ENDEAVOUR. (Grenada 1987 SG1613). J class challenger for the Americas Cup, 1934.
Designed by Charles Nicholson, owner and skipper T.O.M. (Tommy) Sopwith (as in the 'Sopwith Camel' warplane). Loa 129'8", Challenging Club. Royal Thames YC.
Recognized as a very serious contender for the Cup. Sopwith sacked his original crew and replaced them with amateurs. Nevertheless she won the first two races against Rainbow helmed by Harry Vanderbilt. Beaten in the 3rd race, she also lost the fourth on a technicality due to unfamiliarity with US racing rules. She also lost the fifth race, and then also lost the sixth by keeping hold of her canvas for too long in a strengthening breeze. Afterwards she returned to England to dominate the British racing scene until 1938 when she was laid up prior to the war.
Over the next 46 years, Endeavour passed through many hands, her fate often hanging by a thread.
Among other indignities, she was sold to a scrap merchant in 1947 only to be saved by another buyer hours before her demolition was due to begin.
In the seventies, she sank in the Medina River in Cowes. Again at the eleventh hour, she was bought for ten pounds sterling by two carpenters who patched the holes in her hull with plastic bags and got her afloat again.
In the early eighties, Endeavour sat in an abandoned seaplane base in southern England. She was a complete wreck, a rusting and forlorn hulk with no keel, rudder, ballast or interior.
In 1984 US yachtswoman Elizabeth Meyer bought Endeavour and undertook a five year rebuild. Since the hull was too fragile to be moved and was miles away from any boatyard, Meyer had a building constructed over the boat and hired welders to restore the hull. Endeavours missing keel and ballast were rebuilt, the steel frames and hull plating repaired and replaced where necessary, and a new rudder fabricated. The newly seaworthy hull was towed to Holland where it was put on a barge and transported to the Royal Huisman Shipyard. There, the mast, boom and rigging were designed and built, the engine, generator and mechanical systems installed and the interior joinery completed. Endeavour sailed again, on June 22nd, 1989, for the first time in 52 years.
Endeavour has cruised extensively and competed in numerous races, creating a wonderful spectacle. In April 1999, history repeated itself when she was joined by Shamrock V and Velsheda to compete in the Antigua Classics Regatta, bringing in a new era of J Class Sailing, a sight not seen in over 60 years.
Phil Hanley, Log Book
I do not have the stamp.