There is a lot of emphasis placed on which club and which boat won the Lipton Cup. And, for a few weeks, days or hours after the awards dinner has been digested, the sailors dominate conversation in the bar like, “Hey, I hear that what’s his name won the Lipton Cup.” And that’s about it. The names of the winners then make the inevitable trek to the archives. I found a record of the winners in that archive and they range from those lost in the obscurity of history to the greats of our sport, past and present.
Now all sailors know that there has never been a skipper who won the Lipton Cup without the help of a top notch crew. However, there are just too many to recognize. The skippers, however, I do want to acknowledge. “Back in the day” (from 1904 to 1941), the winning skippers were Charles Gould, H. A. Dodge, E. W. Gahan (2 wins), J. S. Hawley, Frank Wyatt (2), Ernest Shields, Harry Sly, John Barneson (3), E. E. Rogers and Owen Churchill (2), Syl Spaulding, Pierpont Davis, Tommy Lee (3), Ben Weston, Ed Peterson, Arthur Rousseau, George Kettenburg, Ted Conant, Tod Geary, William Slater, Emerson Spear and Claire Neuner. All of these names have great meaning for friends and families and those of you with great memories. For the rest of us, we only know that they won the Lipton Cup making them great sailors of the past.
The end of WWII signaled a raising of the bar for winning the Cup. There are a few top “club” racers in the mix but the list is dominated by the truly great sailors on the west coast from a wide variety of sailing backgrounds. Each club, when fielding a crew either as challenger or defender, pulled out all the stops to have not only the best boat but also the best sailors of that time sailing under their clubs’ burgees. Whether it was Star or Etchells world champions or IOR legends or dingy medalists or local fleet champions, they all answered their club’s call and competed for the Lipton Cup.
The post war list of those that made it to the top step of the podium includes: Milt Wegeforth, Darby Metcalf, Don Edler (2 wins), Alex Irving, Walt Elliott (5), Gartz Gould, Walter Franz (3), Gerry Driscoll (2 wins), Mort Carlile, Malin Burnham (3), Jay Jones, Ed Turner, Dick Blaterman, Ash Bown (2), Marty Gleich, Fred Liebhardt, Gene Trepte, William Taylor, George Twist, Tom Tobin, Lowell North, Bruce Nelson (3), Al Simon, John Driscoll, Scot Tempesta, Dave Ullman (5), Vince Brun, Keith Lorence, Robbie Haines, Chris Snow, Geoff Longenecker, Jack Franko, Bill Hardesty (2), Kenny Manzoni, Andy La Dow, Bob Little and Brad Rodi. I know there are some names missing and I apologize for the gaping holes in our archive as late as the 90’s. As I said, the personalities involved seem to be the first to be forgotten yet they remain great sailors listed or not. I hoist a mug and salute all of you. Besides whatever else you have accomplished in life, you all won the greatest prize in west coast yachting; the Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Cup.