28 CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016BYSTANDER
T
he word ‘bystander’ has fallen on hard
times. Its close relation, the passerby,
embodies a vigorous, if ambiguous,
quality of going places, stopping only to
save damsels in distress and cats in trees;
a Samaritan without the Biblical
baggage. But ‘bystander’ has become a synonym for
torpor flecked with viridity. Social psychologists (God
help us!) now use the term ‘bystander effect’ to describe
the apathy of the masses when a situation arises. The
bystander is, the OED relates superciliously, “a mere
spectator”. Clearly, they never clapped eyes on the J-Class
tender built for Harold S ‘Mike’ Vanderbilt in 1930 that
served seven America’s Cup yachts over four decades.
Vanderbilt himself provides his own definition in his
book Enterprise: “When the [J-Class yacht] Enterprise
was under way it was Bystander’s duty to live up to her
name and be ready to pass a line or to be useful in some
other way...” He goes on to explain his rationale behind
the commissioning of Bystander: “It was evident that we
would need a seaworthy motorboat to act as tender, a
boat capable of towing the Enterprise at fair speed to
and from the starting line of a race [and] large enough to
have accommodations for her crew of two and to
provide a reasonable sail locker.“Accordingly, we placed an order with the Greenport
Basin and Construction Company for a boat of 42ft
(12.8m) long, equipped with a 175hp medium-duty
Speedway petrol engine. Her crew’s quarters and a small
galley were located forward; the engine compartment,
towing bitts and a semi-enclosed steering platform
amidships; while a good-sized sail locker with a large
flush deck hatch occupied all the remaining space. [She]
proved to be indispensable. Her amidship towing bitts
and clear deck aft were invaluable in manoeuvring under
tow in crowded waters.”
She served not only Enterprise in the 1930 AC, but
Rainbow in 1934 and Ranger in 1937. She returned 21
years later for the next AC in 1958, under Vanderbilt
again, this time serving the 12-M Vim. Vim, a 1939 S&S
design, lost at trial stage to Columbia, a more recent S&S
design that would go on to win the cup that year.
At the end of the 1958 season, Vanderbilt sold
Bystander and Vim to the Australian yachtsman Sir Fred
Packer, a media owner and forerunner to Rupert
Murdoch. This was the beginning of the sustained
Australian assault on the Auld Mug that would finally
pay off in 1983, but not under Packer, who mounted
two failed attempts: with Gretel in 1962 and Gretel II in- Between those two occasions, in 1967, another
“She’s
always
attractive
and always
useful”
Elizabeth
Meyer, owner