THE AMERICA CUP.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 93, 26 April 1913, Page 4

THE AMERICA CUP.

To recount all the big achievements that England has accomplished during the last half century would he no small task, but there is one'item she would fain add to the list because it has eluded her grasp in all these years — that is the America Cup. Since the inauguration of the competition for this trophy it has been in the possession of an English club only once, in 1871, when Mr Ashbury’s schooner Livonia in her third race beat the American schooner Columbia by fifteen minutes. The history of the various races since that time would make interesting reading. In 1893, for instance, Lord Dunraven’s Valkyrie IT. lost her third race with the Vigilant by only 40secs, and then in 1895 came the unhappy contest when Valkyrie 111., after losing a race with the Defender and winning a second—the loser in each instance lodging a protest for obstruction—withdrew on crossing the line in the third race. Of late years, Sir Thomas Lipton has taken up the burden of the attack, but has been uniformly unsuccessful. This fact has, of course, been largely due to the unfair conditions of the original charter which states “that the challenging yacht must proceed under sail on her own bottom to the place where the contest is to take place.fl” This means a hazardous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and a yacht strongly and heavily enough built to survive the passage has little chance against the freakish racing machines which the Americans specialise in producing. Even under the one-sided conditions, Sir Thomas Lipton was willing to make another bold bid for the Cup and on behalf of the Royal IJlstei - Yacht Club sent a further challenge recently to the holders, the New York Yacht Club, stipulating only that the defending boat should be of the same size as the challenger he proposed building. The New York Club, however, refused to race with anything under the masi-

mum measurement the rules allow—90ft. on the waterline—and the challenge was consequently declined. This fact has been universally regretted in the English and American papers. From their action it would seem that the New York Yacht Club regard the Cup almost in the light of a national trust, which they must not part with on any account. Therefore, they look upon its defence as a desperately serious business into which no considerations of sport must be allowed tranter. This might ho regarded as showing rather too much of the American “business spirit,” but perhaps it is not our place to condemn it, for if England hold the Cup, her own yachting authorities might he just as keen in enforcing the strict letter qJ the law.