YACHTING

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1931, Page 10

YACHTING

SHAMROCK WINS KING’S CUP. [BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] RUGBY. August 4. The yacht race for the King’s Cup at Cowes was won yesterday by Sir Thomas Lipton’s yacht “Shamrock” in four hours 16 minutes. This was the first time that Sir Thomas Lipton had been able to en-. ter for this trophy. The King’s cutter Britannia was scratched from the race by His Majesty, following on the accident yesterday, when her second mate was swept overboard and drowned. SPECTACLE OF SAIL. YACHTS IN BRITISH WATERS. Great Britain cannot claim to have originated yachting. That distinction belongs to the Dutch. Yet it was in British waters, and mainly in the Solent and the Clyde that amateur seafaring was progressively developed into the many-sided sport, appealing in different ways to different temperaments, which delights the imagination and satisfies the sea-instinct in so many thousands in all countries the world over to-day. writes John Scott Hughes, a noted English authority on yachting, in “Coming Events.”

Each summer a fleet of racing and cruising vessels, incomparable alike for its spectacular beauty and its sporting and nautical interest, makes a sort of grand tour of the English, Irish and Scottish coastal resorts. This white fleet, led like a block by that venerable bellwether, the King’s historic Britannia, started the season on May 22. at Harwich, on the East Coast, afterwards visiting the Thames estuary, the Solent, and then Belfast Lough on its way to the Clyde, where the yachtsmen enjoy racing for a fortnight among scenery unmatched for its peace and its grandeur. After the festival fortnight, as it is called, the racing fleet voyages south again, calling at Cornish ports on its way to the Solent, and the grand zenith of the yachting year—Cowes week. Later in August it is Westward Ho! again for the series of regattas in Devon and Cornwall, which bring the .long season to an end. Thus, from late May to early September there is scarcely a day upon which this fine fleet may not he seen at one or other of the coastal resorts. It is a splendid pageant of sail. And there are perhaps very many who will find it the more impressively beautiful because it has survived in. an age which is increasingly dominated by tho machine. From a sporting as well as a spectacular standpoint, however, the British yachting season is especially notable, not only for its heavily-crowded programme, but also for the variety and individual interest of the competing craft. Shamrock V. for instance, the latest product of the naval designer’s art, will be seen matched day after day against the King’s Britannia, which was built nearly 40 years ago! The Shamrock which will be seen going round the British coast this summer will be the same vessel which was beaten in the last contest for the America Cup, but she has been improved by recent, alterations. The Royal cutter and the other big yachts have been similarly modernised, and the sport between these larger vessels, all tuned up to a uniformly fine pitch, should provide some of the most exciting racing ever seen. The spice of international rivalry, and a sort of unofficial and “friendly return Cup match,” will be provided by the visit of the American yacht Weetamoe, one of the. four vessels which were specially built, by American syndicates to meet Sir Thomas'Lipton's last challenge. It seems impossible to escape mention of that tantalising America’s Cup. There is this new thing to be noted, however: Sir Thomas Lipton has restored a completely friendly feeling to those trying contests. But one of the unhappy results of the disputes preceding the pre-Lipton era was that no American big racing yacht has since visited British waters. The last American racers which came over were the Vigilant and Navahoe, in 1893 and 1894, 'respectively. A.nd yachtsmen on both sides of the Atlantic are recalling with a sort of affectionate amusement that each was soundly beaten by the old Britannia. The lovely old yacht still flies the Royal colours. Can a modernised and rejuvenated Britannia still hope to rule the waves? We shall see this summer.

Nor is the strangely-named Weetamoe the only American vessel to assist at the ceremony of burying the hatchet —though that is not a nautical phrase. On July 4 a company of not fewer than a dozen American yachts will set. out on a race from Newport, Rhode Island, to Plymouth, England.

A GRUELLING CONTEST. Some members of this armada will afterwards take part in the British Ocean Racing Club’s race from the Isle of Wight out to the Fastnet Rock (off south-west Ireland) on August 11. This is a gruelling contest, and it has become a classic deep-water event. Soon after the Fastnet race there will be held .a race from Plymouth to Santander, Spain. Other international events include a contest in the Clyde, during Juno, for the historic Seawanhaka Cup. This is a long-established trophy for small racing yachts which is at present held by Great Britain. The t challengers are tho United States. Great Britain is also to have the pleasure of welcoming a team of yachtsmen from Sweden, who are bringing over a team of six-metre boats to meet a similar team representing Great Britain. This event will be held in August, at Ryde. At Ryde, too, will he held the contest for the Prince of Wales Cup. This grows to be a more tremendous affair each year, attracting nearly a half-hundred entrants, the cream of the world’s small-boat sailors, so that the Prince’s trophy has come to be considered the blue ribbon of small-boat sailing. The Solent in August looks to be the playground—the play-water—of tho world. . The gay bunting flown from racers, cruisers, liners, and fast launches include the sea flags of all countries. For the ship-lover and sea-lover, it is , the supreme spectacle. Cowes is, of course, the central gem in this setting of blue water and low, thick-wooded shores. It is a small and ancient,) town, tranquil for 51 weeks in the year. But in its one brief “week” of glory it becomes the heart of the fashionable world. “It became a convention with society.” Writes one chronicler, “that before it spread itself over Europe in the autumn, its first taste, of fresh air

after the fatigues of the London season should be inhaled at Cowes.” It is very much the same now as then. Die-hard sailors sometimes lament that /.‘Society- overshadows the sails,” and resent the circumstances that, even for so brief a period, unite the two. .. But there it is. For 100 years society has gone afloat for at least the .first week in August, and there is no sign of the tradition dying. If there is a change at all, it is' that there are many more small craft afloat than there ' were in former times. It K difficult for a vessel ar-

riving late for the famous “week” to get anchor room in the wide roadstead. But this does not seem to make the town less crowded. From morning to late night the little streets are jammed tight with a crowd unmistakably on holiday.,