Endeavour leading Astra and Candida off Ryde, Isle of Wight, 1934

The first “Endeavour” was designed by Charles Nicholson and built by Thomas Sopwith in Camper & Nicholson’s yard at Gosport, England. Displacing 143 tons and measuring 129½ feet in length with a 22 foot beam, it carried 7,560 square feet of sail and was considered the best J-class boat of her day. During the America’s Cup series in September 1934, “Endeavour” was not only skippered by Sopwith himself but she also featured a double-clewed jib designed by her owner. Defeated by the defender “Rainbow” by only the narrowest of margins, “Endeavour” returned home to rightful acclaim and thereafter enjoyed a successful racing career in home waters. Still racing competitively, “Endeavour” is one of the only three surviving J-class yachts.

“Astra”, also designed and built by Camper & Nicholson at Gosport in 1928, was a large and splendid Bermudian-rigged composite cutter ordered for Sir A. Mortimer Singer, the naturalised British son of the fabulously wealthy American inventor of the sewing machine. Registered at 91½ tons gross (83 net), she was 115 feet in length with a 20 foot beam and enjoyed a highly successful racing career, first under her original owner and then, during the 1930s, under her subsequent owner Mr. Hugh Paul.

“Candida”, rated at ‘23 metres’, was yet another Charles Nicholson design built in the company’s yard at Gosport for Mr. H.A. Andreae, the wealthy merchant banker, in 1929. An equally magnificent Bermudian-rigged cutter of 95½ tons gross (174 Thames), she measured 117 feet in length overall with a 20½ foot beam and was completed principally as a response to a slight change in the International Rules in 1928.

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