The Portland daily press., 1885-09-09
IN COLLISION.
The Puritan Fouls the cenesta and
crippIes Her.
The Ecenesta's Bowsprit Completely
Carried Away,

CriPPieS 7er'
The ECenesta's Bowsprit Completely
Carried Away,
And the Puritan's MainsaiI Badly
Possibility that the Race Will Come
off Friday.
| SANDY Hook, Sept. S.-The haze in the
atmosphere began to clear away towards
! O'Clock, and the breeze freshened so much as
| to make swell upon the water. All the
yachtsmen were jubilant, and sails were rig
| ged up to catch the breeze. The steam yachts
were first to move off. The Genesta gave
| signs that she would start ahead of the Puri-
/ tan. This was ten minutes after 10 O'Clock.
and the bay was then alive with yachts and
steamers from New York coming along at a
| fast pace &es soon as the Genesta had got
ten under way, the mainsall topsall, fore
topsail and jib of the Puritan were set, and
/ the Boston sloop followed after her English
rival The breeze then freshened still more,
and the Genesta, with her sails well hlled;
rounded Sandy Hook Point at 1925, and
stood out for Scotland lightship. The Purl-
tan turned the point of the Hook minute It,9
later, and she went to the windward with
amazing speed for the wind, and forged
| ahead in brilliant style. The skipper on the
| Puritan however, did not care to oyertake
| the Genesta in the run down, and did what
/ he could to deceive the pilot on the latter as
/ to the racing abilities of his boat in south
| west wind.
/ The Judges boat and the stake boat follow
| ed close after the Genesta. The wind be-
came very light after passing the lower tow
4 s4C A., al< +hn Of tI1a
| yachts was Slow The Puritan seemed to
run quite free in the wind, however, and out
| pointed the Genesta whenever the attempt
was made. At 10.45 the wind again came up
full and a southeast breeze helped all the
| yachts along. 1t was then concluded that if
| the wind held out the race could be run in
| the specified time.
From the tower at Sandy Hook the scene
was dazzling in its beauty. Everywhere that
the eye rested upon the water white sails
down from New York toward the Hook, was
a great one. There were steamers and steam
yachts, steam excursion boats, steam tugs,
schooners, sloops, cutters and cat boats, and
water of the entire bay if the canvas was in
one piece. Yachts coming up from the city
| or from Bay Ridge, were Joined outside the
! Hook by those that had rested in the Horse
| Shoe during the night. The last of the
yachts went by the Hook at II o'clock.
NEW DIRK, S6pG 0.-W men GHe ydcUIS
came in view from Sandy Hook, the Genesta
and Puritan were in close company, and
were making sail for Scotland Lightship. The
red, white and blue pennant of the Puritan
was first seen. The yachts were less than 30
wards apart when off the Highlands, at II &c
4. m. The skipper Of the Genesta pointed
right towards the Puritan. in the endeayol
to take the latter's wind away. The captain
\ of the Puritan believed he could cross the
Genesta's bow and tried to do So The re-
e.. h. .a1N rkofr
spirit was carried away, and the mainSail OF
the Puritan badly torn. The CONSERVATION
on the judges boat and on the yachts was
great, and those not near enough to see were
afraid the yachts were injured below the
water line 1t was foul, pure and simple
upon the part of the Puritan, and was due t.
the fact that the skipper thought he could
bring her before the wind faster than he did
The hole in the Puritan's mainsail is in the
after leech in the lower corner, and of course
renders her useless. 1t was only by lucl
that further accidents were ayerted, for after
the collision all the visiting and attendan
yachts ranup close to the Puritan and &c
nesta, and several fouls occurred
The judges held a consultation after th'
fouling occurred and talked to the skipper
Of the Puritan and Genesta, and both de
clared racing an impossibility, and tn
judges then, at u o'clock, officially declared
the race off for the day.
AS far as can be learned the Puritan wa
|
been avoided by the Genesta if she had act
ed differently Both yachts had noticed tn
signal of the judges boat, and were close to
gether The Genesta was near the lightshlp
and the Puritan was close astern OF her; In
cutter tackled, but the Puritan did not follow
and the bowsprit of the Genesta went int
the mainsail of the Puritan, just over th
boom, near the leech, and the next momen
| the GeneSta's bOwsprit was broken off clos
to the stem, and took with it the jib, leavin
| on1v thp fnIaStaVSail standing The hole i
the Puritan's sail was not very large, and
could easily have been repaired, but the &c
nesta set signal protesting against the race
and as they had not yet been started her pre-
test was noted and the yachts were towe
back to New York. 1t was apity, as ther
was just wind enough to make splendi
race. The damage to the Genesta will tax
some time to repair, and probably the Puri
tan may have suffered some damage whic
was not observed from here.
Another Account.
NEW YORK, Sept S.-New York is full {
disappointed yachtsmen tonight, and non
more so than those who came on from th
east three days ago to see the first of the sc
ries of Yacht races in the great contest TO
Americas cup and have not seen it yet. TIL
most serious of the delays was caused toda
by collision between the Puritan and Gt
nesta just as the yachts were about to star
under the most favorable conditions in thei
, fog which hung over the bay during the eal
ly morning hours was cleared away soon al
ter nine o'clock by the warm rays of the su
and pleasant breeze from the southeast 0
, moderate strength which came from the sef
ward with short ugly swells that told {
. more behind them. The change was halle
, with pleasure by the crews of both the con
1 peting yachts which lay at anchor in tn
Horseshoe west of Sandy Hook and by min
l o'clock the sails of both were hoisted an
| hoNa bor roadu fOr an par1U star
!. They were under way at 1915, when the r
S gatta committee, Messrs. Tams, StebbiI
. and Schuyler arrived in the tug .Luckenbacl
T Steamers Sirius and Taurus with the tus
t Leader and Haviland and pilot boat Hestt
y of Boston, were the only boats carrying pa:
e sengers that appeared, but all the yachts
y the harb0r came out to see the start. M
t Forbes, General Paine, Mr.. Burgess and tt
e crew of the Puritan were feeling elated ov'
y their victory in yesterdays twenty mile COZ
d test while Sir Richard Sutton, Sir Villa
: Livinge and Beaver Webb were correspon
+ ingly glum.
No time was lost in the preliminary a
!. rangements, as both were eager to start
S the splendid breeze which freshened evel
$ moment, and after Mr.. Lloyd Phoenix h;
t been put on board the Genesta as the repr
A sentative of the Puritan the judges bo
). steamed to Scotland lightship, anchoring
S Ills, bearing ENE from it and distant abo
an eighth of a mile.
When the preparatory whistle was blow
at 11.30 O'Clock, the accompanying steame
e all lay to the westward of the lightshi
while the Puritan and Genesta were both
the port tack, close hauled, standing iowa
e the Judges boat and the lightship
/ The course was SSE, the same within ty
IS points as yesterday, and the tug Ocean XII
is had started about five minutes previously
u log out the course when the first signal W
le given. The starting signal should have be
II given at 11.35, and all eyes were on the tN
n lighting craft from the minute the prepi
i atory Signal was given at 11.34. just as t
h Genesta reached the point where she shou
p cross the line close to the lightship S
u tackled to the Starboard and therefore h
lg the right of way
W The Puritan which had been about T.
', hundred yards to the windward of her VIII
"a she was on the port tack evidently thoue
she could cross her opponents bow for S
kept right along on the port tack. Both we
travelling at least six knots an honr and {
preached each other at right angles We
fast. Once her helm was put up for nome
!, but finding it too late it was put hard do
,, and the sloop shot up into the wind rie
u under the Genesta's bow instead of fill
le away on the starboard tack as those watt
ing her supposed she would her wheel "
rt put up and she shot across the Genest
N bow the intention evidently being to win
the latter. The Puritan's hull had all Gle
10 ed the cutter when suddenly the latter'S bo