Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 111, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1899 — WIND FAILS YACHTS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WIND FAILS YACHTS.

FIRST OF THE CUP RACES A DISAPPOINTMENT. Boats Unable to Finish Within the Prescribed Time Limit—Contest Becomes Finally a Mere Drifting Match —Flaky Breezes the Cause. A fickle wind that blew by fits and starts made a fluke of the first of the races for the America’s cup between the

Colombia and the Shamrock, and it left them three miles from home when the time that they had under the rules to finish the course had elapsed. For the tenth time in the history of the America’s cup the British Tuesday tried to win a battered piece of silverware. Its intrinsic value is only a few hundred sovereigns, yet hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in efforts

to win it back. Sir Thomas Lipton, a man of millions, whose boast has been that he never failed in anything he undertook, is the latest Britisher to try and win back the cup and re-establish English supremacy on the seas. Ever since the year 1851 there has been a silver cup twenty-four inches tall and weighing 100 ounces in possession of America’s yachtsmen, which Englishmen have eagerly coveted. This aged bit of metal represents the yachting championship of the world and was first won by the schooner America and subsequently defended with success by nine craft representing the flower of American yachts. In 1871 the schooners Columbia and Sappho jointly represented this country. On all other occasions but one boat carried American colors to victory. Ten contests

have been sailed, ranging over a period of forty-four years. .The last series of races was sailed in 1895, when the sloop Defender beat Lord Dunraven’s cutter Valkyrie 111. The wind alone was to blame for the failure of Tuesday’s yacht race, neither the Columbia nor Shamrock being able to reach the line within the five and onehalf hours allotted by the rules as limit time. Everything that British or American skill could devise in the way of preparatory work was done long before the yachts were given the word to cut loose from their moorings and make sail for the Sandy,Hook lightship, the starting point of the race. The course -selected for Tuesday’s race was a sail of fifteen miles to windward or leeward and return. Aftef starting almost a minute behind her rival, Columbia had overtaken, passed her, and had rounded the- stakeboat two mln'utes ahead. On the run; home, Shamrock, by fine handling and good luck, had overtaken Columbia, had gained the lead, lost it again, anil gained 1 and lost it'again. When the five and a half hours, within which the rules said the boats must cover the course, had elapsed, the two were so near together that, an apple eould have been tossed from one to the other! A *mbment before thief Columbia had poked her ahead of Sbam-

rock. They were on almost even terms when the 'whistles 1 were blown that announced the end of the time. Shamrock was perhaps a few feet, maybe a third of a leng'th, in the lead. Except for the failure to cover the course in the prescribed tinje, it was what the experts called a satisfactory race in every On the whole, it may be said that Columbia showed to better advantage, for on the run out over the fifteenmile course she* gained steadily, and on the beat back Shamrock had all the luck with the fickle breezes, and yet at the end was only on even terms with Columbia. Tuesday, according to the press reports, the wind was twice taken from the Columbia’s sails by the steamers that crowded around her and in .the last race the wash from a Mg steamer interfered with the navigation of one of the contestants. In view of the actual handicaps in the shape of excursion boats the official time allowances look ridiculous. It is something like handicapping * man in a bicycle race and then driving a coal wagon in front of him. And,iafter all, was no race because there was no | Ivi; nn mnnntAfni

AMERICA'S OUP.

THE COLUMBIA.

THE SHAMROCK.