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Lot Essay
The year 1958 witnessed the dawning of a new era for the world's greatest yachting prize when, on 20th September, the first America's Cup Race for twenty-one years was staged on the hallowed course off the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A. The Second World War and its aftermath had intervened since the last series in 1937 and British yachting was at a thoroughly low ebb in the post-War years until rejuvenated by Hugh Goodson's formation of a syndicate with which to mount a serious challenge for the trophy in the mid-1950s. The largest extant thoroughbred racing yacht at the time was the 12-metre but, in the absence of a suitable candidate, most of the 12's having been converted for cruising, the order to build a new boat designed by David Boyd and christened Sceptre was placed with Alexander Robertson & Sons at Sandbank, Argyllshire. Registered at 24.52 tons gross & net (35 Thames), she measured 69 feet in length with a 12 foot beam and was rigged as a sloop. When completed however, Sceptre needed a trial horse to put her through her paces and the pre-War Evaine was chosen for the job. Evaine, an ageing 12-metre survivor designed and built by Camper & Nicholson at Gosport in 1936 but laid-up since 1939, had recently been purchased and refitted by Owen Aisher, one of the most prominent yachtsmen of the day. With Aisher himself at her helm, Evaine proved an excellent foil for the new Sceptre and, in fact, beat her in a number of their early matches during that summer of 1958. Eventually Sceptre got the measure of her but to no avail; although Britain's new challenger had seemed impressive, the eagerly awaited Cup races scheduled for September 1958 proved a huge disappointment and Sceptre was roundly defeated by the American defender Columbia which won all four heats by decisive margins.