TO be part of this week's glorious celebration of the 150 anniversary of one of the world's oldest and most famous sporting trophies, the America's Cup, is seeing sailing history come alive as never before - and never again.

I find the sense of history as overwhelming as the sight of the world's most famous and beautiful racing yachts gathered in the Solent where it all began on that momentous first Cup day in 1851.

No wonder huge crowds of local boat-lovers flocked to every available shoreside viewing point on Tuesday when the grand 200-strong fleet circumnavigated the Isle of Wight in a stunningly spectacular anniversary race run over a similar clockwise course to the original.

Not only the mighty J-Class yachts were commanding attention, for eyes were particularly focused on the hauntingly nostalgic sight of the replica of the 130ft schooner America.

Her cream hull contrasted to the black of the original but otherwise she was a mesmerising copy of the craft that changed the history of yachting.

Try and imagine the atmosphere all those 150 years ago when this radically designed vessel, described at the time as a "rakish piratical looking craft", dared to take on the might of Great Britain's yachting elite - and won hands down.

The humiliation for the host country was total, for Britain was at the height of her imperial power. Her Navy dominated the world's seas and Queen Victoria, herself a race spectator, had just opened the Great Exhibition in the amazing Crystal Palace.

Across the Atlantic the shape of the modern United States had only just begun to emerge and the American Civil War had still to take place.

But its sailing ships and clippers were the world's fastest, a fact that was to influence the design of the schooner the New York Yacht Club was to unleash on an unwary Britain.

For the club to have retained the trophy for the next 132 years was good enough reason for a group of its leading members to be parading around the Jubilee Village at Cowes last weekend in be-ribboned straw boaters, looking as pleased as the cat that got the cream.

All right, they lost the Cup they regarded as their own to an aggressive Australia in 1983, and their country has since lost it again to present holders New Zealand.

But as I also went on a Jubilee walkabout on the opening night of this fantastic regatta the imposing figure of America's greatest Cup skipper, Dennis Connor, loomed into view, as if giving notice he intends to claim the trophy back in 2003. You can be sure he will give it his best shot, as head of a new Stars and Stripes syndicate.

Someone hoping the next encounter will be one trophy too far for the American veteran was also in my sights - millionaire Peter Harrison, head of Britain's first challenge since 1987, in which Bournemouth sailor Simon Fry and Poole's Adrian Stead are key crew figures.

He was wearing as big a smile as the whole New York YC brigade, and hopefully not just out of bravado.

Perhaps he had a premonition of one of his GBR Challenge yachts triumphantly leading the America's Cup Class in Tuesday's great race.

I was pleased to see local faces among another smartly turned out group of first-nighters I bumped into on what was a night of innumerable international sailing stars, including US nonagenarian Olin Stephens, doyen of America's Cup yacht design, who helmed Ranger to victory in 1937.

The quantity of champagne they downed was almost enough to float the fleet - some 1,500 glasses while anyone was still counting!

Overcoming a slight feeling of dizziness - at least two of the glasses were mine - I was able to recognise Parkstone YC member Phil Cotton and friends who had exchanged their Formula 18 catamarans only weeks after hosting their world championship to race on a very different craft.

This is the handsomely-varnished 66ft classic yacht Drumbeat, built in 1957 for famous sailing character Sir Max Aitken and affectionately still regarded as a Cowes boat, although her present owner, Alan Dykes, of Wimborne, keeps her at Cobbs Quay, in Poole.

Dykes, a Poole restaurateur, has restored the boat to pristine condition and Cotton and Co - including also Parkstone F18 captain Nigel Sandy, Duncan Johnston, Adrian Bunce, Geoff Sherwood, Paul Foster, and Keith Pollitt - had been in training since March to ensure they do her credit this week.

Whatever their final score it will have been enough to have raced alongside a host of the yachts that have distinguished the world's most famous sporting trophy down the years - with names like Intrepid, Kookaburra, Lionheart, Columbia, Sceptre and Sovereign.

The sight of their masts towering en masse above Cowes Yacht Haven in a sea of flags will remain with me forever.