Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
1912 Contest Build-Up
The 1911 whitewash dished out by Nick Chiazzari and his Point Yacht Club crew hurt the Royal Cape Yacht Club members, and Cape yachtsmen in general, so much so that their defeat immediately galvanised them into action early in an attempt to wrest back the coveted Cup.
Plans were hatched to have a challenger built, fund-raising functions were held, and ultimately a syndicate was formed of members of the RCYC, headed by Advocate Upington, to acquire a suitable boat. On 18th September 1911, Upington reported that sufficient money had been subscribed to make the syndicate a practical proposition. The Cape Town Amateur Operatic Society gave three performances at the Opera House, and devoted the entire proceeds to the Lipton Cup Challenge Fund.
The committee commissioned Sir Thomas Lipton’s designer, William Fife, to design and build their challenger.
Fife had promised the Table Bay challenger by June, 1912. A syndicate member was in Britain on his honeymoon, and he visited Fife’s yard to see the progress being made on ‘Erica’. Fife informed him that he had received an inquiry from the Point Yacht Club for building a defender, but as it was not his policy to build both the defender and challenger for the same race, he wanted to know what he should do in the matter. The Table Bay Yacht Club very sportingly said that they did not want to stand in the Point Yacht Club’s way, and so ‘Skebenga’ was actually built from ‘Erica’s’ moulds.
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: 2026 07 29 – The 1912 Lipton Cup Contest Races
READ THE RACE TWO REPORT HERE: 1912 09 03 – Cape Times – Erica beats Natal in second race – national archives – OCR_Redacted
