THE AMERICA CUP.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 206, 6 September 1901, Page 1

THE AMERICA CUP.

SHAMROCK ll.’s CHANCES OE SUCCESS.

A HOPEFUL VIEW,

Our cablegrams on Monday stated that Mr Lawson, the owner of the American yacht Independence, had offered to bet 100,000 dollars at 2 to I that either Columbia or Constitution would beat Shamrock 11. for the America Cup. In a very interesting article, entitled “ Shamrock 11., and the America Cup,” a writer in the Pilot of July 20th states : For 50 years this cup has stood as the symbol of supremacy in the yachting world. Fifty years ago on the 22nd of next month, the Yankee schooner America won it from us as the prize in a race round the Isle of Wight, and never once have we succeeded in wresting it back again. The America's victory was due partly to the misfoitunes of her most formidable competitors, and partly to the superiority of her design. The typical British yacht of those days was a bluff, able boat, her hull a cod’s head on a mackerel’s tail, and her sails bellying picturesquely ; whereas the America had a long, sharp bow, a beam carried well aft, and a main sail stretched Hat and lacod to the boom. It was the same struggle as was fought out on blue water between the famous clipper ships of the United States and the lumbering merchantmen of Britain, and

it had the same result. England did noi regain the supremacy of the high sea: until Aberdeen and Blackwall had takot

to heart the lessons taught by Baltimore and Now York, and if Shamrock 11. should bring back the America Cup it will ho because once again we have “ learned from our enemies.” What chance is

there that this jubilee challenger will succeed in tho quest upon which so many proud predecessors Cambria, Livonia, Genosta, Galatea, Thistle, Valkyrie 1., Valkyrie 111., and Shamrock I.—freighted with our best skill and our highest hopes, have set sail, only to return empty and humbled ? Shamrock ll.’s chance, he it small or great, seems at this moment to he distinctly better than that of any other yacht which we have sent across the Atlantic. In 18S6, when Lieutenant Henn’s Galatea raced with the Mayflower, the English and American types of racing yacht were on their trial—the deep, narrow boat evolved upon our stormy coasts, and the broad, shallow boat evolved upon the comparatively calm and sheltered seaboard of the Eastern States. The American boat won easily, and since then the two types have been approximating more and more closely. Tho Americans have abandoned tho centre-board in favor of tho fixed keel, and we have adopted the

“ scow ” type of hull—broad, shallow, and lightly built, and sharply cut away under the water-line, both at the stem and at the stern. By this means we have succeeded at last in obtaining a sail spread—that is, driving power —equal to that of the latest American yachts without a greater displacement. Shamrock 11. is more like

an American yacht than any former challenger, and that is one point in her favor. Another is that she is the second yacht built for tho same owner within two years. Tho Americans have in the past enjoyed the groat advantage over us of a long continuity in ownership, design, and con-

st-ruction, for the New York Yacht Club is the virtual owner of every Cup defender, and the great New York builder, Natt Herreshoff, has come to the designing of each new yacht with the experience derived from former success. We never came nearer to winning the Cup than when the last Valkyrie was matched against the Defender ; she was the third challenger built for Lord Dunraven, although only the second that raced under his Hag, for Valkyrie 11. never crossed the Atlantic. It is true that Shamrock 11. was produced neither by the designer nor by the builders of Shamrock 1., but Mr G. L. Watson has publicly made the fullest and frankest acknowledgment of the generous assistance rendered to him by Mr Fife. “It was an easy thing,” he said, “ whon you had a tower 100 ft high to put two or three feet on the top.” That is what Hcrreshoff has been doing for years, and unfortunately for us he had the higher tower to begin with. The crucial question, then, in estimating the chances of Shamrock 11. is by how much has Mr Watson improved upon Shamrock 1., and by how much has Herreshoff improved upom Columbia, the last Cup defender ? For the first time in the history of the Cup a yacht specially built in this country to sail for it has had a thorough preliminary trial against a yacht of similar calibre, and has been enabled to find her best racing trim. This has been a long business in the case of Shamrock 11,, and has been seriously in-

terrupted by more than one accident, but it has been accomplished in time to enable one to measure roughly her superiority over the first Shamrock. From their last week’s racing on the Clyde it would appear that there is about as much difference between the two Shamrocks as there was between Columbia and Shamrock I. in 1599. It is admitted on all hands that Shamrock I. is now appreciably faster than she was when Columbia beat her ; for Mr Fife her designer, fell ill at the critical moment, and deprived of his invaluable supervision, his yacht did her-

self less justice in the Cup races. There is no reason to think that Columbia has improved also, so we may conclude that Shamrock 11., in her best trim, is about as much faster than Columbia as the Sham-

rock I. of to-day is faster than the Shamrock I. of two years ago. But what of the new American yachts'? By how much are they faster than Columbia ? The Americans have two new boats, specially built to defend the Cup. One, the Constitution, is the work of the redoubtable Herreshoff ; the other, the Independence, has been turned out by Crowninshield, of Boston, whose small racing scows arc the fastest craft of their size in American waters. The Independence, although undoubtedly a very fast yacht, was so badly strained on her voyage round Capo Cod to Now York that she leaked like a basket during the earlier trial races, and was beaten in the hoilowest fashion by both Columbia and Constitution, and although she would probably have won the last race if she had not carried away her topmast, her hopes of defending the Cup have perforce been disappointed. Of the races sailed between the other two yachts, Constitution (the new boatl has won two, and Columbia (the old boat) three. There is, therefore, no evidence as yet that Herreshoff has succeeded in adding anything to his to.ver, and herein lies Shamrock ll.’s best chance of all. It is, of course, possible that the Constitution has not yet “ found herself,” as sailors say, for it was believed that under the New York Yacht Club’s rating rule a yacht lo minutes faster than Columbia over a 30-mile course could be built, and Herreshoff has never yet failed to improve on his past work. It is also possible that after crossing the Atlantic, and undd-'oing once more the delicate process of being tuned up to racing pitch, Shamrock 11. may fall short of her latest achievement on the Clyde. But the New York Club has agreed to give her three clear weeks for preparation after her arrival, and so we may hope quietly for the best.