Sir Myles Dermot Norris Wyatt (1903–1968), was an aviation magnate who built a small aeronautical company into British United Airways, Europe's biggest privately owned airline in Colchester.
In 1934, Wyatt joined Airwork Ltd., an aviation-equipment supplier, became managing director in 1938, in the postwar years snapped up smaller independent airlines to form BUA, and in 1961 created Air Holdings Ltd., a financial umbrella for the group, which at the time of his death had just agreed to purchase 50 Lockheed airbuses for $750 million, intending to use or resell the planes overseas.
Excerpt from "The Admiral's Cup" by Bob Fisher:
Sir Myles Wyatt, then Admiral of the RORC, was keen for British ocean racing crews and skippers to harden their approach to the sport. He had seen the way that sport in general was developing and was sure that something similar would happen to ocean racing.
By the mid-fifties there had not been much change in approach for twenty years, not since Olin and Rod Stephens had won the Fastnet Race on two consecutive occasions. True, a war had intervened, but that conflict had seen immense developments in technology that could have affected yachting.
Indeed, they had been reflected in most other spheres. The boom in dinghy sailing was a direct result of the availability of cheap waterproof glues and good waterproof plywood. That brought more people on to the water and, with the greater interchange of ideas, development in ocean racing was only a matter of conservatism protecting a way of life. It couldn't be held off forever. British pride had suffered several blows: after Dorade's wins for the Stephens brothers in 1931 and 1933, Rod was back for the Fastnet in 1935 aboard the Stephens-designed Stormy Weather for another win for America and two years later Kees Bruynzeel won for Holland with another Stephens-designed yawl Zeearend. It was left to Ikey Bell's Bloodhound, later to be owned by Sir Myles Wyatt before it passed into the hands of the British Royal Family, to restore honour for the RORC in 1939. The Fastnet was, after all, the total encapsulation of ocean racing at that time and this was a feeling which continued for many more years.
Increased international competition was bound, in Wyatt's eyes, to improve the standard of ocean racing in Britain and he felt that by encouraging foreign entries to Cowes Week and by having the Week sandwiched with good ocean races, there would be an improvement in British standards of racing. It was to that end that the Admiral's Cup was born.
Wyatt, together with the four men who were to own the three boats which formed Britain's team in the first ever Cup series in 1957, presented a silver gilt cup, then costing £300, for a challenge to teams from overseas nations over a series comprising the Channel Race, two inshore races in Cowes Week and the Fastnet.
John Illingworth and Peter Green shared Myth of Malham, the legendary boat which Illingworth designed in conjunction with Laurent Giles and Angus Primrose. Illingworth had built her specifically to win races and that she did with unfailing regularity. She won the Fastnet in her first season, 1947, and again in 1949. Illingworth was an obvious partner for Wyatt in this venture. So too was Geoffrey Pattinson whose Jocasta had been first, second and fourth in the three previous Fastnets in class I. Selwyn Slater's Uomie had won her class in the 1953 Fastnet.
In 1957 the Admiral's Cup was largely a private affair with the Americans taking up the challenge. Their yachts had been familiar enough in earlier Cowes Weeks and their performances in Fastnets were as much a cause of the Cup as anything else. The points format of the series put a premium on performances in the offshore races with double points loading on the Channel Race and triple on the Fastnet. That format continued almost to this day and with the now larger number of entries puts an even greater insistence on top performance in the Fastnet.
Necessarily there were no British trials in 1957: the team was self-selection. There had not been a rush to build boats for the event and the ones which did represent Britain were all well-seasoned campaigners; in those days boats were built to last a decade as can be seen by the inclusion of the eleven-year-old Myth in the team. The handicap rule (in Britain it was one administered by the RORC) was perhaps more static. The American rule, that of the Cruising Club of America, developed as a result of that Club's race from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda, was also static. But the two were not alike and this posed certain problems as every American yacht racing in Britain had to be re-measured and rated to the RORC rule which was not favourable to boats built to the CCA rules. It was a major problem for which the Admiral's Cup was primarily responsible.
It is doubtful whether Wyatt realised what he had started; in later years he repeatedly said that he did regret the effect that the Admiral's Cup had had upon the sport because winning had become so totally serious a business that the enjoyment of the sport was being lost. On the other hand he had seen the beginnings of that attitude in other sports and must have been aware of the likelihood of the change.