The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-09-05
CAPE MAY CUP RACE Off
The Unluoky Vigilant Again Loses
Her Oenterboard,
HER RACING IN ENGLAND ENDED

Aahs NHNhl'l " bhlN AAAHF AhAfNfN NlAH ANhNh
without - Ceuterboard, but the Prhnce
Of wales Accepts His withdrawal, and
the Yacht wnl be Laid Up
Cows Sept 5.-It has finally been de
cided that there will be no race this year
for the Cape May challenge cup, held by
the Britannia, on account Of the loss of
the Vigilant's centerboard while OK her
way here on Tuesday The sailing COM
mittee of the Royal Yacht squadron, late
yesterday afternoon, sent a letter to Mr..
Howard Gould, who was on board the
Yigilant here, saying that under the cir
cumstauces the Prince of Wales will con-
slider the challenge for the cup as with
drawn.
Both the Messrs. Gould, Captain Hank
Half and the crew of the Vigilaut gener-
ally are greatly depressed at this last ac-
eident 70 the American yacht.
Howard Gould, discussing the matter
with a correspondent Of the Associated
Press, said;
at is most unfortunate that we should
be compelled to end the seasons racing in
this manner. The only explanation / can
give for the loss Of the ceuterboard is that
the casting made at Southampton was
defective
The accident occurred just as we were
inside the Needles. We were sailing
along in five fathoms Of water A friend
and l were sitting at lunch whom sud
| denly the machinery of the centerboard
began revolving backwards. The oogs
failed to hold the wheels and they few
around at a great pace.
at was then evident that the board had
| l-ar,,aJ yvog hnpoyingr hv {tg chain
| The board gave Vigilant several very
hard bumps rs we dragged it along for
some distance and then, suddenly it broke
entirely off.
"After our arrival here we made up our
minds to race, centerboard or no center
| board, so long as we were allowed to ship
| extra ballast enough to make up for its
| loss. We had shipped an extra crew and
were going to do our best to recapture the
| Cape May cup. We informed the Prince
| Of Wales of our purpose but an hour
| ago l received a note from the committee,
| informing us that under the circumstan-
ces the Prince of Wales would consider
| the challenge withdrawn.
"Of course, if we had insisted Britannia
| would have raced her but l felt that We
had no right to jeopardize the cup in this
way. We could hardly have hoped TO dc
ourselves justice without any centerboard
and had the Britannia won, as she proba-
bly, would, American chances of seeing
the cup again would been small, as Bri
tannia would only have to win once more
in order to become its possessor.
"phere seems 20 be fatality about ouI
centerboard over here, and don't won
der that the English don't like them;
don't like them myself now. Why, on,
of the things we hoped to prove to then
was the desirability of using centerboards
But | guess that the lesson must now b.
taken the other way. Centerboards ar
certainly the last things one wants o
most of these courses. The pilots her
can never realize how much we draw wit
them, and there is constant danger frou
that source
"Vigilant will be laid up Immediately
and her crew will be shipped home as 500
as she is dismantled, and this will proba
bly be within % week. We shall ueve
race the Vigilaut again. l must admi
that she is not suited for English water.
We shall not attempt to recover the cer
: terbOard.h ~