CORNWELL CUP RACES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 202, 15 November 1927, Page 14

CORNWELL CUP RACES

FATE OF CONTESTS “This season’s contest will decide the fate of the Cornwell Cup races.” This rather strong and certainly dogmatic opinion was expressed recently by a Dunedin yachting writer; nevertheless there is a degree of soundness in his outspoken viqws. He goes on to refer to the races at Lyttelton in February as “nothing short of a farce.” owing to the vast superiority of Gadfly over the other six competitors, and aptly summed them up as “there is nearly as much difference between a lumber scow and a racing schooner in the Takapuna boats.” “The contest rules provide that the centre at which the races are held must provide the boats, and that after each race the crews must change their craft. So ludicrous was the past contest that even the most enthusiastic Takapuna class men were despairing of the future of the contest. The rules must be altered. That is imperative. The most satisfactory solution of the difficulty would be to restrict the weight of the boats and to allow each province to have its own boat at the contests. Then, if a crew were beaten, they would know that their boat was not so fast as the other competitors.” “Keelson.’* would be glad to hear opinions of Waitemata men on the subject, as Southern men, if the Dunedin writer is a faithful sounding-board, are certainly taking a gloomy view of the future of the contests.