THE AMERICA CUP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 694, 25 June 1903, Page 8

THE AMERICA CUP.

The great Yachting Race of the times,,, the “ America Cup,” is the absorbing/ talk just now in Aquatic circles. Thg- “ Scientific American ” to hand by the mail this week, has. a very interesting

account of Jhe first trial race of the Cup defender, “ Reliance,” when she so decidedly beat the veteran “ Columbia.” The race was sailed in a perfectly smooth sea, and a breeze t'hat varied, from a knot or two per hour to a maxi- ; mum strength! of about eight or ten ; and, therefore, the conditions were the very best possible for a boat with thei ; broad and shoal body, and great sail spread of “ Reliance.” The course consisted of an n-knot leg down the Long Island shore, with the wind over the starboard quarter. A mile reach across the Sound, with the wind over the port quarter ; and a heat of 11 miles for home. The greatest surprise of the day was furnished in the first leg, when, with a wind that averaged about 3 knots in strength, and never exceeded 6 or 7 knots, “ Reliance ” drew away very rapidly from “ Columbia,” gaining at an average rate of 40 seconds per mile. It was supposed that in spite of her much larger sail spread (“Columbia” having 13, 200 square, feet), the greater weight and larger, wetted' surface of: “ Reliance ” would cause her to show about the same drifting qualities as the smaller boat ; but as it was, she beat “ Columbia ” about as badly as “ Constitution ” used to beat her two years ago under like weather conditions. After jibing round the first mark, “ Reliance ” heeled down to a freshening breeze, until her lee-rail was well under, and proceeded to show something of the well-known reaching ability of the scow type. Her waterline lengthened some 5 of 6 feet forward and drew out Cor fully 25 feet under the long counter • and considering that the yacht for the first mile of the 3-mile. leg must havo been going fully 14 to 14| knots aa.

hour, she made remarkably little disturbance of. the water. There was no djag, and the bow and 4tern Waves were extremely light for a boat of that size moving at such high speed. On this leg she beat “ Columbia ” imin and sosec, or at the rate of half-a-minute a mile. It is possible that some time may have been lost by “ Columbia,” because of \the fact that while « Reliance ” carried her jib in addition to her balloon jib topsail and staysail, the older boat did not use her jib over a considerable part of the distance ; but Oven if allowance be made for this fact, the performance of the new boat was most remarkable. It was expected that When sheets were flattened in for the final thrash to windward, the great ability of “ Columbia ” on the point of flailing would show itself, and that she would, at least, hold the big boat safe, if she did not cut down some of her lead : but, again to the surprise of f|he yachting “ sharps,” “ Reliance continued to pull away from her badly beaten competitor, and on the n-mile beat she gained 4 minutes and 23 seconds, which is equal to a gain of about M seconds per mile, the speed of “ Reliance ” being a trifle over 10 knots per hour. In the broad reach over the 3mile log of the course, “ Reliance ”

averaged 13.2 knots per hour ; and it is certain that if the breeze had held at the strength which it had in the first mile of this log, .the new yacht would have shown a considerable higher average speed than that.” Judging from the above report, the new Cup defender will be the fastest boat the American side have turned out, and the “ Shamrock 111. will have to be very fast indeed to obtain the coveted Cup,” and further news of compe, tion will be eagerly awaited. The views reproduced of the Cup defender, “ Reliance,” were taken when she was hauled out to clean for this race. The most surprising feature is the extreme breadth and shoalness of the forebody, the yacht showing up extremely shallow and flat from the forward waterline to the heel. Reliance has been assigned her official number and signal letters by the United States Bureau of Navigation, and with their publication the gross and net tonnages of the yacht are given. The gross .tonnage of the Reliance is 375 and the net tonnage 140. These figures tell the story in part of the yacht’s great size. Her gross tomage exceeds that of Columbia by so tons, and her net tonnage by 22 tons. She has i« tons more gross tonnage than the Constitution,

and 12 tons more net tonnage than that boat. Reliance’s gross tonnage is greyer by 40 tons than that of the Shamrock 1., and greater by 46.23 tons than that of the Shamrock 11. Reliance does not look the big vessel she is when resting, on the water. Her topmast is skyscraping. There is much that is novel in her fittings, but conspicuous are the two steering wheels. One is forward of the wheelbox and the other aft of it- Her designer has evidently tried to guard against accidents so far as her steering gear is concerned.

The well-known schooner Rainbow has recently been sold to a Genman syndicate, and will in future be known as the Hamburg, and the huge Gleniffer has been converted into a three-master.

A couple ol weeks ago a Maclean sculler named Philip issued a challenge to R. Tresidder for a match on the Maclean River. To this Tresidder replied that he was willing to make a match, provided it was decided on the Hunter or (Parramatta Rivers. Philip’s backers, however, are not agreeable to this suggestion, and now state that they wiil allow Tresidder something for expenses if he will row on the Maclean.

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