[Deathwatch] Briggs Cunningham, Racecar Pioneer and Sailing Champ, 96

[Deathwatch Central]

Briggs Cunningham, 96, Racecar Pioneer and Sailing Champ, Dies
By BARBARA LLOYD

riggs Swift Cunningham II, a sportsman whose affinity for yachts and
cars drew him to sailboat racing as an America's Cup skipper and to
auto racing as the creator and driver of his custom sports car, died
Wednesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 96.

Cunningham sailed in the 1958 Cup races off Newport, R.I., as skipper
of the 12-meter sloop Columbia, successfully defending the America's
Cup against the British challenger, the 12-meter yacht Sceptre.

"Briggs was like a fine violinist with boats," said Victor Romagna, who
sailed with Cunningham in the competition. "He would need someone to do
the tuning, as one might with a Stradivarius, but afterwards, we would
hand the boat back to Briggs. Then he would play the instrument
absolutely perfectly."

Cunningham was born Jan. 19, 1907, in Cincinnati. His family helped
finance railways, telecommunications, meat-packing and commercial real
estate, and his father was the chief financier of two young men who had
developed a bath soap that floated. Their names were William Cooper
Procter and James Norris Gamble.

Cunningham spent his summers in the Northeast and learned to sail by
the time he was 6. His family moved to Southport, Conn., when he was a
teenager. At age 17, Cunningham joined the Star Class racing fleet at
the Pequot Yacht Club in Southport. The venture was the beginning of
his 30 years of sailboat racing on Long Island Sound.

He attended Yale for two years, then left in 1929 to marry Lucy
Bedford, daughter of a Standard Oil heir, Fred Bedford. It was during
this period that he entered into sport as a way of life.

As a member of the New York Yacht Club, he continued to sail the
Columbia in club races through the 1960's. He also developed the
Cunningham, a common device on sailboats that adjusts sail tension.

Cunningham's interest in racecars began in 1939 when he participated in
the New York World's Fair.

After World War II, he began competing in the 24-hour auto races at Le
Mans, France, and in 1951 he showed up with the Cunningham C-4R, a
racecar he had designed and built. Made with a sleek, hand-hammered
aluminum body and Chrysler's newly introduced V-8 engine, the
Cunningham has been called America's first sports car. A year later,
Cunningham and his partner, Bill Spear, placed fourth with the car at
Le Mans, averaging 88 miles an hour.

"Cunningham himself was never particularly interested in short races,"
Road and Track magazine said in 1979. "What he liked to do was get out
and drive and drive and drive, which was why Le Mans was so fascinating
to him."

Having raced his sports car for the last time in 1955, Cunningham began
competing on a Jaguar team and became a Jaguar distributor in New
England. After moving to California in 1962, he bought several vintage
powerboats and, in 1964, opened the Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum
in Costa Mesa, Calif., which has since changed ownership and was moved
to a private museum in Florida.

In 1993, he was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame at the
Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, R.I. Earlier this year, he was
inducted into the Motor Sports Hall of Fame.

Cunningham was married 40 years to his second wife, the former Laura
Cramer. He is survived by his wife; a son, Briggs Cunningham III of
Danville, Ky.; two daughters, Lucie McKinney of Green Farms, Conn., and
Cythlen Maddock of Palm Beach, Fla.; two stepsons, 19 grandchildren and
31 great-grandchildren.