Sovereign was launched on June 6th, 1963, and sailed against Sceptre (the 1958 Americas Cup Challenger) on the Clyde. Sceptre won the early matches but Sovereign, once tuned, started to beat the older yacht, but only just. By August, the Royal Thames Yacht Club Committee was anxious about Sovereign’s performance.
Two Australian brothers, Frank and John Livingstone, offered to build a second yacht, and to save time, they asked David Boyd to design a boat similar to Sovereign. The new yacht, Kurrewa V, was only very slightly different. Before the two yachts left British waters they conducted trial races in May/June 1964, and then Sovereign was officially selected as the challenger.
The US yacht Constellation beat Sovereign by four wins to nil in the America’s Cup off Newport, Rhode Island, in September 1964.
Sovereign is now based at the Yacht Club de Cannes'(2009).
Information courtesy of David Hutchison.
