ENDEAVOUR WINS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 236, 18 September 1934, Page 5

ENDEAVOUR WINS

FINE HANDLING BY CREW Rainbow’s Lead Overtaken FOURTH VICTORY IN 41 RACES (By Telegraph—Press Aesn.-Copyright.) (Received 18, 12.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 17. The British challenger for the America Cup, Mr. T. 0. M. Sopwith's Endeavour, won the second race over the 30-mile course after a bad start by a margin of 2mins. 11 seconds. The Endeavour was behind the Rainbow for the first half of the course, but the challenger showed superiority on the run home and won well.

After a poor start, which caused her to trail by 21 seconds to the windward mark, the Endeavour, in a demonstration of the fine sailing qualities and expert seamanship of her skipper, Mr. Sopwith, and crew, made the run home in spectacular fashion against an obviously fast opponent. The skipper and owner of the Rainbow, Mr. Harold Vanderbilt, had outmanoeuvred Mr. Sopwith on the 15mile course, but with the wind astern the British boat began to close the gap and almost 20 minutes after passing the first mark went into a short lead, which it consistently increased. The race was delayed 10 minutes as the Endeavour fouled a mainsail and was given a short postponement.

The Rainbow was away two seconds ahead of the Endeavour, which had to luff to clear the committee boat and lost way. While the breeze seldom reached eight knots on Saturday, to-day the yachts raced into a 16-knot wind that fell somewhat but freshened again to 13 knots.

To-morrow the vessels will race over a triangular course. The Endeavour’s victory was only the fourth British triumph in 41 races in 15 series, covering a period of 84 years.

Although this was actually the second race for the America Cup in the present series, as the first event was not finished' in the specified time (54 hours), this last race is really the first to count for the cup. There are still six races to be contested if necessary, the first boat to win four in all winning the cup.