Race History

LIPTON CUP – THE EVOLUTION CONTINUES

The 110 year history of the inter-club challenge for the Lipton Cup can be viewed through many different lenses. Each rewards the viewer with a different glimpse into the evolution of our sport in Southern Africa.  One of the key aspects of course is the kind of craft used in the contest, and in this sense there are two broad eras in the history of the Lipton Challenge – the Designer-Rule era, and the One-Design era.

In the Designer-Rule era defending or winning the Cup was very much about having the best design within the rule in force. Initially it was the International Rating Rule of Great Britain with a rating range of 6m to 8m, then between 1953 and 1981 the 30 Square Metre Rule, and finally in 1982 and 1983 the IOR Quarter Ton Rule.

That all changed with the launch of Angelo Lavranos’s remarkable new 26-footer nearly 50 years ago. The explosive growth of the L26 Class – some 80 boats built within the first three years – gave SA its first ever broadly-based one-design keelboat suitable for deep sea racing.

The Lipton Trustees of the day were quick to recognise the benefits that one-design racing offered the Lipton inter-club, and the L26 became the “Lipton Boat” in 1984. The new class gave South Africa an unparalleled platform for close and competitive racing in offshore conditions, and attracted many of this country’s top sailors to the Lipton Challenge.

The role of the trusty L26 for the next four decades, not only in the Lipton inter-club but in sailing in South Africa more generally, should never be underestimated. However, in recent times as the boats have aged and the world of small keelboat racing has moved in the direction of sport boats and beyond, interest in L26 racing declined. As a result, fewer and fewer of South Africa’s most competitive sailors were prepared to mount challenges for the Lipton Cup. It was clearly time for a change.

The opportunity to move forward came when Irvine Laidlaw commissioned the renowned Irish designer Mark Mills to develop a no-compromise high-performance sport boat suitable for our coastal conditions. The Cape 31 burst onto the South African sailing scene and immediately got the attention of serious sailors across the country. It was certainly an exciting step towards the future for deep sea one-design racing in our part of the world.
Although changing the boat for the Lipton Challenge is explicitly provided for in the Cup’s Deed of Gift via an amendment signed by Sir Thomas in 1925, it does require the formal approval of the majority of recognized yacht clubs. During 2017 the Lipton Trustees wrote to the Commodores of all 54 clubs asking for an opinion on a possible change to the Cape 31. On balance the responding clubs favoured one more year in the L26, and then a change to the Cape 31 in 2019. This cleared the way for a formal vote in 2018, and the outcome supported a change to the Cape 31 on a trial basis for the next two years.
This fundamentally changed the game.

A super-strict one-design class, a much more sophisticated rig to master, big asymmetrical kites that bring downwind tactics front and centre, a high-performance boat that rewards great boat-handling and punishes the slightest fumble, all brought fresh challenges.
But the real change turned out to be in the level of competition. What the Cape 31 did was to attract many of South Africa’s best sailors to the class, and at the same time opened up exciting opportunities for our up-and-coming young talent.
In fact, looking at the track records of international racing experience amongst the seventy or more sailors of all ages who competed in the 2019 Lipton Challenge, it is safe to say that there has never before in South Africa’s sailing history been such a concentration of this country’s top sailors in one fleet at one time.

Then COVID 19 struck, and the 2020 contest had to be cancelled altogether. The 2021 challenge, held under the shadow of the pandemic, was a somewhat muted event. By that time it was becoming clear that the Cape 31, as spectacular as the design has turned out to be, wasn’t likely to gain traction in South Africa beyond Cape Town.

In order to make the Lipton Challenge more accessible to more clubs in the other parts of this country, a two year trial was conducted in which the event was opened up to medium-sized keel boats under the ORC rating system. While this did enable more clubs to campaign for the Cup, the cut and thrust of one-design racing was sorely missed. It was time for another change.

From time to time over the years, the J22 has been proposed as a “Lipton boat”, but was rejected on the grounds that it’s not really suitable for “deep sea” racing, and had failed to take root as a class at any of our coastal clubs. On the other side of the coin however, it is an excellent one-design class, it has been well managed in South Africa for decades, there are plenty of boats spread around the country, and they are affordable to acquire and to run. The scales were finally tipped, and the day had arrived for the little J22 to prove the sceptics wrong.

The 2025 Lipton Challenge saw a competitive fleet of 18 boats on the starting line and, most significantly, they represented clubs from all over South Africa. Day 1 challenged the sailors with a solid 20 gusting 25 knot Table Bay southeaster, right on the edge for the J22, but all boats survived without serious damage and were back in the fray the next day. The 2025 contest delivered the best fleet racing since 2019, and the contest for the Cup is once again alive and well. Sir Thomas Lipton would surely have been pleased.