While following Freedom’s restoration story, one of these beautiful paintings entitled “Boys With Toys” by Cahill Taft, coincidentally appeared on our Facebook feed!
On the left, US-62 is one of Charles Roberston’s aforementioned “Cannonballs”. This 12 originally carried sail number KZ-5. She was the second of New Zealand’s three “plastic fantastics” — the revolutionary fiberglass boats commissioned by Sir Michael Fay for the 1987 America’s Cup. She is now named Laura and is owned and raced by Kip Curren with her original sail number (KZ-5).
On the right is US-46, then named Fiddler, she was owned and raced by Alfred Van Liew. She is now known as America II (US-46) and owned by the NY Harbor Sailing Foundation.
Columbia (US-16), Weatherly (US-17) and Courageous (US-26) are also shown in these iconic racing images.
Although all of the original paintings have been spoken for, prints of some of these beautiful images are available from Cahill Taft. (Captioned as titled by the artist)
12 METRE YACHT CLUB 