The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-07-13
TABLES TURNED At LAST
The Blue Ribbon of the Seas
Won by Britannia-Vigi-
liant Defeated.

It is now forty years since the famous
yacht America was built and sent across
| the Atlantic to teach the naughty Brit
isher how to build, equip and sail
flyer" The story is an old one, and
dear to every Americans heart how
whole fleet of English yachts, from the
4o-touner up to the three-1nasted 800
ton schooner, turned out and wrestled
for supremacy in days sail around the
| Isle Of Wight small island some
twenty miles long and fifteen miles
broad that lies off of the south coast OF
England. Tradition has it that Eng
lands young, and then pretty queen set
upon the deck of her steam yacht look
| ing up the home stretch for signs of the
winning boat AS the America hove in
sight tossing her saucy sails in all the
gladson1e frolic of victory, the august
lady asked her lieutenant what boat that
might be, rounding the distant head
land. "The America, Your Majesty''
And what boat is second?" Your
Majesty, there is no secondn'
In the past forty years at various i'll
terva1s, the intrepid Britisher has sent
his challenge over here to get the cup;
but in vain. His boats have been good,
each faster than its predecessor-bu not
fast enough. To do him justice, the
noble Briton has 1abored under a serious
disadvantage in the fact that when he
sends challenge he has to send also
the full dimensions of his boat, her
length, tonnage, sail-spread, and various
other details, which must be of particu-
lar value to the Herreshoff or the Bur
CESS who sits himself down at his
draughting board to design a boat to
beat her More than this, he usually
races his boat over i'll English waters
before coming here; and, as the A1neri-
can cup committee always have repre-
sentative over in English waters, for the
express purpose of watching the per-
formances of the challenging boat, it
follows that the man who designs the
champion American boat is in possession
/ VI lIli pal llCu1eilo lAlS 'o<tI Az
has to beat-he knows not merely her
dimensions and model but also her best
and worst points of sailing an immense
advantage i'll such competition of
designers skill OF late years the Amer
lean boat has always been little better
than her opponent-and she ought to
! be. Moreover, the challenger IS one
boat: but the defender is chosen from
several boats each Of which is designed
to beat the foreigner, another obvious
advantage. Had this latter advantage
been allowed the Britisher, the Britain
MIA would have come over last year i'll
place Of the slower Vallyrie, and the
American cup would now be reposi11g i'll
the vaults of the Royal Yacht club at
Cowes, England. But as the English
man had to name his boat before he
built her that could not be, and the
| Vaikyrie came and was beaten.
1t has always been boast of the Eng
! 1is1 yachtrnen, that the American boats,
with their great beam, comparatively
shallow draught, and excessive sail
spread, could not ''do the trick i'll the
more stormy and squally British waters.
Last year, it was resolved to test this
statement; and MIR. Carroll gave the
Herreshoffs an order for large racing
yacht which should cross the "herring
pond and stop the mouths of these
blusterers. The Navahoe was built, and
bearded the lion in his den Gf so un-
nautical a metaphor may be allowed in
this connection). She was beaten by
the Prince of Wales now famous yacht
Britannia, and failed to bring home the
cup.
This year the Vigi1ant, vanquisher of
the Valkyrie, was sent across to avenge
her sisters defeat She has raced four
times, and came off with honors, for
although beaten, it has usually been by
small margins. These races have taken
place in the Firth of Clyde, land-1ocked
bay. The winds have been variable,
some of the races being sailed in light,
and one of them in very strong wind.
1t will be interesting to see what she
does when it comes to racing in the
open, where the sea is lumpy and the
whitecaps show themselves.
Costs and Disbursements.
| An investigation of the annual financial
exhibits for the past five years shows that