| America's Cup Racing Off Sandy Hook |
| Year Place Defender Challenger 1870 New York (USA) Magic Cambria 1871 New York (USA) Columbia+Sappho Livonia 1876 New York (USA) Madeleine Countess of Dufferin 1881 New York (USA) Mischief Atalanta 1885 New York (USA) Puritan Genesta 1886 New York (USA) Mayflower Galatea 1887 New York (USA) Volunteer Thistle 1893 New York (USA) Vigilant Valkyrie II 1895 New York (USA) Defender Valkyrie III 1899 New York (USA) Columbia Shamrock 1901 New York (USA) Columbia Shamrock II 1903 New York (USA) Reliance Shamrock III 1920 New York (USA) Resolute Shamrock IV |
| From 1870 until 1920, the America's Cup races was held in Lower New York Bay, off Sandy Hook. In 1899, Guglielmo Marconi placed an antenna and receiving station at theTwin Lights Navesink Light Station to demonstrate his Wireless Telegraph. The New York Herald newspaper had hired him to report on the America’s Cup yacht races which were being held off the tip of Sandy Hook, the first use of wireless telegraphy on a commercial basis. The defending yacht for the New York Yacht Club was Columbia, designed by the famous Nathanael Greene Herreshoff. The challenger yacht was Sir Thomas Lipton's first Shamrock. The America's Cup races were sailed from October 16 to 20, 1899, in the best three out of five. There were three different courses: the first one, 15 miles to leeward and return from Sandy Hook Lightship; the second one, an equilateral triangle of 30 miles; the third one, 20 miles to leeward and return from Sandy Hook Lightship. In the first race on October 16, Columbia beat Shamrock by 10 minutes and 08 seconds on corrected time. In the second race on October 17, Columbia won after Shamrock withdrew after breaking its topmast. In the third race on October 20, Columbia beat Shamrock by 06 minutes and 34 seconds on corrected time. |
| Nathanael Greene Herreshoff's Columbia |
| Shamrock III off Sand Hook Lightship 1903 |
| Columbia went on to defend the cup again two years later against the much newer Shamrock II in a best of five race series from September 28 to October 4, 1901. Again three deferent courses were run, and once again the results were Columbia over Shamrock II three wins to nil. The first race on September 28, 30 mile windward-leeward course from Sandy Hook Lightship, was won by Columbia by one minute and 20 seconds on corrected time. The second race on October 3, a 30 mile triangular course, Columbia beat Shamrock II by three minutes and 45 seconds on corrected time. The third race on October 4, a 40 mile windward-leeward course, Columbia beat Shamrock II by 41 seconds on corrected time. Columbia made America's Cup history as the first boat to win the trophy two times in succession. |
| 1899 sailplan of Herreshoff's Columbia |