The America Cup.

Manawatu Herald, 20 August 1903, Page 3

The America Cup.

j To-day, Thursday, August 20th I the first heat for the America Cup will be decided, when the Reliance and Shamrock, 111 will meet for the first time. On the following Saturday the second heat will be sailed, and if each has then scored a win the yachts will meet a third time on Tuesday, August 25th. Captain Spears, writing in “The World,” says that if a committee of artists, instead of sailor men, were to decide the contest, there would be little doubt of Sir Thomas Lipton’s success. The World , and Herald experts, judging from the behaviour of the

challenger in ocean rig, have already made up their minds that the Cup is safe; but Mr Duncan Curry, in the Journal, says thcti the Reliance, if selected as the defender, will not have a walk over. There is considerable comment on the- breadth of beam of the challenger. The cables give her beam as under 23ft, but the experts declare that it must be more than 24ft. The Sydney Referee’s American correspondent says ;—“ Sir Thomas Lipton’s new yacht, Shamrock 111., is now* on this side of the water, and, as a consequence, there is a notable increase of interest in the preparations for the America Cup races All the experts who have inspected the new craft have pronounced her a highly dangerous-looking customer, but at the same time the yachtsmen generally entertained the belief that the Yankee boat Reliance will be equal to the task of keeping the conveted trophy from going abroad. The Reliance has sailed in innumerable races with Constitution and Columbia, and has managed, as a rule, to show a clean pair of heels to each of the old boats. On one occasion Constitution - made a close thing of it - with the new yacht, and on another occasion the Reliance’s topmast broke off ten feet from the masthead soon alter crossing the starting line. After a thorough trial, however, it is felt that Reliance has demonstrated her superiority over her race mates in everything pretaining to the sailing game, and it is also believed that the new boat outclasses the others to such an extent that the chances of the British builders having fashioned a craft speedy enough to outsail Reliance are something very remote.”