There it was, supported on three sawhorses. I had never seen the finished mast before. I took this picture and walked the length of the mast, periodically stopping to rub my hand along the cold aluminum. Suddenly a big guy came out of a trailor that was just out of sight on the right of this picture. Obviously, I was not supposed to be there.
Before he could chase me away, I said, "I see that you've refurbished the old Courageous spar." He replied, "Yes, that's the Gentry Mast. It has won two America's Cups."
I replied, "Yes, I know. My name is Arvel Gentry." His voice changed as we shook hands. He then took me into the trailor and rummaged through a box of old fittings. He pulled out the shroud tang that had failed and caused the mast to fail. It was his way of telling me that it was not the "mast" that failed, but it was the small fitting in my hand.
I later told my wife, Pat, that it was just those few moments in the rain in Newport that made the many hours of work for the America's Cup all worth it.
My involvement with the America's Cup really started on September 20, 1973. I didn't know what to expect as I arrived at Bill Ficker's house in Newport Beach. Bill Ficker had defended the Cup in 1970 on Intrepid, and was slated to skipper Courageous in '74. Dave Pedrick of Sparkman and Stephens and Bud Gardiner, were also there. I knew Bud Gardiner from the Cal 20 Nationals in 1970. This was all pretty heavy stuff for an amateur sailor like me.
It is easy for me to verify the September 20, 1973 date because when I arrived, everyone was upstairs watching the famous tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King.
The result of the meeting was that I would try to design a better mast for Courageous, and Bud Gardiner would arrange for construction of the three sections and for shipment to the East Coast. At the end of my mast research, Bill Ficker arranged for a test sail of my best design and the standard ellipse on an Ericson 46 in Newport. Small tufts were attached to each of the masts and back onto the mainsail. Ficker and Gardiner were on board and could see the flow results themselves. There was clearly less flow separation behind the new F-4 mast section than the elliptical section. "Let's build the new mast."
With the new mast, Courageous went on to defend the America's Cup with Bob Bavier as skipper in 1974, and again in 1977 with Ted Turner as skipper and Gary Jobson as tactician.
For the Yachting Magazine article on the Courageous mast go to Design of Courageous Mast.
The technical details are in Studies of Mast Section Aerodynamics.
