GREAT YACHTING

NZ Truth, Issue 804, 9 April 1921, Page 8

GREAT YACHTING

Saunders' Memorial Cup

The Heather Defeats the Iron Duke,

The contest for the one design class 14ft. yacht championship of New Zealand, which carries with It the Sanders' Memorial Cup, was sailed m Auckland harbor .during the Easter holidays. In the most interesting of a series of five contests between Mr. W- J- P. McCulioch's Heather and Lord Jellicoe's Iron Duke, the Heather, which represented Otago, annexed the honors, winning. the last and deciding contest of the five .races. The distance was nine knot! and the opinion was widely held that m a hard breeze the Heather would prove the faster boat. This opinion was borne out by the results, but even : so the series of races were -well contested! with the exception of ;>. the fourth, which the Heather won* by the good margin of 12mins. 25secs. Large crowds thronged the wharves and other points, of vantage and very wide interest' centred m the contest.

The flrst of the series was sailed on Thursday, Mr. W. J. .P. McCulloch having charge of the Heather, while, m the absence of Lord Jellicoe, the Iron Duke had Mr. G. Bailey as skipper. The course mapped out had to be covered twice, and at half-way the Heather was leading* by 2mina. 25secs. In the second "lap" Iron Duke made up some of, the leeway, but Heather reached the finishing line lmin. 14secs. ahead.

For the second contest on Friday the course was a triangular one and-, with a light southerly 'breeze prevailing, It was anticipated the Iron Duke •would turn the tables upon the visitor. For this contest Lord Jellicoe was skipper of the "Duke." -* and the contest provided a most exciting finish. At the end of the first' round the boats were almost together, the "Duke" having a lead of only six seconds. Then the lroii'Duke began to increase, her lead and when they started on the lead up to the finishing mark the Heather was 2mins. 22secs. to the bad. In the run up the Heather gradually reduced the lead, but could not reach Iron Duke, the latter winning by 50secs. On Saturday the third -heat was decided, and another good : contest resulted m Iron Duke ; winning - by irnin. 4.osecs. m a whole-sail breeze from the north. Thus Iron Duke had won two heats and Heather one. The fourth heat was decided' on Monday m a hard • breeze from the south-west, both boats carrying two reefs down m the mainsail and- a reefed jib. Lord Jellicoe was at the helm of Iron Duke, but Mr. J. A. Wiseman was' skipper . of Heather m place of Mr. McCulloch. Very early m the race Iron Duke established a lead of lmin. 7secs., but then Heather gradually overhauled and passed the Auckland boat and at the end of the flrst round led by 3mins. 45seos., and m the lead home m the second rpund the southern representative showed great speed and won by 12mins. 25secs. With two wins each the interest m the deciding heat on Tuesday was naturally great. The course was a, windward and leeward one and as m the other heats Iron Duke was soon m the lead, but on this occasion- she did not get very far away and m the lead- up to the starting point the first time Heather had not only overhauled the Aucklander. but had established a lead of '3m ins.' 30secs. Maintaining a. substantial lead, the Otago boat really never looked like being overtaken, and though Iron Duke did well on the run to the finishing line, the Heather won by 2mins. 7secs.

The winning crew were J. A. Wiseman (skipper), D. Wall and G. Kellett, . and the Iron Duke's crew were Lord Jellicoe (skipper), G. Bailey and G. Miller.