1937 America’s Cup | You're the Top | Stacey Kent

Music: 1934 You're the Top | Stacey Kent 2003
Video: 1937 America’s Cup | Vanderbilt's Ranger J5 | 2003 replica at Newport
1930s playlist: t.ly/TxIW
"Fired up by the mediocre performances of Rainbow against Endeavour in 1934, when the Cup was nearly snatched from the Americans, two years later Harold 'Mike' Vanderbilt created the first design team in the history of the America's Cup. He recruited the 59-year old W. Starling Burgess to work with a young Olin J. Stephens, aged 29 (of the firm Sparkman and Stephens), on the Ranger project.
The boat was the fruit of the labors of not just Burgess and Stephens, but also on contributions from Professor Kenneth S.M. Davidson (tank testing at the Stevens Institute of Technology), Roderick Stephens (rigging), the sail-designer Prescott Wilson (who had the sails cut from synthetic rayon), and Pete Newell of the Bath Iron Works who was able to build the boat (flush-riveted plating, then welded) in little more than four months of construction work.
If the J-Class boats of the thirties symbolized the use of technology pioneered in the aviation industry transferred to America's Cup boats, then Ranger was among the best examples. It was the first time that a boat of its size had the mast, boom, and spinnaker pole made entirely of aluminum. Made by the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) of Pittsburgh, the elliptical mast weighed 2 718 kilograms.
The boom was built the same way and the spinnaker booms, located on the foredeck, were each 15.24 meters long and weighed 136 kilograms. The technological mastery continued with the sails. For the first time a synthetic material, rayon, was used for the quadrangular jib and some deck portholes were made in translucent Bakelite...everything possible was explored to make the future Defender a true winner.
Harold S. Vanderbilt explained that Ranger behaved differently than all the other J-Class boats that he had helmed. Although quicker than the others, Ranger was slow to tack as she had more inertia holding her way longer, hence the need to steer harder to help tack. However, the fact that the yacht picked up speed very quickly compensated for this failing. When sailing close to the wind or on a reach, the boat seemed to dig in to the water, and then shoot off. This phenomenon allowed the hull to use the whole of its waterline to express to the fullest the boat's potential for speed. When sailing close-hauled and with its centerboard down, Ranger offered exceptional stability. In combination, these advances explain the astonishing performance of Ranger, the 'Super J'."
(steelmuseum.org/americas_cup_..., quoting www.americascup.com 7/2/2007)
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"After winning the 1937 America's Cup, Ranger joined 4 other J-class yachts in the New York Yacht Club's cruise of 1937 (Yankee, Rainbow, Endeavour, and Endeavor II). The cruise finished at Marblehead where the five J-Class yachts raced a series of five races, all held just off Marblehead, between August 28th and September 2nd, 1937. Ranger won all of the races but was seriously challenged by Yankee at times."
(www.jrusselljinishiangallery....)
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Cole Porter's "You're the Top," from the 1934 musical Anything Goes:
At words poetic, I'm so pathetic
That I always have found it best
Instead of getting 'em off my chest
To let 'em rest unexpressed
I hate parading my serenading
As I'll probably miss a bar
But if this ditty is not so pretty
At least it'll tell you
How great you are
You're the top!
You're the Coliseum
You're the top!
You're the Louvre Museum
You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You're a Bendel bonnet
A Shakespeare's sonnet
You're Mickey Mouse
You're the Nile
You're the Tower of Pisa
You're the smile on the Mona Lisa
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom, you're the top
You're the top
You're Mahatma Gandhi
You're the top
You're Napoleon Brandy
You're the purple light
Of a summer night in Spain
You're the National Gallery
You're Garbo's salary
You're cellophane
You're sublime
You're a turkey dinner
You're the time of a Derby winner
I'm a toy balloon that's fated soon to pop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom
You're the top
You're the top
You're an Arrow collar
You're the top
You're a Coolidge dollar
You're the nimble tread
Of the feet of Fred Astaire
You're an O'Neill drama
You're Whistler's mama
You're camembert
You're a rose
You're Inferno's Dante
You're the nose
On the great Durante
I'm just in the way
As the French would say, "de trop"
But if, baby, I'm the bottom
You're the top
You're the top
You're a Waldorf salad
You're the top
You're a Berlin ballad
You're the baby grand of a lady and a gent
You're an Old Dutch master
You're Mrs. Aster
You're Pepsodent
You're romance
You're the steppes of Russia
You're the pants on a Roxy usher
I'm a lazy lout, who's just about to stop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom
You're the top