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Sir Thomas Lipton Cup — 70 Years
Donated to Southern Yacht Club in 1919 to encourage competition in the new Fish Class sloops and first won by Pensacola Yacht Club in 1920 in a three-race series with S.Y.C., the Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy has its 70th anniversary this year.
Sir Thomas Lipton, founder of the Lipton Tea Company, was born in Glasgow in 1850. As a boy, he was a cabin boy in the merchant fleet, worked in a New England grocery store, drove a mule-drawn streetcar in New Orleans, traveled for a portrait firm, labored on tabacco plantations in South Carolina and Virginia and, while still in his teens, returned to Scotland to open his own grocery store.
He was an innovator in publicity stunts for advertising, once having a parade of pigs dressed in kilts to advertise his Scottish bacon and occasionally hiding sovereigns in his cheese and tea bags to spur sales. This flair for merchandising led him to be a millionaire by the age of twenty-one.
Yachts were his passion and he built and owned several: the most famous, of course were the five “Shamrocks” he built to challenge for the America’s Cup. They made unsuccessful attempts in 1899-1902, 1903-1920 and 1930, with the “Shamrock IV” coming the closest to winning when it competed with Cornelius Vanderbilt’s “Resolute” in 1920.
Though Sir Thomas never emerged victorious in the America’s Cup challenge, he gained admiration and respect on both sides of the Atlantic for the sportsmanship he demonstrated in his losing efforts. This was best demonstrated by the fact that following the 1930 event, a Lipton Loving Cup Fund was established and in 1930 Will Rogers presented an 18 carat gold cup to Sir Thomas on behalf of the American people for this good sportsmanship. . .the same year the Royal Yacht Club of England conferred membership on Lipton in recognition of what he had done for yachting in his various America’s Cup challenges.
Those of us who have been participants or spectators in this Labor Day weekend Lipton Regatta over the years are, likewise, indebted to Sir Thomas for having made yachting more meaningful to the yacht clubs of the Gulf Yachting Association thru his presentation of the Lipton Challenge Trophy. And may we suggest that sometime before the regatta’s end, each of you “hoist one” in the memory of Sir Thomas, the man whose trophy we sail for this weekend.
PAST WINNERS
Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy
1920	Pensacola Yacht Club
1921	Eastern Shore Yacht Club
1922	Southern Yacht Club tied with Pensacola Yacht Club
1923	Pensacola Yacht Club
1924	Pensacola Yacht Club
1925	Southern Yacht Club
1926	Eastern Shore Yacht Club tied with St. Petersburg Yacht Club
1927	Pensacola Yacht Club tied with Southern Yacht Club
1928	Mobile Yacht Club
1929	Pensacola Yacht Club
1930	Sarasota Yacht Club
1931	Sarasota Yacht Club
1932	Sarasota Yacht Club
1933	Pensacola Yacht Club
1934	Buccaneer Yacht Club
1935	Pensacola Yacht Club
1936	Pensacola Yacht Club
1937	Biloxi Yacht Club
1938	Southern Yacht Club
1939	Southern Yacht Club
1940	Southern Yacht Club
1941	Southern Yacht Club
1942	Southern Yacht Club
1943	Southern Yacht Club
1944 St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club
1945 St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club tied with Southern Yacht Club
1946	St. Petersburg Yacht Club
1947	St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club
1948	Gulfport Yacht Club
1949	Pensacola Yacht Club
1950	St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club
1951	St. Petersburg Yacht Club
1952	Biloxi Yacht Club
1953	Biloxi Yacht Club
1954	Biloxi Yacht Club
1955	Biloxi Yacht Club
1956	Mobile Yacht Club
1957	St. Petersburg Yacht Club
1958	Biloxi Yacht Club
1959	Southern Yacht Club
1960	Southern Yacht Club
1961	Biloxi Yacht Club
1962	Southern Yacht Club
1963	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1964	St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club
1965	St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club
1966	Biloxi Yacht Club
1967	St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club
1968	New Orleans Yacht Club
1969	Pensacola Yacht Club
1970	Pensacola Yacht Club
1971	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1972	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1973	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1974	Southern Yacht Club
1975	New Orleans Yacht Club
1976	Pensacola Yacht Club
1977	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1978	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1979	Southern Yacht Club
1980	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1981	Pensacola Yacht Club
1982	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1983	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1984	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1985	Southern Yacht Club
1986	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1987	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club
1988	Bay-Waveland Yacht Club


Bay Waveland Yacht Club Lipton-Cup-70th---1989-(02)
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