Hanuman

Written by Carlos Serra / Photos : Cory Silken.Translation: Endeavour Services..Issue Nº 52

On board

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J Class splendour

The replica of 1937’s Endeavour II marries the talents of Royal Huisman, Gerry Dijkstra and Peter Beeldsnijder to the dreams of an owner determined to create exceptional yachts.

Could anything really eclipse Endeavour, the J-class rebuilt in the 1980s by Royal Huisman and today still a gauge of the revival these giants are undergoing?
A rhetorical but understandable question. Even though it’s seemingly impossible to repeat something as magical as the masterpiece produced back then by yachtswoman Elizabeth Meyer and shipbuilder Wolter Huisman, who rekindled the spirit of the original Endeavour from leftover parts of the steel hull, technical advances and the Dutch shipyard’s wealth of experience twenty years later call for some sort of perceptible headway.
The challenge, though, was on the table. Hanuman is a homage to Endeavour II, the yacht commissioned by Sir Thomas Sopwith to challenge Harold Vanderbilt’s Ranger in the 1937 America’s Cup. Widely considered as superior to her American rival by those who saw her race, Endeavour II suffered the biased rules which have always favoured the Cup defender: on this occasion, the English challenger having to cross the Atlantic on her own keel and then forced to compete with the same sails and rigging used on the crossing.
Endeavour II lost one after another of the four races, giving victory to Ranger and underlining that in competitions the best man always wins. However, Endeavour II, designed by Charles Nicholson, was more eye-catching, more stylish and more harmonious. And this can still be seen now when Hanuman is in the water with the replica of the American yacht, against whom she has competed a couple of times. What’s more, the results show that any differences now are practically non-existent or difficult at least to judge.