America's Cup- 'An Absorbing Interest' goes into limited reprint
by Sail-World on 15 Sep 2011
Bob Fisher gets close to the latest America’s Cup action riding in the shotgun seat with James Spithill and Oracle Racing at Cascais, Portugal Heike Schwab
http://www.HeikeSchwab.com
Top America's Cup and yachting journalist, Bob Fisher, will have his definitive work, 'An Absorbing Interest' reprinted in a limited edition of 500 copies only.
The original two-volume limited edition proved to be the publishing success of 2007. The coveted slip-case edition has become a collector's item as important to the history of the Cup, as Lawson's original 'History of the America's Cup' published in 1901. All copies of 'An Absorbing interest' were quickly snapped up and now, due to constant demand, the decision has been taken to reprint a further 500 copies.
'An Absorbing Interest' charts the history of sailing's most enigmatic and greatest prize. In two volumes it covers the drama, boat design, personalities and sheer fascination of the America's Cup, from 1851 in Cowes to 2003 in Auckland. It is illustrated with photographs, cartoons, paintings and figures and can rightly claim to be the definitive history.
This classic work contains full records of all races and is made up of 32 Chapters – one for each of the 31 challenges and one for the race around the Isle of Wight in 1851 for the One Hundred Pound Cup, presented by the Royal Yacht Squadron as a prize for the regatta. In addition there are sidebar stories of the principal competitors and incidents that are very much part of this, the world's oldest sporting event.
The beautiful illustrations for this book are drawn from a wide variety of sources. There will be charts of the courses for the early races, re-drawn from a variety of sources, line drawings, cartoons and caricatures, etchings, lithographs, paintings and a considerable number of photographs, both monochrome and coloured; all chosen to complement the text.
Review - August issue 'Boat News'
'The modern America’s Cup racer bears not the slightest resemblance to any useful craft in the world, and she does not even contribute to the development of yachting as a true sport apart from the satisfaction of an illogical national vanity. But having damned them, I must confess to an absorbing interest in the problems set by those extraordinary craft. They have the fascination of sin.'
So wrote Charles Burgess back in 1935 when the mammoth J Class yachts ruled the waves, to give this remarkable 2-volume opus its name. Little has changed since.
The Cup is once more embroiled in controversy and heading to Court with the combatants – defender and challengers – making the same mistakes that others have been making since 1851 when the schooner America won in controversial circumstances, what was then called ‘The Hundred Pounds Cup’
Author Bob Fisher has been a life-long student of the America’s Cup and thanks to support from Cup winner Bill Koch, has spent 4 years researching what is one of the most ambitious yachting publications this Century – and last. It is been one of the most successful too, with all but 80 of the 2,000 limited first edition copies selling within 2 months of publication.
The two case-bound volumes provide an enthralling read, and keen insight into the megalomaniacs that have dominated what is the oldest sporting event in the world, their yachts and nuances within every race.
Filled with contemporary art and photographs, painstakingly collected from all quarters of the Globe, this beautifully illustrated book tells the history of top-flight yachting through the past Century and a half. There are equally colourful biographies on the likes of James Ashbury, playboy Gordon Bennett, the dastardly Lord Dunraven, T.O.M Sopwith and latter-day hero Ted Turner.
The chapter ‘Court Disorder’ describing the build-up and lasting ramifications of the infamous 1988 mismatch between New Zealand’s 90ft waterline monohull and the 60ft catamaran ‘Stars & Stripes’, is particularly relevant to the present. Ernesto Bertarelli, the current Cup holder and his Spanish quislings who have sold their fellow challengers so short, should be locked in a room and forced to read this chapter out loud without a lawyer in sight!
An Absorbing Interest is a collector’s tome, a brilliant read and worth every Penny ...
http://www.southatlanticpublishing.com/aai_order.htm!Click_here to order your copy of 'An Absorbing Interest'
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/88498