Reliance

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. 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... more

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. 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. 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... less