After Harvard Law, he joined the
New York Central Railroad, the centerpiece of his family's vast railway empire, of which his father was president.
Sailing career As a boy, Harold Vanderbilt spent part of his summers at the Vanderbilt mansions—the Idle Hour estate in Long Island, New York, on the banks of the
Connetquot River;
Marble House at
Newport, Rhode Island; and later at
Belcourt, the Newport mansion of his stepfather,
Oliver Belmont. As an adult, he pursued his interest in yachting, winning six
King's Cups and five
Astor Cups at
regattas between 1922 and 1938. He served as commodore of the
New York Yacht Club from 1922 to 1924. In 1925, he built his own luxurious vacation home at
Palm Beach, Florida, that he called "El Solano". (
John Lennon, formerly of
the Beatles, purchased it shortly before his
1980 murder.) Vanderbilt achieved the pinnacle of
yacht racing in 1930 by defending the
America's Cup in the
J-class yacht Enterprise. His victory put him on the cover of the September 15, 1930, issue of
Time magazine (see image above). In 1934 Harold faced a dangerous challenger from the
United Kingdom,
Endeavour, owned by the aviation pioneer and industrialist
Thomas Sopwith.
Endeavour won the first two races but Vanderbilt's
Rainbow then won four races in a row and successfully defended the Cup. In 1937 he won again in
Ranger, the last of the J-class yachts to defend the Cup. He was posthumously elected to the
America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993. In the fall of 1935, Harold began a study of the yacht racing rules with three friends:
Philip Roosevelt, president of the North American Yacht Racing Union (predecessor to
US Sailing);
Van Santvoord Merle-Smith, president of the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound; and Henry H. Anderson. "The four men began by attempting to take the right-of-way rules as they were and amending them. After about six weeks of intensive effort, they finally concluded that they were getting exactly nowhere. It was the basic principles, not the details, that were causing the problems. They would have to start from scratch." In 1936, Vanderbilt, with assistance from the other three had developed an alternative set of rules, printed them, and mailed a copy to every yachtsman that he knew personally or by name in both the United States and England. These were virtually ignored, but a second edition in 1938 was improved, as were following versions. Vanderbilt continued to work with the various committees of the North American Yacht Racing Union until finally in 1960 the International Yacht Racing Union (predecessor to the International Sailing Federation or ISAF) adopted the rules that Vanderbilt and the Americans had developed over the previous quarter century.
Bridge Vanderbilt was also a card game enthusiast. In 1925, while on board
SS Finland, he originated changes to the scoring system through which the game of
contract bridge supplanted
auction bridge in popularity. Three years later he endowed the
Vanderbilt Cup awarded to the winners of the North American championship (now the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, or simply "the Vanderbilt", one of the
North American Bridge Championships marquee events). In 1932, and again in 1940, he was part of a team that won his own trophy; it remains one of the most prized in the game. Vanderbilt also donated the
World Bridge Federation Vanderbilt Trophy, awarded from 1960 to 2004 to the winner of the open category at the quadrennial
World Team Olympiad, and since 2008 to the winner of the corresponding event at the
World Mind Sports Games. Vanderbilt invented the first , which he called the "Club Convention" but which has since become more usually known as the
Vanderbilt Club. The strong club, or forcing club, family of has performed exceptionally well in world championship play. He wrote four books on the subject. Vanderbilt,
Ely Culbertson, and
Charles Goren were the three people named when
The Bridge World inaugurated a bridge "hall of fame" in 1964 and they were made founding members of the
ACBL Hall of Fame in 1995.In 1941, he was made ACBL Honorary Member of the Year and won the Wetzlar Trophy in 1940. He won the
North American Bridge Championships twice and the
Vanderbilt twice, the first in 1932 and the last in 1940. He was a runner-up at the
North American Bridge Championships and during the
Vanderbilt in 1937.
Later life In 1930, after a property dispute with the Town of
Palm Beach, Florida, Vanderbilt moved several miles south to an undeveloped area called
Manalapan, where he purchased 500 feet of oceanfront property and built a mansion called
Eastover. In 1931, he filed papers to incorporate the Town of Manalapan and became the Town's first mayor, serving from 1952 until 1966. He was a town councilman for 32 years and was called "mayor emeritus" when he retired from public service. In 1934, his sister,
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, built her own mansion on
Hypoluxo Island, across the water from Eastover. In addition to sailing, Vanderbilt was a licensed pilot, and in 1938 he acquired a
Sikorsky S-43 "Flying Boat". At the outbreak of the
Second World War, Vanderbilt's yachts
Vagrant and
Vara, which was under construction, were seized by the United States Navy. The
Vagrant was designated as YP-258 and later as PYc-30. Navy official
Edmond J. Moran met with Vanderbilt in New York, to present him with a check for $300,000 as compensation for the
Vara. Upon receiving the check, Vanderbilt signed it over to the
USO, so the money could be used to benefit servicemen. The
Vara was completed, renamed as the
USS Valiant, and designated as PC-509 (later as PYc-51). ==Personal life==