America's curves

The yacht America 1851, the first winner of the America's cup, designed by the Steers brothers as a development of their fast pilot boats with  a shape of hull that would fundamentally change yacht design, moving away from the cod's head/mackerel's tail hull form of older boats. The clipper bow and schooner rig was much modified during the boat's life to keep it competitive but the boat's visit to England in 1851 had a huge influence on British design, whatever the outcome of the controversial race.

Unlike more modern America's cup designs, America was armed with three canons. Images below from Francois Chevalier, a very interesting designer/author/historian.