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Other J-Class Boats we build:
Endeavor III
Rainbow
Shamrock V

For quote to custom replicate your sailboat please email
mail@allwoodships.com
 

The Ranger is a sailing yacht that successfully defended the America's Cup competition in 1937.  The last and largest of the J-Class boats ever built, the Ranger won 32 races out of 34 without losing a single match race. The Ranger was not only the greatest of the J-Class yachts, but the last built of the great J-Class of the 1930's.

The America's Cup - which has over a 150 year history - is the oldest and most distinguished prize in world sport - outdating the World Cup, Davis Cup, Stanley Cup and Walker Cup plus many other prestigious "cups".

The roots of the America Cup date back to Queen Victoria and 1848 when she authorized the creation of a "One Hundred Guinea Cup" of solid silver that was 27 inches tall and  weighed 134 ounces as the trophy for a yacht race "open to all nations." In 1851 one American boat - the schooner America which was entered by the New York Yacht Club - challenged 16 English ships... and won.

For the next 132 years, American yachts dominated and that successful defense by the New York Yacht Club remains the longest record in sports history.

From the standpoint of naval architecture, America's Cup intensity has inspired countless design breakthroughs which benefit all yachts today to an extent generally unrealized by those who sail. The highly focused pursuit of excellence has provided quality, boldness and dedication to be the best. The most elegant hull lines, most efficient construction, best sails and most skillful sailing techniques have evolved from America's Cup competition.

The J-Class came into being with the creation of the Universal Rule in 1920 for building classes that would be similar in length, sail area and hull shape to produce seaworthy boats that could race without complicated handicapping. Waterline length was to be between 76 and 87 feet with controlled scantlings and sail area to suit the rule. Only 10 boats were purpose built to the rule, six in the USA and four in the United Kingdom. Basically, the rule stipulated that length overall had to exceed 120 feet, waterline length had to be between 79 and 87 feet and displacement up to 160 tons. J-Class yachts were always on a grand scale with 165 foot tall masts carrying huge spreads of canvas. The boats carried large crews and, most of all, were built by multi-millionaires able to afford them. It is this class of boat that epitomizes the peak of yachting competitiveness - the racing for America's Cup - so called because America had taken the English Queen's silver cup nearly a century earlier.

The launching of the J-Class coincided with the 1929 Wall Street crash and following Depression which initially did not affect the millionaire owners such as Sir Thomas Lipton, Tom Sopwith or Harold Vanderbilt. However, the change in the economic climate and World War II would eventually spell the end of these mighty racing machines.

Built from the highest grade steel with flush rivet plating, Ranger was launched on May 11th, 1937 - which left very little time to prepare for the trial races in defense of the Cup. Disaster struck while she was under tow to the race when a new type of turnbuckle came apart causing vital rigging to fall off which resulted in the mast breaking 30 feet from the top. Fortunately, a new aluminum mast built for the earlier American defender Rainbow was loaned to the project and used throughout the Defender series until Ranger's mast could be repaired. The Ranger went on to prove conclusively that she was the fastest of all the American yachts, winning almost every race in the Defender work up series and beating the British challenger Endeavor II in the first four races of the finals to retain the Cup.

As the depression grew ever deeper and war loomed in Europe, luxury yacht racing of this kind could no longer be justified - even for the richest businessmen. In England the death of King George V signaled the scuttling of his beloved J-Class Yacht  Britannia and in America the J-Class fleet was scrapped to contribute towards the War effort. Only the transom of the Ranger remains as a trophy to this great racing yacht.

The Ranger is nearly always described as the "Super J" and that accolade seems to have been totally deserved. She was a clear demonstration of the axiom "Build big within the rule." While the full size J's were built to a formula that used the displacement, waterline length, hull girth and sail area to arrive at a specified result within the rules - and so each boat was slightly different - the Ranger was designed and built to the maximum allowances permissible in all aspects of the rule. Additionally, Ranger was the first America's Cup yacht developed through model testing in a towing tank - a procedure now commonly used in designing new hulls.