For over one hundred and fifty years, the America's Cup has been the premier prize as yachtsmen have been pitted against sailors from around the world in an effort to win this prestigious race. The race takes its name from the champion schooner America, which was created due in large part to the efforts of New York Yacht Club founder John Cox Stevens. Author Richard V. Simpson sheds new light on long-forgotten stories of the early quests for the coveted Cup. Among the notable yachtsmen profiled are Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, who earned a special award for being the race's best loser, and Ted Hood, who owned a sail-making company that developed the Dacron cloth from which the twelve-meter sails were cut. This history comes to life with exciting descriptions of the yachts, the races and the colorful personalities of those who longed to capture the greatest prize in yacht racing.
Expanded to include the behind-the-scenes story of the 34th America’s Cup and Team USA’s incredible comeback Down eight-to-one in the 34th America’s Cup in September 2013, Oracle Team USA pulled off a comeback for the ages, with eight straight wins against Emirates Team New Zealand. Julian Guthrie’s The Billionaire and the Mechanic tells the incredible story of how a car mechanic and one of the world’s richest men teamed up to win the world’s greatest race. With a lengthy new section on the 34th America’s Cup, Guthrie also shows how they did it again. The America’s Cup, first awarded in 1851, is the oldest trophy in international sports. In 2000, Larry Ellison, co-founder and billionaire CEO of Oracle Corporation, decided to run for the prize and found an unlikely partner in Norbert Bajurin, a car mechanic and Commodore of the blue-collar Golden Gate Yacht Club. After unsuccessful runs for the Cup in 2003 and 2007, they won for the first time in 2010. With unparalleled access to Ellison and his team, Guthrie takes readers inside the building process of these astonishing boats and the lives of the athletes who race them and throws readers into exhilarating races from Australia to Valencia.
This book explores the fascinating phenomenon of place event marketing in the Asia Pacific region. It examines procedures in the promotion and branding of places that use events to shape their identities. It considers how events are used in forming a branded image of a place and disseminate information about it. This innovative book offers theoretical insights of the opportunities and challenges related to place event marketing. With contributions from leading thinkers in the field, chapters also draw on empirical examples to showcase a variety of events across the Asia Pacific, such as MICE, sporting events, festivals, and religious and cultural celebrations. The book explores the importance of such events for the socio-economic development of urban regions. Today, the Asia Pacific is one of the world's fastest developing regions and its rising economic power is accompanied by the growing importance of the tourism and event sector. The book is a unique study relating to a very exceptional region of the world. The role of events in tourism development and the rise of the region’s soft power is presented through carefully selected examples of cities from different countries. The book concludes with commentary on the future directions for research in this area. Written in an accessible style, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners working in events studies, urban studies, tourism, place branding and promotion, business and management studies, geography, sociology, and sport and leisure studies.
Championship Tactics gives expert advice in a collection of stories from the greatest sailing races of recent decades, and includes profusely diagrammed professional secrets that even the Wednesday-night club racer can use. All boat racers will benefit from this professional collection of tips!
Presenting a comprehensive and pragmatic view on challenges around sporting events, this timely Research Handbook examines the hosting of major sporting events and the impacts they can have on stakeholders. Looking beyond the host destination, it provides a wealth of conceptual analysis on the organisation and administration of such events, including the bidding process, planning, management, sponsorship issues, and marketing.
Roger Williams purchased the fertile Aquidneck Island from the Narragansett tribe in 1637. It was here that Anne Hutchinson, along with William Coddington and other colonists who had been banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, found shelter from persecution. The intrepid dissenters of Rhode Island Colony saw their community flourish with the founding of Portsmouth and Newport townships. The Battle of Rhode Island was the only clash between American colonials and the British on Rhode Island soil during the Revolutionary War. From the mercantile success of the Atlantic triangle trade routes to the establishment of the United States Navy, noted historian Richard V. Simpson brings these and other stories from the Ocean State to life. Join Simpson as he explores the landmarks and architecture of the period to discover the remnants of Rhode Island's colonial past.
Tiverton and Little Compton sit perched off the mainland of Rhode Island, where they have carved out a unique culture and history for centuries. The sketches contained in this book provide an in-depth look at the region, tracing its evolution through architecture, like the Nathaniel Briggs House, believed to be the oldest in the region; through industry, detailing the establishment of the Old Colony and Newport Railroad; and through some of the region's famous people and events. Learn how General William Barton captured British general Prescott in 1777 and how Captain Benjamin Church became a heroic Indian fighter, defeating King Philip. Author Richard V. Simpson traces the inextricably linked history of these two towns.
The schooner America was a technological marvel and a child star. In the summer of 1851, just weeks after her launching at New York, she crossed the Atlantic and sailed to an upset victory against a fleet of champions. The silver cup she won that day is still coveted by sportsmen. Almost immediately after that famous victory, she began a decades-long run of adventure, neglect, rehabilitations, and hard sailing, always surrounded by colorful, passionate personalities. America ran and enforced wartime blockades. She carried spies across the ocean. And she was on the scene as yachtsmen and business titans spent freely and competed fiercely for the cup she first won. By the early twentieth century, she was in desperate need of a thorough refit. The old thoroughbred floated in brackish water at the United States Naval Academy, stripped of her sails and rotting in the sun. Refitting America would be a massive project—expensive and potentially distracting for a nation struggling to emerge from the Great Depression and preparing for a world war. But the project had a powerful sponsor. On a windy evening in December 1940, the eighty-nine-year-old America was hauled “groaning and complaining” up a marine railway at Annapolis: the first physical step in a rehabilitation rumored to have been set in motion by President Franklin Roosevelt himself. The haul-out brought the famous schooner into the heart of the Annapolis Yacht Yard, a privately owned company with a staff capable of completing such a project, but with leadership determined to convert their facility into a modern warship production plant on behalf of the United States and its allies. The Last Days of the Schooner America traces the history of the famous vessel, from her design, build, and early racing career through her lesser-known Civil War service and the never-before-told story of her final days and moments on the ground at Annapolis. The schooner’s story is set against a vivid picture of the entrepreneurial forces behind the fast, focused rise of the Annapolis Yacht Yard as the United States prepares for and enters World War II. As wooden warships are built around her, America waits for a rehabilitation that would never happen. To bring this unique story to life, Annapolis sailor David Gendell delves into archival sources and oral histories and interviews some of the last living people who saw America at the Annapolis Yacht Yard.