| BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND, USA-(6-7-2004) America’s Cup legend Russell Coutts will be on hand this month as a presenter when the Herreshoff Marine Museum honors its Class of 2004 at the Rolex America’s Cup Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Coutts, a three-time America’s Cup winner, 1996 Hall of Fame inductee and two-time ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year, will lend his personal insight to the induction of Brad Butterworth into the Hall of Fame. As skipper and tactician, respectively, Coutts and Butterworth shared the historic moment in America’s Cup history when, in 2003, they captured the Cup for a record third time with the Swiss entry Alinghi. In 2000 and 1995 they led Team New Zealand to back-to-back victories.
Presenting Thomas A. Whidden will be Malin Burnham, Halsey Herreshoff and Gary Jobson, all known for their America’s Cup accomplishments. Burnham was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002 for his nearly three decades of enthusiastic hands-on involvement in America’s Cup competition that includes his term as skipper and helmsman of Enterprise in 1977, and his service as general chairman for the 1992 America’s Cup regatta in San Diego.
No voice is better known in the sailing world than that of 2003 Hall of Famer Gary Jobson. A champion sailor, commentator, author, coach and two-time winner of the America’s Cup, Jobson is warmly admired for bringing America’s Cup coverage into the homes of millions through his groundbreaking broadcasts on ESPN. Jobson will prepare video compilations on each inductee for a special presentation at the ceremony.
Halsey Herreshoff, president of the Herreshoff Marine Museum and America's Cup Hall of Fame, was a crew member with three winning America’s Cup entries: Columbia, in 1958; Courageous in 1974; and Freedom in 1980. As a direct descendant of Captain Nat Herreshoff, he leads the Herreshoff Marine Museum in its mission of promoting an appreciation of the unique Herreshoff accomplishments in yacht design and construction.
Leading America’s Cup historian and author John Rousmaniere will present Henry C. Haff, who is being honored posthumously. A member of the Selection Committee of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, Rousmaniere’s five books on the subject are The Golden Pastime: A New History of Yachting; The Low Black Schooner: Yacht America, 1851-1945; America's Cup Book; The Luxury Yachts; and A Picture History of the America's Cup. He edited and ghostwrote Dennis Conner’s first autobiography, No Excuse to Lose.
William Fife III, also inducted posthumously, will be presented by Peter Harrison, the British entrepreneur who founded the GBR Challenge for the America’s Cup.
The inductees will be honored on the occasion of the Rolex America’s Cup Hall of Fame 12th Annual Induction Ceremony to be held Thursday, June 10, 2004. The black-tie affair, sponsored by longtime museum supporter Rolex Watch U.S.A., is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Rosecliff, the Newport (R.I.) mansion modeled after the Grand Trianon in France. Tickets are available individually ($250) and by the table ($2,250-$5,000). For more information, visit www.herreshoff.org; call the America’s Cup Hall of Fame at 401-465-7610; or email j.blackmar@herreshoff.org. Proceeds from the ceremony will benefit the America’s Cup Hall of Fame.
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