British American Cup

I read the article by Nigel Sharp on The British American Cup in the November issue of Classic Boat. My grandfather, Geoffrey Blake, had a small part to play in its inauguration. He had been Naval Attache in Washington before coming home to captain H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth, then the British Flagship. His friend Paul Hammond asked him to help organise what became the first round of this sailing competition. Later, when my grandfather was Admiral on HMS Hood in the Mediterranean, Paul Hammond lent him his yacht. Yet later, in the Second

World War, when my grandfather and USN Admiral Stark oversaw Anglo American naval cooperation in the Battle of the Atlantic and the combined operations in the Mediterranean and Normandy, Paul Hammond and he renewed their friendship when Hammond was in Admiral Stark’s team in London. I attach a page from some memoirs of my grandfather which I recently found in manuscript and would be very grateful if you could send this to Nigel Sharp in case it might interest him.

A CENTURY OF RIVALRY that started The British American Cup match races 100 years off in the 6-M class is still going after WORDS PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARP