner Sir Richard Sutton, 5th Baronet, of the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes, Isle of Wight, England. She was built of oak planking on a steel frame. Genesta was skippered by John Carter. She was measured 81 feet 7 inches (24.87 m), weighing 80 tons.

Career

After a strong showing in the British yacht races in 1884, Sutton crossed the Atlantic Ocean to New York during the summer 1885 aboard Genesta. Upon arrival, designer Beavor-Webb refused to let anyone see his yacht before the America's Cup race, beginning the tradition of secrecy which was over ruled for the 2017 event by the organisers..

After the Cup races, Sutton and Genesta won the Brenton Reef Cup, the Cape May Challenge Cup, and, upon returning to Britain, the first Round Britain Race in 1887, covering the 1,590-mile (2,560 km) course in 12 days, 16 hours, and 59 minutes. Genesta was sold and converted to a yawl by the 1890s, and broken up in 1900.

Genesta as photographed by Nathaniel Livermore Stebbins.

References and external links

• America's Cup's Ac-clopaedia
• The 19th-Century Yacht Photography of J.S. Johnston