AMERICA CUP

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 2, 2 July 1929, Page 3

AMERICA CUP

PREVIOUS RACES

YACHTS CLASSED AT LLOYD'S

NEW RULES IN POECE

Time flies, and nine years have passed since there was a race for the America Cup. The number of times* am asked the question, "Is there to be another challenge for the ■ America Cup?" is extraordinary, -writes Major B. Heekstall-Smith in the "Daily Telegraph." When the sport of yachtracing is mentioned by landsmen this is always the first question that is put. When I reply that I have not the slightest idea when a challenge will be sent, the next comment that is made is invariably: "Oh, I suppose the condition that our yacht has to sail across the ocean is the reason it is impossible to will." Now, it is not impossible to win theAmerica Cup, and in the last few* contests I do not think that our yachts have been placed at any appreciable disadvantage by having to cross the Atlantic. In 1914, when the Shamrock IV. went out to America to compete for the cup, she was constructed just as lightly as the Resolute, which defended the" cup. The war caused the race to be postponed until 1920. The reason the Shamrock TV. was unsuccessful was that she was of inferior design compared with the defender, and thus was honestly beaten. The British designer, Mr. Charles Nicholson, played his hand very boldly. Ho designed a huge boat with huge sails and huge rating. He played, as it were, to overpower his opponent. The American designer, Mr. N. Herreshoff, designed a boat of moderate size, with moderate sails. He played scientifically and for safety. Both yachts were 75ft long on the water-line, but Shamrock IV. rated 94ft, whilst Resolute rated only 83* ft. The result was the English yacht had to allow the American yacht seven minutes on a thirty-mile course. CUP IN JEOPARDY. , The contest was the best out of five races. In the first race the American yacht broke down, the throat halliards broko on the winch, and this scored to Shamrock. The second race was -just such a day as Mr. Nicholson had played for. The Shamrock finished nine minutes ahead of the little American, and thus won by two minutes. The huge canvas of the Nicholson boat had done its work. The American yachtsmen, for the first time in seventy years, felt their cup was in jeopardy! In the third race the two yachts finished a dead-heat. Thus, with all her time-allowance in hand, the American won by seven minutes. Then luck deserted Sir Thomas Lipton's boat, and in the two remaining races the Resolute not only finished ahead of the Shamrock, but, with her timeallowance added, she won these races by tea minutes and twenty minutes. That was the last we heard of the America Cup. The Shamrock IV. was broken up. She was a freak, and quite useless for any other purpose but this race. I was not one of those who thought the attempt to score with some great freak boat would have effect, but, on the other hand, in many previous races wo had erred on the safe side, and tho Yankees had employed bolder methods, and I admired Charles Nicholson's courage in "having a dash at it" with "a funny one.". It was a sporting effort, and kept the Americans on tip-toe for many days. SIR THOMAS LIPTON'S SHAMROCK. Sir Thomas Lipton first challenged] for the America Cup thirty years ago. He has built four Shamrocks for the cup, and they have all been broken up. He has built five Shamrocks altogether, and that one which he uses for British racing is still one of the best boats Mr. Fife ever designed. She! was the champion cutter round the British coasts last year. Very few sportsmen have dtino more for British yacht racing than Sir Thomas, and he is now fitting out his fifth Shamrock at Southampton to begin racing at Harwich. I think he has had much bad luck in trying to win the America Cup. Of all the international contests of the world the America Cup is the most remarkable. Since this cup was won by tho schooner America at Cowes in 1851 thero have been thirteen attempts to regain it, and it has never been recovered. These races have spread over half a century. IS70 —Magic beat Cambria. 1871 —Columbia beat Livonia. 1876"—Madeleine beat Countess of Dufferin. 1881—Mischief beat Atalanta. 1885—Puritan beat Genesta. 1886—Mayflower beat Galatea. 18S7—Volunteer beat Thistle. IS93—Vigilant beat Valkyrie 11. IS95 —Defender beat Valkyrie 111. 1899—Columbia beat Shamrock I. 1901—Columbia beat Shamrock 11. . 1903—Reliance beat Shamrock 111. 1920—Resolute beat Shamrock IV. IMPORTANT CHANGE. I consider that a recent alteration in tho rules of the New York Yacht Club who hold the cup may very well have a far-reaching effect upon any future challenge for it. Ever since the late Lord Dunraven's second challenge in the year 1895, tho yachts which have been built to sail for this race have been obliged to bo so lightly constructed that they were practically useless for any other purpose. Yachts of sound construction like Britannia, the Shamrock which races in home waters, "White Heather, Astra, and Cambria, for instance, well-built, honest yachts with cabins, were practically debarred from racing for the America Cup because they were too heavily built, and it would be foolish to try them against a lightly-built American yacht specially built to defend the cup. The sportsman who wanted to race for the cup had to build a light craft for the purpose, and as she was then useless for any other racing—such "light" yachts being forbidden in, European racing—it was a very wasteful and, indeed, unsatisfactory and disheartening thing for anybody to build a yacht for the cup. The sports"man who had the enterprise to do so, even if he could afford it, knew that he was spending his money upon a boat which was quite useless, becauso he, would be debarred from all other races in Europe. Now the New York Yacht Club has

recently passed a rule which is ex-. actly the same as the rule we have in Europe relating to the weight and strength of the materials of which racing yachts must be built. The New York Yacht Club's new rule provides that "all yachts shall be built in accordance with the tables of scantlings known as Lloyd's 'Rules for the Construction and Classification of Yachts.' " This regulation wipes off the slate all the heartburnings aud debates about the unfair and improper conditions of the America Cup. It seems to me to make the race the same for all. An English yachtsman can now enter a challenge for the America Cup with a yacht of the New York Yacht Club's "76-foot Class" —that is, a yacht of that club's "Class J." She would be built to their cVdb's "76-foot rating," and there would be no time-allowance whatever. She would be classed Al at Lloyd's, and she would be met by an American yacht classed Al at Lloyd's. Such yachts competing for theAmeriea Cup would be honest yachts worthy of the name, and not wretchedly flimsy machines. I regard the change of rule or the adoption of '' Lloyd's Rules for the Construction and Classification of Yachts" by the New York Yacht Club not only as a wise alteration, but as a sportsmanlike and dignified notification to yachting people that the time has come to enter a challenge for the America Cup.