America Limited 24"

SOLD FULLY ASSEMBLED - JUST PULL OUT OF THE BOX AND DISPLAY
NO masts to assemble, NO rigging to tie, NO wrinkled sails, NO hassles!
Don't buy from other sellers until you ask if it is FULLY ASSEMBLED!

24" L x 4" W x 21" H (1:51 scale)

This newly designed Limited Edition museum-quality scale replica America yacht is offered exclusively by Handcrafted Model Ships, and includes a numbered Certificate of Authenticity signed by HMS Founder and Master Builder Richard Norris, as only 250 will ever be made. Accurate in almost every detail to the original America yacht, our America model yacht offers features not available by other sellers such as:

-  Arrives fully assembled
-  Cloth flags
-  More accurate and higher-quality deck components and details
-  Separate display base

 The Limited Edition America Yacht features the following upgrades over our regular America model yacht: 

-  Additional and higher-quality deck details
-   2 authentic cloth flags have been added, American flag and pennant
-   Additional deck planks have been added and stained to match the actual America yacht

- Upgraded deck details including 6 buckets and 9 barrels

- Accurate America name added to the bow

- Accurate scale eagle added to the stern

-   Additional upgraded structures on the deck have been added, including intricately painted windows
-   A scale tied-down lifeboat on the stern of the deck has been added, to mimic the actual America America's Cup yacht
-   The hull is meticulously painted the actual colors of the original America America's Cup yacht.  Look closely on the red hull and you can see the individual planks and wood grain
-   Higher-quality sails with additional rigging:  The sails are slightly starched to hold their shape and a higher quality and higher thread-count material is used, similar to that of the actual America yacht at the time it sailed.  We offer three unique sail materials that are matched to the different eras of model yachts we offer.  Also, additional rigging lines have been added to be more true to the actual America yacht
-     Removable base:  The Limited Edition Yacht can be removed from the high-quality wooden display base.  Accordingly it can be cleaned and examined in detail much more easily. 

The America was a 19th century racing yacht which gave its name to the international sailing trophy it was the first to win the America's Cup, known then as the Royal Yacht Squadron's "One Hundred Guinea Cup". The schooner was designed by George Steers for Commodore John Cox Stevens and a syndicate from the New York Yacht Club. On August 22, 1851, the America won by eight minutes over the Royal Yacht Squadron's 53 mile regatta around the Isle of Wight. Watching the race, Queen Victoria asked who was second, and received the famous reply: "There is no second, your Majesty."

Designer

The America was designed by George Steers, a revolutionary designer who began the practice of giving ships a knife-like bow widening aft, as opposed to the previous practice of giving ships a rather blunt bow and a sharp stern. His ships repeatedly set records and won races as a result.

Captain

America was captained by Richard Brown, a skilled member of the Sandy Hook Pilots, a group of harbor pilots renowned worldwide for their skill in manoeuvering the shoals around New York City. They were all extremely skilled racers as a result of impromptu races between pilots to ships in need of one. Brown had sailed aboard a pilot boat designed by George Steers, of whom he was a personal friend. He chose as first mate Nelson Comstock, a newcomer to yacht racing.

History subsequent to the race

John Cox Stevens and the syndicate from the New York Yacht Club owned the America from the time it was launched on May 3, 1851 until ten days after it won the regatta that made it famous.

On September 1, 1851, the yacht was sold to John de Blaquiere, 2nd Baron de Blaquiere, who raced her only a few times before selling her in 1856 to Henry Montagu Upton, 2nd Viscount Templetown, who renamed the yacht Camilla but failed to use or maintain her. In 1858, she was sold to Henry Sotheby Pitcher.

Pitcher, a shipbuilder in Gravesend, Kent, rebuilt Camilla and resold her in 1860 to Henry Edward Decie, who brought her back to the United States. Decie sold the ship to the Confederate States of America the same year for use as a blockade runner in the American Civil War, with Decie remaining as captain. During this time, she may have been renamed Memphis, but details are unclear. In 1862, she was scuttled at Jacksonville when Union troops took the city.

She was raised, repaired and renamed America by the Union, and served on the Union side of the blockade for the remainder of the war. After the war, she was used as a training ship at the U. S. Naval Academy. On August 8, 1870, the America was entered by the Navy in the America's Cup race at New York Harbor, and finished fourth.

The America remained in the U. S. Navy until 1873, when it was sold to Benjamin Franklin Butler, a former Civil War Commander, for $5,000. Butler used and maintained the boat well, until his death in 1893, when it was inherited by his son, Paul. The younger Butler had no interest in her, and gave her to his nephew Butler Ames in 1897. Ames reconditioned America and used her occasionally for racing and casual sailing until 1901, when she fell into disuse and disrepair.

The America was sold to a company headed by Charles H. W. Foster in 1917, and in 1921 was sold to the America Restoration Fund, who donated her to the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. She was not maintained there either, and by 1940 had become seriously decayed. On March 29, 1942, during a heavy snowstorm, the shed where the America was being stored collapsed. Three years later, in 1945, the remains of the shed and the ship were finally scrapped and burned.