Gretel II 1970

Hand-crafted plank-on-frame wood hull.

Hull size: 60cm

Board size: 75cm x 20cm

Alan Payne indisputably held all of the aces when Sir Frank Packer commissioned Gretel from him in 1959-60. He made a very thorough study of Vim, and also made two trips to the United States, including one to test the models made from the drawings.He was seconded in his works by the young Australian architect, Warwick Hood, and the draughtsman Alfred Lean.

The experience acquired was invaluable, and after the warning shot from Gretel, the Americans withdrew the facilities they have made available to Alan Payne. But Payne was unable to improve Gretel's performance in the 1967 challenge. Fully re-designed, his boat was beaten by Warwick Hood's Dame Pattie.

But the defeat did not discourage Alan Payne. Alan went back to work in 1969 and excelled himself with the design of Gretel II. In fact, the general opinion was that Alan Payne had produced a boat that could have lifted the America's Cup from the Intrepid re-built by Britton Chance.

The failure was due to crew's lack of training, and the fact that the Australians were unaware of the real speed potential of their boat. With Gretel II, Alan Payne reached the state of his art.

There was a crowd in attendance at the launch of the third America's Cup defender designed and built by the Herreshoff brothers. As ever, the boat has been built in an utmost secrecy, forbidding the access of the yard to every journalists and photographers. This time the defender helm was put in the hands of Charles Barr. This was the first time that the famous Scottish skipper, living in he States for some years , had been entrusted with a defender. Captain Nat  was to be his co-skipper.

As John Brown predicted, Columbia's steel mast broke after the first trials, due to electrolysis. It was replaced by another in Oregon pine for the rest of the trials. The final race was held on October 20th. The struggle was hard and none of the two teams managed to take a decisive advantage till the last mark. The two were now both fighting against the wind. They heeled over impressively, stemposts dipping into the spray and lifting immense cascades of water.Throughout this first windward beat, Archie Hogarth tried all he knew to escape Columbia, who was controlling him mercilessly. Columbia obviously cut better through the choppy sea, whereas Shamrock had to force her way through and tossed violently the Defender flying her mainsail, staysail and jib, performed marvellously and hauled the wind without losing speed, her sais always full. Scarcely 5 minutes after rounding the mark, Columbia had the race in her pocket. Shamrock tacked first after 20 mninutes, followed the Americans. The difference separating the two yachts could now be seen, since, from the same initial point, Columbia was already 1/8 mile to windward of the Irish. Barr decided to slacken off to avoid breakages and to make sure of victory, as he was a quarter of a mile to windward of his pursuer, and won easily.

The American skipper and the defender had fulfilled their contract, with their three crushing victories over Sir Thomas Lipton's yacht. Columbia had no difficulty in beating Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock, designed by Fife Jr III. Before his promise to come back to the following America's Cup, Sir Thomas Lipton paid tribute to his rival: "Mister Herreshoff has shown that he is the greatest yacht designer in the world".