Latest news with #NewYorkYachtClub
New York Post
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Stunning Upper East Side Gilded Age mansion will be gutted and turned into private club for NYC elites
One of the Upper East Side's most prominent and last Gilded Age mansions is slated for a sweeping interior teardown, part of a plan to transform the 1903 landmark into a members-only private club with residences above. Permits recently filed with the Department of Buildings outline a $19 million renovation at 854 Fifth Avenue that would strip out and reconfigure more than half of the property's footprint — which includes adding a rooftop extension and enclosing the courtyard for expanded dining space, according to Crains. The exterior, protected under the city's landmark designation, is expected to remain intact. The mansion is roughly 16,000 square feet. Plans include reimagining the lower floors as dining rooms, lounges, and a bar for club members — while the top two levels will hold three private apartments totaling around 6,000 square feet. Once permits are approved, construction will soon begin. 8 Plans are moving forward to convert the landmarked Gilded Age mansion at 854 Fifth Avenue into a members-only private club. Douglas Elliman Realty/Scott Win 8 The $19 million renovation will include gutting the interior. Gamut Photos Inc. The Beaux Arts townhouse – designed by Warren and Wetmore, the architects behind Grand Central Terminal and the New York Yacht Club — has been vacant since 2018. It previously served as the Permanent Mission of the former Yugoslavia to the United Nations. In 2022, the 30-foot-wide mansion that sits between 66th and 67th streets changed hands for $50 million in an all-cash deal. Records link the purchase to Qatari investor Abdulhadi Al-Hajri, who has made high-profile acquisitions, including London's Ritz Hotel. 8 Vacant since 2018, the property was formerly the Permanent Mission of Yugoslavia to the UN and was sold in 2022 for $50 million in an all-cash deal to an entity connected to Qatari businessman Abdulhadi Al-Hajri. Douglas Elliman Realty/Scott Win 8 Approved renovation plans call for transforming the first through fourth floors into about 11,000 square feet of club, bar, lounge, and dining space; creating three residential units on the top floors; adding a rooftop addition; enclosing the courtyard for more dining; and installing an ADA-accessible lift. Douglas Elliman Realty/Scott Win 8 Membership will be limited, with small-scale live music and events. Douglas Elliman Realty/Scott Win Developer Howard Corney, connected to UK-based Thornham Residential Holdings, is overseeing the work. Peter Pennoyer Architect is the architect of record. The Post has reached out for comment. 8 The mansion was built in 1903 by Warren and Wetmore – architects of the New York Yacht Club and Grand Central Terminal. Douglas Elliman Realty/Scott Win 8 The mansion was one of the first buildings to receive landmark designation in 1969. Douglas Elliman Realty/Scott Win 8 Peter Pennoyer Architect is leading the redesign. Douglas Elliman Realty/Scott Win Plans also call for an ADA-accessible lift at the entrance and 2,500 square feet of new rooftop construction. Memberships will be limited, and filings indicate that any live music or events will be kept small to avoid large crowds.
Japan Today
6 days ago
- Sport
- Japan Today
New America's Cup protocol sees female sailors, battery power in seismic change for the Auld Mug
yachting By STEVE McMORRAN New rules for the America's Cup sailing regatta announced Tuesday have been described as a seismic moment for the historic event and the 'boldest change in 174 years of the Cup.' Crews competing in the 38th Cup regatta in Naples, Italy in July of 2027 will comprise five members, including at least one woman. Under new criteria, at least two members of each crew, including a female, must be nationals of each team's country of origin. Each 76-foot America's Cup boat will also carry a sixth 'guest' crew member who could be a celebrity, influencer, media representative or sponsor. The America's Cup will now be contested every two years and the protocol or governing document for the event now establishes a system of governance under which all competing teams will have equal responsibility for organizing the event on and off the water and for the control of media and commercial rights. Most functions of the boats will now be powered by batteries, rather than the brute strength of their crews. The moves to modernize the Cup have mostly been well received by competitors and key shareholders. 'As the founding Trustee of the America's Cup, we are completely supportive of the move to modernize the oldest sporting trophy in the world,' said Jay Cross, commodore of the New York Yacht Club. The NYYC was the first to win the America's Cup when its schooner America — from which the trophy takes its name — beat 15 yachts representing Britain's Royal Yacht Squadron in a race around the Isle of Wight in 1851. The United States held the trophy until 1983, when the challenger Australia II ended the streak. Team New Zealand has dominated the recent regattas. 'As the three-time successive winner and defender of the America's Cup and along with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron as current Trustee, we feel the responsibility to continue to drive the growth of the America's Cup event,' Team New Zealand chief executive Grant Dalton said. 'Although the America's Cup is the oldest trophy in international sport and the pinnacle of sailing, its Achilles heel has always been its lack of continuity," he said. "So this transformation now gives all teams collective stewardship and we are introducing a new executive management team to be headed up by a new independent CEO.' In a move to contain costs, a cap of 75 million euros ($87 million) has been imposed on each team competing in 2027. Teams returning from the last America's Cup will be required to retain the same hulls while new teams will have to either acquire an AC75 hull or build to the same specifications. 'This is a seismic moment for the America's Cup,' Athena Racing team principal Ben Ainslie said. Athena Racing is the Challenger of Record which develops the protocol in partnership with the defender. 'The partnership agreement fundamentally reshapes the governance and organization of the event,' Ainslie said. 'The teams and yacht clubs share a vision to make the America's Cup more inclusive, compelling and financially sustainable. "This new model marks a unified commitment to that vision. I am excited for the future of the sport.' Tuesday's announcement follows a fractious development process for the protocol during which Athena Racing and the American and Swiss challengers criticized Team New Zealand's management of the event. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Straits Times
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Sailing–Admiral's Cup revival draws world's elite to Cowes
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox LONDON - After a two-decade hiatus, the Admiral's Cup returns to Cowes this month, drawing a top-tier international fleet of teams packed with America's Cup veterans, Olympic medallists and offshore specialists competing for one of sailing's most coveted trophies. The 2025 event, from July 17-August 1, features a series of inshore and offshore races in the Solent, culminating in the 100th anniversary Rolex Fastnet Race. The team with the best combined score across all races will win the Admiral's Cup. Among the frontrunners, Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Karl Kwok helms Beau Geste, bringing together Gavin Brady (six America's Cup campaigns for New Zealand), four-time Cup winner Simon Daubney, and Britain's double Olympic medallist Nic Rogers. New York Yacht Club's Black Pearl, skippered by Germany's Stefan Jentzsch, features British veteran Paul Standbridge, calling this Admiral's Cup his farewell after five round-the-world races and more than 15 Fastnets. Italy's Django WR51—representing the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda—lines up with Vasco Vascotto, owner of more than 25 world titles, alongside a seasoned international crew. The Netherlands are sending a new wave -- the Dutch Offshore Sailing Team's ROST VanUden is skippered by Volvo Ocean Race veteran Gerd-Jan Poortman, but his teenage crew weren't born when the Dutch last lifted the Cup in 1999. Nicklas Zennstrom leads the Royal Swedish Yacht Club's Ran 8, with Ireland's Justin Slattery, a double Volvo winner, on board. Ran remains the only modern team to defend the Fastnet Challenge Cup with the same boat. Another Swede, Daniel Baum, enters the fleet's only wooden yacht, the Tison 48 Elida representing the Hamburg Sailing Team. Elida's secret weapon is the Isle of Wight's James Gair in its crew -- he has 14 Rolex Fastnet Races on his CV and an expert knowledge of the Solent. Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the Admiral's Cup is a team-based offshore sailing event where yacht clubs represent their countries. Each team typically fields two boats — one larger and one smaller — chosen by the club based on performance and eligibility. Crews are selected by the clubs and often include a mix of top professionals, Olympic medallists and offshore race veterans. While sailors can be international, teams race under their club's national flag. REUTERS
Daily Mail
25-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Blast from the past: Controversial Aussie figure's jailhouse painting resurfaces at auction and goes for a tidy sum
An artwork painted by national hero turned disgraced tycoon Alan Bond while in jail for fraud has sold for $2196 at a recent auction, well over its estimated value. Remembered alternatively as the man who bankrolled Australia's unlikely victory in the 1983 America's Cup, and as the man who oversaw one of the biggest corporate collapses in Australian history, Alan Bond lived an unusual life. His mixed legacy resurfaced at Gibson's Australian, Maritime and Exploration auction on Monday where his jailhouse painting went under the hammer. The closing price included a 22 per cent buyer's premium but exceeded its estimated value of $100 to $300 by an order of magnitude. The crude painting was dubbed 'Australia II' after its subject - the yacht whose victory robbed the New York Yacht Club of its unbroken 132-year winning streak. It was after that victory that Mr Hawke, then prime minister, famously said: 'Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum.' Bond painted the work in 1999, two years into his four year jail stint for siphoning $1.2billion from the publicly listed Bell Resources to shore up the ailing Bond Corporation. According to the Australian Financial Review, the work came to the auction courtesy of Bond's former lawyer Julian Burnside KC and his wife Kate Durham. Ms Durham told the paper the painting had been hung in Mr Burnside's Melbourne chambers. 'It was a gift,' she said, adding Mr Burnside considered the late businessman to have been both 'good company and yet curiously over-optimistic'. 'To Julian with special thanks' is written on the back on the painting. The one-time billionaire occupies a unique place in Australian history. By the time of his death in 2015 following complications from heart surgery in a Perth hospital, Bond had made, lost and remade his fortune several times over. He rose to prominence at the helm of Bond Corporation which began in property development before expanding into brewing, television and gold mining. In 1987, he founded Australia's first private university, Bond University, which still exists to this day. The tide of public opinion first turned against him in the early 1990s when he was declared bankrupt after failing to repay a $194million loan for a nickel mining project. He was jailed the same year with reported debts exceeding $1.8billion. Bond was released that same year following a successful retrial and, three years later, his family bought him out of bankruptcy. In 1996, however, he found himself again behind bars for the secret, sweetheart sale of Manet's masterpiece from Bond Corporation to a private family-owned vehicle. It was his illegal siphoning of cash from Bell Resources and subsequent jail sentence in 1997, however, that ultimately precipitated the collapse of Bond Corporation. That same year, he was stripped of his Officer of the Order of Australia title, awarded for his role in the America's Cup victory. In 2000, he was released from Karnet Prison Farm, a minimum-security facility in the Keysbrook State Forest in WA, four years into a seven year sentence. Following his release, Bond managed to rebuild his wealth through a series of mining investments, predominantly in Africa. Inside of a decade, he would be readmitted to the Business Review Weekly's 'Rich 200 List' with an estimated wealth of $265m. His death in 2015 following complications arising from open heart surgery in a Perth Hospital, prompted an outpouring of mixed tributes from friends, enemies and loved ones. Hawke told reporters at the time it was 'impossible to overstate how much (Bond) lifted the spirits of Australia' following the America's Cup victory. 'The spirits of Australia were low in the early 1980s,' Hawke said. 'We had gone through bad economic times. The country was badly divided. But we united around this marvellous historic victory.' Hawke acknowledged Bond was a dodgy businessman whose dealings hurt many investors but said: 'On balance, he'll always rank remarkably high for the contribution he made to Australia.' Journalist and former host of ABC's Media Watch, who spent a significant portion of his career chronicling Bond's rise and fall said: 'He made life interesting, that's for sure'. 'If Bond comes back in another life, my hope would be that he has a little more regard for the truth and that he takes as much care with other people's money as he always did with his own,' Barry said at the time.
Vogue
21-06-2025
- Business
- Vogue
Ralph Lauren Spring 2026 Menswear Collection
Even as the USA's reputational stock falters, global regard for Ralph Lauren—the most all-American of American brands—is on the up: Vogue Business last month reported the company's sales in Europe and China had increased 12 per cent and 9 per cent respectively in the fiscal year 2025. That uptick means that the majority of the company's total $7.1 billion of revenue for the same period was generated beyond the Land of The Free. So during a period where luxury more broadly has also been faltering, how has RL been bucking the trend two-fold? This evening's Ralph Lauren Purple Label pointed to at least part of an answer. Once you'd steered beyond the vintage car in the courtyard, the presentation was split into two sections. The first cluster of looks were garments for an idealized version of the New York Yacht Club: wearable American magic. Navy washed against white on a piped terry boating blazer worn with a bengal stripe shirt and cravat over pleated linen shorts and ankle-strapped espadrilles. A four-button (silver) navy double breasted blazer with ersatz branded club badge was commodore-level quality. Thickly woven textured silk navy short sleeve shirting and drop shoulder color block knits, or classic Ralph (via the Marylebone Cricket Club) cable-knit sweaters all added to the breezy feel. The next section, housed in the brand's Milan palazzo's first-floor courtyard, was a tonal triumph. Of the maybe 25-strong cast of globally-sourced heartthrobs, around 23 wore shades running from the pale khaki of a game-pouched fishing jacket over a safari shirt and action pant to the richly-burnished, nutty brown of a distressed leather flight jacket with complementarily-strapped pilot's watch. From the slubby silk linen windowpane check field jackets to the tailored linen takes on mid-century military shirting via the darker interjections of art-deco intarsia tuxedo jackets, these were clothes for sophisticated yet unstuffy heroes. The jaunty cravats and woven short sleeve shirting recalled Cary Grant as John Robie The Cat; the masterful khakis were slimmed down Hemingway fare for living large on The Keys; and the flight jacket and tux were prime Pitt and Clooney material. Lauren has always said he designs cinematically: this was American luxury that evoked a reassuring, aspirational, and highly-idealized version of its homeland—and which seemed all the more desirable thanks to that vision's current distance from reality.
