America’s Cup Most Famous Good Sport

It’s amazing what random facts (or faux-facts) you can find on the internet.

Whilst doing a search for “yachting” with the Google News search engine I happened upon this rather interesting peice of historic information regarding the America’s Cup…

Representing the Royal Ulster Yacht Club of Belfast, Ireland, was Sir Thomas Lipton, who was the only challenger from 1899 to 1930. He brought 6 different yachts, all were named ‘Shamrock’ by the way, to the competition. Every time he lost! Finally, in 1930, at the age of 82, he was presented with a gold cup made by Tiffany & Company in honor of his five noble challenges. He was dubbed the “Gamest Loser in the World of Sport.”(http://www.brownielocks.com/americascup.html)

And here is what Wikipedia says about the man…

America’s Cup page:
One of the most famous and determined challengers was Scottish tea baron Sir Thomas Lipton. He would mount five challenges between 1899 and 1930, all in yachts named Shamrock, two of which were designed by William Fife. One of Lipton’s motivations for making so many challenges was the publicity that racing generated for his Lipton Tea company, though his original entry was at the personal request of the Prince of Wales in hopes of repairing trans-Atlantic ill-will generated by the contentious earlier challenger, Lord Dunraven. Lipton was preparing for his sixth challenge when he died in 1931. The yachts used during the Lipton era, were very large sailing sloops; for example, Shamrock V, still sailing today, measures 120 feet (36 m) long.

Sir Thomas Lipton page:
Between 1899 and 1930 he challenged the American holders of the America’s Cup through the Royal Ulster Yacht Club (Lipton was of Irish descent) five times with his yachts called Shamrock -Shamrock V. His well publicised efforts to win the cup, which earned him a specially designed cup for “the best of all losers”, made his tea brand famous in the U.S. As a self-made man Lipton, however, was no natural member of the British upper class and the Royal Yacht Squadron only admitted him shortly before his death.

He may have never won the most “prestigious regatta in the sport of sailing, (with) the oldest active trophy in international sport” but at least his Lipton Tea industry took the world by storm!

When he was in his prime he rubbed shoulder with some of history’s most famous men…

King Edward VII and King George V both shared their interest in yachting with Lipton and enjoyed his company.

So from what I can gather he was very much into his yachting (and tea). Back in the day the amount of money he spent on the development his yachts would have been astonomical. But… For someone who loved the sport so much, why would he donate a trophy to a Football (soccer) tournament???

Before the first Football World Cup was held in 1930, Thomas Lipton donated the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy which was contested in two international tournaments in Turin in 1909 and 1911