The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-08-01
DEFENDER A BEAUTY
NEW YACHT DEMONSTRATES HER
SUPERIORITY OVER vIGILANT.
Wins Forty-Two Mile Race by More
than Twelve Minutes I'm Stiff
Breeze on Newport.

NEWPORT, r. L., July 31.--The Defend
er beat the Vigilant to-day in a run of
forty-two miles from New London to this
point, and beat her so badly that the latter's
owners must now admit that the new boat
is better than the Old. How much better
cannot be stated. as no reasonable COM
parison of the champion of 1893 and the
Vigilant of 1895 can be made only by the
handful of people who know about what
the Defender will give to the Vigilant in
the matter OF time allowance. Concerning
this matter reporter was told to-day by
yachtsman who is in position to snow
that the Defender would allow the Vigil
liant four minutes or thereaibouts on a for
ty-mile race. such as that of to-day. If
this is true the Defender did all that could
have been asked of her. beating the Vigil
liant by at least eight minutes.
Just at the start the fvigilant's main
sail was split. but the accident had no APP
preciable effect on the result of the race.
The tear was low down, near the foot of
the sails, and the yacht was going with
freedom. The wind was abeam, and gave
the two men who were sent out on the
boom to make the necessary patch no
difficulty at all. They had no trouble in
stopping the hole. sewing on, new canvass.
and the entire incident cannot. it is said
by experts, initiate against the vigilant
by more than fifty seconds at the outside.
and probably not over twenty seconds.
The weather was in favor OF the Vigi-
liant all the way. On leaving New London
ii was more than good wind. broad
scribe the direction OF the wind. which
been beer FOR two days Il was brisk, but the the
pig FELLOWS We're abe IL S caf ,Ee al at sa was
smooth enough to suit the Vigilant in her
very best days. From start 10 finish the
Defender gained or. the vigilant, ana came
who were asking each other, referring to
the Americas cup races, -Will she do?'
are now saying at least: We'll, she's the
sion from these people is to be thought
over more than once. 1t means that the
splendid win OF the. keel boat to-day shows
that she is lmproyins rignt aions tS IN I rati
displayed between the sail of yesterday
and that of to-day the Vigilant will be
nowhere tomorrow. It. was almost run
fender gained at every point. The finish
showed the new boat to be twelve minutes
and two seconds to the G good on actuai
On leaving New London the yachts sailed
down with a beam wind to the race. The
Defender had her steering gear patcneo
up during the night, and her sailors a were
line one minute and twenty,tnree seconds
ahead of the Vfgilant. The Volunteer was
pretty quick, and was away five seconds
after the vigilaRtu The Jubilee was there,
hut for some reason or other she did not
start with the others, and this fact les
sened the interest in the whole proceeding'
as the breeze was blowing pretty fresh,
and everybody wanted TO know what Gen.
Payne's vessel would do with the cham
pion of 1898 and the new fin-keel yacht.
me boats which did start mad a good race &C.
There was a fine breeze, which was Az
WAYS fair. After rounding the. race rack
the fleet found itself going BEFORE the
wind. and spinnakers were set.s
That is the way they rushed home to the
finish line. The result of to-days race
shows that the fight for the cup on the
American side wlll.be made by either the
Defender or the yigilant The JUBILEE by
her refusal TO start to-day, indicates to
sane persons that she does :, not IVA, want to
victory in such weather cannot be of
great value just now, for the chances ,s, are
sailed in light weather. and that is the
game the Valkyrie III was built for.