AMERICA'S CUP CHALLENGE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 166, 31 July 1937, Page 19

AMERICA'S CUP CHALLENGE

-Pres° 'V •

Endeavour I. Beat Ranger in Thursday's Trial FIRST RACE TO-DAY

(By Telegrapb-

— rVinvriB'ht.i

NDWPORT, July 29. j Endeavour I defeated Ranger by ai quarter of a mile in a 43-mile trial in preparation for the America's Cup and experts are now inclined to view Endeavour II 's prospects more favourably. The sevenfeenth challenge for America's Oup will commencq to-day when Mr. T. O. M..Sopwith's yacht Endeavour n will race against the defender, Mr." Harold S« Vahderbilt's yacht, Ranger. There is provision for seven race$ and i the victory will go to the yacht which I wins four of the races, which, excepting Sunday, will take place on consecUtive d'ays. ' . Endeavour 1'. (kindly lent by. her present owner, Mr. H. A. Andreae)," wa3 taken across the Atlantic with "Endea- -■ vour II., and the result of Endeavour . Iv's latest race with the defender, Ranger, will not improve the confidenec of Ranger's skipper, N.' S. Vanderbilt. The New Challenger. The craft with which England hopes to win the trophy, which American yahcts have successfully defended over 86 years, is Mr. T. O, M. Sopwith's new yacht Endeavour II., which was specially built as a challenger little more than a year ago. This will be Mr. Sopwith's second attempt to win the cup, for he made .an unsuocessful bid with Endeavour .1. in 1934, though, it ist generally agreed, he had the faster yacht. On that occasion, however, he was handi- ' capped by. having. an amateur crew, his profe.ssional crew having struck for kigher wages shortly before the yacht was due to leave for America. These amateurs did remarkably well in winning the first two races against Vhnderbilt's experienced Scandinavidns. In the third race Sopwith was unlucky ' enough to run into a fiat cairn when . holding a commanding lead and when the new breeze came in, Rainbow got it and kept it until she had ovettaken Endeavour I. and gone on to Adctory. In the fourth heat Vanderbilt, on the porf tack, did things which were not strictly according to Hoyle, and which would have meant disqualificatiou under the rules of the New Zealand Yacht Squadron, but, because he did not know of the condition that required him to run , up his protest flag immediafely, Sopwith's protest was disallowed. With the score two-all, Sopwith experimented with a jib that did not suit the Endeavour, who was not permitted to do her best with the result that the Rain--bow proved capable of beating ofi the challenger. Endeavour H, which was designed by Mr. C. E. Nicholson, who was responsible for Endeavour I., ShamTock V. and Velsheda, another fine British yacht, has steel plating for sides and fleek, with steel frames and deck beams. Her length from bow to counter is 132ft. and slie is 87ft. on the water-line, the maximum permitted under the rules for J class yachts. She has a beam of 21ft. 6in. and a displacement of 164 tons. She is thus four feet longer on the waterline and 20 tons heavier than Endeavour I. Her mast is 155ft. from deelt to truek and is of steel, reinforced by internal framing apd flupported by standing rigging, made Of high-t6nsile solid steel bhrs. The Defender. The American yaclit Ranger 's lfength is i'35ft. on deck and 87ft. waterline. She has a beam of 22ft., a draught of 15ft. and a disp1 -cement of 166 tons. Shs was designed by the veteran American designer, William Starling Burgess, who is also an aviation pioneer, and was built by the Bath Iron Works at l'Bath, Maine. Her mast is of duralumin, 165ft. overall, with 11ft. 3in. below decks. Ranger 's hull is of steel, with wooden decks. Her lead keel, weighing more than 100 tons,'is almost circular in section at the bottom. Of the total sail area of 7550 square feet, an area of 4S25 square feet is in the mainsail and an extra 2725 square feet is in the fore' triangle. If Ranger defeata the challenger it will be the third consecutive win, not only for Mr. Harold Vanderbilt, but also for the yacht 's designer, Mr. Burgess. If his boat defends the cup successfully, Mr. Burgess will equal the record made by his fathor, Edward Burgess, whose Puritan Mayflower and Volunteer defended ■ the America's Cup in 1885, 188.6 and 1887, and made him the , mOst f amed yacht designlr of his era. The America 'b Cup contest originated in Britain and arose out of a race staged by the Royal Yacht Squadron 86 years ago for a prize called the Queen 'a Cup. The course was around the Isle of Wight. The race was won easily by the United States schooner America, which carried the trophy across tho Atlantic,. where it was conveyed to the New York Yacht Club by deed of gift in 1S57. TJten the international aspeet aiose. It has been computed that the combined cost of challenging for and defending the cup, which itself originally only cost 100 guineas, is now in the vicinity of £9,000,000. Of this gigantift ainount, Sir Thomas Lipton, whose 1 efforts to win the trophy extended over 30 years, is Teputed to have contributed £1,000,000. In the 1934 contest Mr. Sopwith was displeased with thfe methods of the defender, Mr. H. Vanderbilt, and when his protest was dismissed by the sailing committee of the New York Yacht Club I on a technicality, Mr. Sbpwith stafced that he would not again challenge pn behalf of England. That ho has chatig* ed his mind is very gratifying. Racing will continue each week day until one of tho yachts has won four ' — vxcegi thsn, after each rac.e ika ,

committee will ask each contestant whether he is willing to start next day. Should either reply in the negative, one day will intervene before the startng of the next- race. The races will alternate over a windward ahd leeward course of approximately 10 miles to each'leg. If possible, all starts in the triangular races will be made to windward, and the warning signal — ten. minutes be£6ve tlie start — will be given at 10.30 a.m. each day. The time limit or each race is 51 hours. The American yacht Ranger is slig'htly bigger than Endeavour. II.,* being 3ft longer over*13 •