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 81feet 7inches (24.87m), 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 (2,560km) 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.
Yacht racing is a sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marked by buoys or other fixed navigational devices or racing longer distances across open water from point-to-point. It can involve a series of races with buoy racing or multiple legs when point-to-point racing.
The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy and the other from the yacht club that is challenging for the cup. Matches are held several years apart on dates agreed between the defender and the challenger. There is no fixed schedule, but the races have generally been held every three to four years. The most recent America's Cup match took place in March 2021.
1885 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
Nathanael Greene Herreshoff was an American naval architect, mechanical engineer, and yacht design innovator. He produced a succession of undefeated America's Cup defenders between 1893 and 1920.
America was a 19th-century racing yacht and first winner of the America's Cup international sailing trophy.
The Puritan was a 19th-century racing yacht and the 1885 America's Cup defender of the international sailing trophy.
Thistle was the unsuccessful Scottish challenger of the seventh America's Cup in 1887 against American defender Volunteer.
Valkyrie III, officially named Valkyrie, was the unsuccessful British challenger of the ninth America's Cup race in 1895 against American defender Defender.
Galatea was the unsuccessful Scottish challenger of the sixth America's Cup race in 1886 against American defender Mayflower.
Columbia was an American racing yacht built in 1899 for the America's Cup races. She was the defender of the tenth America's Cup race that same year against British challenger Shamrock as well as the defender of the eleventh America's Cup race in 1901 against British challenger Shamrock II. She was the first vessel to win the trophy twice in a row
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The 2nd Louis Vuitton Cup was held in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1987. The winner, Stars & Stripes, went on to challenge for and win the 1987 America's Cup.
John Beavor-Webb was a British and American naval architect. He was a designer of sailing yachts, including Partridge 1885, a UK National Historic Ship and the America's Cup challengers Genesta (1884) and Galatea (1885). John Beavor-Webb began his career in England but later worked in the U.S.A. where he designed very large steamyachts like J.P. Morgan's Corsair II (1891) and Corsair III (1899).
Paradox (1882–1890) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from October 1884 until October 1885 he ran eight times and won six races. Despite running only twice in 1884, he proved himself to be one of the best two-year-olds of his generation by winning the Dewhurst Plate. In the following year he won five of his six races including the 2,000 Guineas, the Grand Prix de Paris, the Sussex Stakes and the Champion Stakes. His only defeat came when he was narrowly beaten by Melton in The Derby.
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Partridge is documented as being the world's oldest, still fully operational classic racing yacht.
The Hesper was a 19th-century Boston pilot boat built in 1884, designed from a model by Dennison J. Lawlor as a Boston yacht and pilot-boat for merchant and ship owner George W. Lawler. She was known to be the largest pilot boat under the American flag at 104 feet long and the fastest of the Boston fleet. She competed in several first-class sailing races, and in 1886, the Hesper won the silver cup in what was known as the first Fishermen's Race. She was withdrawn from the pilot service and sold in 1901. The Hesper became a wreck on the point off Cape Henlopen in 1919.
Thomas Francis McManus was a fish merchant who became a naval architect, responsible for introducing the shortened bowsprit and long stern overhang to give speed to his vessels. He was well known for revolutionizing the Gloucester fishing schooner. He made the fastest vessels of their type in the world and was honored on two continents for his skill as a naval architect. He became known as the "Father of the Fishermen's Races." 500 fishing schooners used his designs to improve speed. He was a friend of Sir Thomas Lipton and President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Gracie was a 19th-century racing sloop yacht built in 1868 by James E. Smith shipyard at Nyack, New York. She raced the America's Cup defender Mischief in the trails off Sandy Hook in 1881. Gracie raced at the New York Yacht Club, Atlantic Yacht Club and other eastern yacht clubs. After a 42-year career in racing, she was sold in 1909 and converted to a freight boat sailing from Milton Point, off Long Island to New York.
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Royal Yacht Squadron 
United Kingdom 
