Possibilities Of A Challenge From Velsheda For America's Cup

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7298, 27 October 1933, Page 10

Possibilities Of A Challenge From Velsheda For America's Cup

EXISTING CONDITIONS FOR CONTEST HEAVILY IN FAVOUR OF HOLDER

BIIE chief topic of conversation among British yachtsmen now is that of tlie possibility of W. L. Stephenson’s new Nichol-son-designed cutter Velsheda carrying a challenge for the America’s Cup next year. The brilliant success of the yacht on the Clyde (says a writer in an English paper) certainly points to her as a likely competitor for that elusive trophy, as it is an open secret that her owner has ambitions in that direction ; hut it would be a mistake to build 100 much upon her performance in Scottish waters. The weather experienced on the Clyde is proverbially fickle, and this year it has been particularly so. It is no uncommon happening in. those waters for a yacht that hail seemed hopelessly out of it to pick up a breeze and sail right away from her competitors, and in such circumstances the result of a race is on the knees of the gods. That Velshcda has sailed extraordinarily well there .can he no doubt, and she is obviously a very fast vessel in light breezes, the type of weather which usually prevails in American waters at the time when the cup races are sailed; but the true form of the yacht is not likely to be revealed until later in the season. She will by then have met her opponents on more open courses, where steadier winds obtain.

possible to select the better of two yachts after trial as has been suggested.

Various concessions have been made to challengers by the holders of the trophy under the mutual-agreement clause in the past, hut it is open to doubt whether the New York Yacht Club would consider that clause sufficiently elastic to permit of such a radical departure from the conditions as that. Yet such a change is all that is now required to place the contest on a perfectly fair and impartial basis. For the holders to be in a position to build a number of yachts and, after exhaustive trials, nominate the best of them as their representative just before the contest, while the challenger has to name his vessel 10 months before, usually before she is even built, is not a sporting proposition. But that is how matters stand at present and until this condition is rescinded the recapture of the America’s Cup will remain something of a forlorn hope. Time and Yacht-Designing. As \V. L. Stephenson need not challenge for the America’s Cup unlil November. for a contest next year in September, Velsheda will have bail the advantage of a full season’s racing in her home waters, and it should then be possible to form some sort of estimate as to her chance. Should she ultimately fill the role of challenger, she will be more than a year old, and would probably have to meet a new yacht of the latest design. But it does not follow that the latest in yacht design is necessarily the best. That has been demonstrated over and over again in British racing, and in the contest for America’s Cup in 1001 the holders had to fall hack upon the thrcc-vear-old Columbia to defend the trophy, as she proved more reliable in the preliminary trials than Constitution, which had been built expressly for the purpose.

To attempt to get a line on Vclsheda’s prospects as an America's Cup challenger through her sailing with Shamrock V, as some people have tried to do, can only result in raising hopes that may not he justified. It is true that the new yacht has occasionally beaten Shamrock more easily than the latter was beaten by the America’s Clip defender, Enterprise, in the contest of 1930, hut the fact cannot he ignored that Shamrock is not now sailing in the same trim as she was in America. She has had her sail-area slightly reduced with a view to lowering her rating and it is only reasonable to assume that this modification has affected her speed to a certain extent. The time allowance she receives from Velsheda probably more than compensates for tile reduction in speed, hut it must not he forgotten that in contests for the America’s Cup there is no time allowance under the present J cl.ass rules. Shamrock, although originally built to the J class rules, is not now up to her full rating, and any inferences drawn from her sailing with Velsheda cannot he regarded as a reliable guide to her prospects as a Cup challenger. The New Deed of Gift. It has been slated that in the event of Velsheda’s crossing the Atlantic in quest of the America’s Cun, another British yachtsman will build a yacht to act as trial boat, with the idea of tlie better being chosen as the British representative, hut I am afraid that this is a case of the wish being father to the thought, for under existing conditions such a proceeding is not possible. By the terms of the new deed of gift which governs contests for the America’s Cup, a challenging party has to give 10 months’ notice, naming his representative and giving her Custom House measurements at the time of challenge, and no other vessel may subsequently he substituted. It is obvious, therefore, that it would riot he

It is to be hoped that Stephenson will try his luck with Velsheda, for, even if unsuccessful, the venture would serve to explode the idea that a contest for this cup can only be undertaken at vast expense. The I.ipton regime was characterised by reckless extravagance on both sides, but equally good sport could have been enjoyed at a much lower expenditure. When Lieutenant Henn challenged with Galatea in 18SG he sailed the yacht out to New York, and he and his wife lived on board throughout their slay in America. He had none of the paraphernalia that Sir Thomas I.ipton thought it necessary to accumulate in connection with his challengers. The well-known American journalist, W. P. Stephens, writing on the eve of the Shamrock 111-Reliance contest, remarked: “It has been calculated that at the present time Sir Thomas I.ipton has at his command no fewer than 33 different craft, including the rowboats and launches of the different yachts, while to man this fleet there arc five captains, two navigating oflicers, two pilots, one naval architect, one doctor, two secretaries, two stenographers, three messengers, and 11)8 hands in the way of seamen, engineers, firemen, cooks, etc.”

It certainly seems time that saner methods were adopted and a challenge with an ordinary .1 Class yacht already in existence, such as Velsheda, would probably pave the way to economy.