Overall dimensions: 35" H x 4" W x 32" L (1:90 scale)
This newly designed, Limited Edition, museum-quality, scale replica Reliance sailboat is offered exclusively by Handcrafted Model Ships. This sail boat includes a numbered Certificate of Authenticity signed by HMS Founder and Master Builder Richard Norris, as only 100 will ever be made. Accurate in almost every detail to the original Reliance sail boat, this Reliance sailboat offers features not available by other sellers, and has many upgrades over all other sailboat models available.
This is a pre assembled model. Models are shipped with the sails unassembled. All rigging, lines, and stays have brass hooks attached. They easily hook into eyelets on mast, boom, sprit, or deck. Pictured instructions with numbers on the hooks allow anyone to easily assemble this sailboat model in less than 4 minutes. This allows us to offer the model at a reasonable price. If assembled, the shipping cost alone would increase the cost by an additional $100
- Additional and higher-quality deck details
- Authentic cloth American flag
- Additional deck planks have been added and stained to match the actual Reliance sailboat
- Additional and higher-quality solid brass metal railings and cleats have been added
- Highest quality, accurately scaled solid metal ship wheel
- Accurately detailed structures on the deck including windows
- A scale tied-down lifeboat on the stern of the deck, to mimic the actual Reliance America's Cup sailboat
- The hull is meticulously painted the actual colors of the original Reliance America's Cup sailboat. Look closely on the hull and you can see the individual planks and wood grain
- Highest-quality sails and additional rigging over all other models:
The sails are slightly starched to hold their shape and a higher quality and higher thread-count material is used, similar to that of the actual Reliance sailboat at the time it sailed. We offer three unique sail materials that are matched to the different eras of model yachts we offer. Also, additional rigging lines have been added to be more true to the actual Reliance sail boat.
Our Reliance model sailboat is built with rare, high quality woods. Hand painted the actual colors of the Reliance America's Cup sailboat. Reliance America's Cup sailboat model has fabric sails with detailed stitching.
To build this model ship, extensive research was done using various sources such as museums, drawings, copies of original plans and photos of the actual Reliance yacht. Visit our Frequently Asked Questions or call with questions.
Reliance was the 1903 America's Cup defender, the fourth America's Cup defender from the famous designer Nat Herreshoff, and reportedly the largest gaff-rigged cutter ever built.
Reliance passing the Brenton Reef light ship at high speed, 1903. Photograph by Nanthaniel L. Stebbins.
Her design took advantage of a loophole in the contemporary '90-foot' rule, to produce a vessel with long overhangs at each end, so that when she |heeled over, her waterline length (and therefore her speed) increased dramatically
Reliance was one of the earliest pure large racing yachts; she was completely unfinished below deck, with exposed frames. She was also the first to employ winches (below deck), in an era when her competitors relied on sheer man-power.
Crew of Reliance
Her sail plan was massive: from the tip of her bowsprit to the end of her 108 foot (32.9 m) boom, she measured 201 feet (61.2 m), and the tip of her mast was 199 feet (60.7 m) above the water (the height of a 20-story building). Everything else was to an equally gargantuan scale; her spinnaker pole was 84 feet (25.6 m) long, and her total sail area, around 17,000 square feet (1600 m²), was the equivalent of 8 12 meter class yachts.
Her racing career was extraordinarily brief -- and undefeated. She bested her America's Cup challenger, Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock III, designed by William Fife, in both races they actually finished (the third was called off due to light air). Sadly, this magnificent vessel was broken up the very next year; the 90-foot rule which had produced such extreme, dangerous and expensive vessels was abandoned, and Reliance became obsolete.
"They tell me I have a beautiful boat. I don't want a beautiful boat. What I want is a boat to lift the Cup -- a Reliance. Give me a homely boat, the homeliest boat that was ever designed, if she is as fast as Reliance." -- Sir Thomas Lipton, after his 1903 defeat
Specifications
Reliance in drydock
Overall length: 200 ft
Length at water line: 90 ft
Beam (width): 26 ft
Draft: 20 ft
Displacement: 189 tons
Mast height: Over 200 ft
Sail area: 16,200 sq ft
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