THE ROYAL SYDNEY YACHT CLUB

Lyttelton Times, Volume L, Issue 5560, 17 December 1878, Page 3

THE ROYAL SYDNEY YACHT CLUB

The New Zealand Herald says;—Auckland yachtsmen hare been exercised of late with regard to the meeting of the above, in consequence of one of our locally-built boats haring entered to compete with the two crack yachts of Port Jackson. The cutter-yacht Waitangi, constructed by Messrs Niccol of the North Shore, was the representative yacht of our tradesmen, and her success or non-success is therefore a matter of interest to all of us. It will be seen from the following extracts from the Sydney Hominy Herald, that the Waitangi, while bolding a good position shortly after the start, came to grief, and had to retire early from the contest, a most unfortunate contretemps, and one that will be regretted by all, os it is very rarely that such weather as then prevailed can be secured in Sydney, which would have tested the yacht on all points. The Herald says :—The Waitangi nos just arrived from New Zealand, Laving been built to the order of Mr Newton. It is said that she has been built after the model ef the Vanessa, the celebrated English twenty-tonner of Hatcher’s. The weather was of such a character os to test the capabilities of the boats in a very signal manner, for a stiff breeze from the south-east prevailed throughout, which towards the close of the contest freshened up considerably. As the yachts had a good six-mile stretch outside the Heads, where the water wqs very lumpy, their weathorly qualities were pretty severely tried, and it was a pity that au accident to the Wai tangi should have occurred off the ' Heads, which put her-out of the race at a time when she was in so good a position. Her main sheet ran out, and she carried away the goose-neck of her main boom, and as a result was quite unfit to tackle the breeze blowing outside. The race between the other yachts was a grand one from the start, and the finish a very close one, in the Magic’s favour. At the appointed time the Mistral, 85 tens, W. O. Gilchrist; Magic, 28 tons, A. Fairfax; and the Waitangi, 22 tons, J. Newton, took up their positions. At 21 minutes to 12 the Hag fell to a fair start, the now boat being the first on her legs, she being to windward. The Magic being the leeward boat, was the lost to feel the spanking southerly. The Mistral was the lust to get away. There was u fine fresh southerly wind at the start, a onereef breeze, and being able to carry a free sheet, topsails were hoisted. At Bradley’s Head the three were all of a lump, but the Magic, wishing to get windward position, ran up to the windward, which made the Mistral and Waitangi do the same. The sight was worth seeing. The Magic having got what she wanted, the Mistral boro away, and, giving her a free sheet again to a ripping breeze, she took the lead and kept it to South Beef by half-a-minute. Her topmasts were housed and all made snug, and the Mistral rounded the boat off Bong Reef by one and a-half minutes ahead. Off North Head the Waitangi carried away her boom at the gooseneck, which, in such a breeze, lost her all chance of the race, although at the time she was almost on the Magic. Some idea may bo formed of the wind and speed of the boats when the Magic arrived at 3h 23m 80s, and the Mistral at 3h 21m, the Magic being only half-a-minute ahead, after having run a race of about 45 miles, and the distance having been accomplished in 4li 3m,