American Classic Ships and Sailboat Models

America's Cup William Fife

William Fife III (1857-1944), was the third generation of a family of Scottish yacht designers and builders. Fife was born in a small village which operated the family business from their yard on the beach in the village.

Today, it is thought that there are somewhat less than 100 Fife designs still in existence with perhaps fifty or so still sailing. Of the larger vessels, Altair, Belle Aventure, Cambria, Halloween, the Lady Anne, Moonbeam of Fife, Moonbeam IV, Mariquita and Tuiga grace the classic yacht circuit in Europe. In North America, the Fife ketchs, Adventuress and Sumurun, can be found in the waters of New England.

America's Cup Challenger

Beauty, grace and winning spirit.

The cup, originally offered as the Royal Yacht Squadron cup, is now named after the first yacht to win the trophy, the Schooner America. 

Star of India was built in 1863 as Euterpe, a full-rigged iron windjammer ship in Ramsey, Isle of Man. After a full career sailing from Great Britain to India then to New Zealand, she became a salmon hauler on the Alaska then to California route. After retirement in 1926, she was restored between 1962 and 1963 and is now a seaworthy museum ship ported at the San Diego Maritime Museum in San Diego, United States. She is the oldest ship that still sails regularly and the oldest iron hulled merchant ship still floating. The ship is both a California and United States National Historic Landmark.

The USS Constitution was built in the shipyard of Edmund Hartt in Boston, MA. It was made of 2,000 resilient live oak trees that were cut and milled at the Gascoigne Bluff in St. Simons, GA. The planks were up to seven inches thick. The design was unique of the time because the diagonal cross-bracing of her skeleton that was a part of why the ship was so strong. The copper on the spikes and bolts that held the planks in place and the copper that was sheathing and protecting the hull were forged by Paul Revere. It took a few tries before she was set out to sail on July 22, 1798. Her first job was to patrol the southeast coast of the United States during the Quasi-War with France. The sailors and marines took part in the amphibious operations against Puerto Plate, Santo Domingo when the French privateer Sandwich was cut out and the gund from the Spanish fort were spiked.