The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-08-30 00:00:00

TOWN REGATTA.

The first day of the town Regatta was ushered
In with weather so glorious that it 'seemed almost
as if • second summer had c me, all traces of
the tremendous downpour of Sunday morning
having vanished, and the sun shining out with
such warmth as became almost scorching in the
middle of the day. There did not seem to be so many
visitors about as on Saturday, when two or three great
eleundon trains filled the places of public retort ; but on
the hey • goodly number of small croft were sailing,
steaming, or rowing about. Several large and smell
steam yachts were in the Bsy and even in the Harbour,
there was quite • " forest " of yachts' masts under the
protection of the Nothe, and the array of steamers'
funnels in harbour looked quite formidable. The pier as
on Saturday was adorned with numerous flags, several
lines of coloured bunting being stretched at intervals over
the pier like the "rainbow " ornamenting of • manof-
war. In the t .wn the hotels and the mrre spirited
tradesmen also hoisted their colours, se that the town was
all's-flutter with flags. The wind blew a moderate
breeze from the S.W., and th..re was enough slop to make
the cutter Skylark, which had been lent again as corn-
mitt- c boat, roll and pitch a little. Mr. H. Nanele. the
secretasy unfortunately had not recovered perfectly from
his late illness; but Mr. H. T. George, with Dr. Simpson,
and others, went off to Commander Richards and con-
ducted the necessary arrengemente, for which the
beautiful cutter had been prepared. And here we
cannot help noticing the perfect brightness and
trimness of the cutter and all her appointments,
though it is only • matter-of-course example, that her
decks were so white you could have eaten off them, if it
were not ter soiling the boards. Rainbow decorations of
Ilan of all "ode adorned the cutter; but the centre of
attraction was the blue peter which was ran up to her
mast 6.6 d, as a signal sport was about to bees. There
were three races on the card for to-lay :

Thirty Sovereigns for Cutter, not exceeding 40 Tons.—
First, £2.5; second, .C 5. Three time. round the Weymouth
Yntrince one guinea, ta star: at 10. Three
entries.
Owner.

Tons.

Sleuth Hound (cutter) 40 Marquis of Allen
Amason (cutter) 40 J. D. liedderwick, Esq.
May (cutter) 40 N. IL Stewart, isq.
May did not sail. Amazons, in starting. ran a narrow
risk of crossing the line too soon. and the got about a
quarter of • minute start of Sleuth 11 ou,d, which, how-
ever, ran to windward, and for a short time took the wind
out of Atll•6Ol2A'S sails, attempting, e to same time, to
put up her spinoaker ; but the boom was on the wrong
side, and Atnssons, which had bided her time, ran out her
boom to leesiraid. arid up with the spinnaker, immediately
skimming thr..eh the water at • fine pace. Sieuth Hound
WWI not prepared, and it was e in.liersble time before
she got her spinnaker out, and by this time Amazons had
shown her heels to some pup awl she rounded the
marit-hoat half a minute ahead of S'euth Hound. In the
long run under the North Shore, AIUAROIIII kept her lead,
and she lengthened it when she felt the wind outside.
They completed the first round thus : Amason., 115.4.59;
Sleuth Hound. 11.57 XI, both pawing the mark-boat with-
out jibing, althomdi it wu the opinion of thou on board
they would have made better speed had they taken in
their spinnakers and jit ed, for they went down towards
the mark boat, almost with Black sails. The concluding
two rounds were csmpletswi thus •.—Amasona, 151.36.
4,3.31; Sleuth Hound, 1.56.52. 4.7 51.
Massone, therefore, toil( first priss, and the second
p.iss was not given.
Twenty Sovereigns for Yachts not exceeding 30 TOW.—
First, £1.5 etc-nd. 45. Twice round the Weymouth
counsel. Your entitled :
Rig. Tons. Owner.

Freda Cutter 20 Mr. F. Taylor
Arnathea Gitter 20 Mr. R. Lamont
En' erpe Cutt,r 20 Mr. A. 0. lisyly
Louise Cotter 19 M. T. W. gyton
There could not have been • better start, aU four coming
round very cline together, Am.thea in the windward
berth, Freda. Loui.e, and Euterpe being placed in that
order. }laving set their spinnakers, Freda almost immedi.
iitely winded Lonise,and was treated to the saute 1:1111111COUVr•
by her rival, the result of thia little contest being only that
Amattrea irereamod her lead. Euterpe seemed to be wait-
ing her time, and so they ran down and then along shore,
out to the offing, and when they completed their first
round, and again neared the committee boat they were all
very close together, a most beaut.ful eight, anti they passed
is. follow :

Amsthes
Freda
Louise
Kuterps

M. P.
12 39 35
12 40 9
12 41 9
12 41 20

With more judgment than that shown on board the 40-
tonners thoy immediately Ook in apionakers and jibed.
(-gaieties Loutar, and the wiscom 1 thi. course was
shown by the fact that the one which did not adopt it got
no far beh.nd that abo gave up before completing the race.
Freda. which wee remarkably well sailed, managed to oat-
manteuvre Amathes. and they came in as follows :

h. in. U.
2 47 4.5
2 51 12
2 50 30

Freda, lit prise
Amaihea, 2nd prise
Euterpe
Thirteen @overtime for cutters of ten Tons and under.—
First, .£10; second, El Throe times round the shorter
course. Two entered :
Rig. Tons. Owner.
Buttercup Cotter 10 Mr. R. Hewett.
Maharanee Cutter 10 Mr. W. G. Woohton.
This was • very interesting race, on account of the
reputation earned by the 'sweet little Buttercup. which
had won so many prizes that the other yacht, are almost
all afr.id of her, and she is the wonder of the year, while
the plu^k of Maharanee's captain in sailing against the
fiprox rite was much admired. Buttercup, with • faith in
fortune which must have been rather tantalising, did not
even put up her topmast before the start ; not only she
hung beck after both guns were fired. and gave the
Maharanee a tremendous lead. Although Buttercup had
ti.t the advantage of her toi.sail, yet the immense breadth
of her mainsail seemed to surpass Maharanees mainsail
and topsail both, if it was not bigger than them and the
jib too, and the Maharanee's topsail looked by nn means
well set. As they went along under the North Shore, it
seemed • case of the her, and the tortoise over again, for
this favourite seemed rather to lose than otherwise, and
we cannot tell bow It might bare tuned out as far as the
sewed round, only that Maharanee executed a manmuvre
so extraordinary that we can only suppose she had lost a
man overboard, and went about to pick him up, for she
turned totelly out of lacr course, and sailed In a circle
when in the offing. and the result of this was that Buttercup
picked her up in • tisinkiing, and was close behind her
when they came In for the first round thus :
h. m. s.
Maharanee 12 50 43
Buttercup 12 50 51
The favourite put her topmast and set her topsail, and
from that time. thoush Maharanee was gallantly' sailed,
It was clearly, barring accident, all over with her chance.
The final rounds were completed thus