New Museum Pays Tribute to America’s Cup

The America’s Cup Museum, touted as the most comprehensive collection of America’s Cup memorabilia dating to the initial 1851 race, opens today on San Diego’s waterfront.

Constructed in the Cruise Line Terminal building at the B Street Pier, the 5,000-square-foot museum is stocked with hundreds of photos and artifacts in six exhibition areas, said Gigi Taylor, the museum’s manager.

The museum also features a theater where visitors can watch films on the America’s Cup.

“You’ll see everything from shirts and hats that were used by early Cup enthusiasts . . . to beautiful cups and trophies won in past races,” she said.

“In fact, the America’s Cup will be here for the first two days of the opening.”

Also featured are the Rosenfeld Collection, a display of photographs taken during every America’s Cup race since 1885.

Artifacts such as the rudder of the schooner “America,” which won the first Cup in 1851 against a fleet of British yachts, also will be on display.

The bulk of the exhibits are on loan from the Mystic Seaport Museum, in Mystic, Conn., which developed the museum. Displays are also drawn from collections belonging to the New York Yacht Club and the San Diego Maritime Museum.

The museum will be open daily through May, 1992, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Taylor said. Admission prices are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, military and youths 13 to 18, and $1 for children between 6 and 12. Children 5 and under will be admitted free.

For further information call 685-1408.