The morning times., 1895-08-04
A S. AR BREAKING RACE
The Yacht Vindez's Thrilling Ex-
perience.
with Bobstay and Forestry Parted
Topmast nd MainSail Sa gging, the
Crew Crossed the Line Forty
Seconds A head of Her Rival.
(By William j. Henderson; copyright,

1895, by William J. Henderson,
The sun was sloping TO the westward,
and the Stat IslarI hills Were a pur-
pie mist aga ust the glowing yeIlo - OF
the sky. The ebb tide was running slTong
ly, aud over under the st. George shore
half dozen slim cutters, three fat, black
sided Italian barks, and q great white
cruiser, with film of blue smoke waver-
mig above two OF her three orchre tunnels
aud the bright ensign dropping wearily at
her taffran staff, Were tuggiug wilfully
at their tense cables. a fast steam yacht
was coming up through the Mario ws,
every flag standing out as flat as u .,Oard,
aud wide streamer of oily brown smoke
swirling away over her starbOard quarter,
while under her bows the yellow water
spurted asuuder in two glittering fOuu-
tains OF silver 1t was a lovely, IL some
what familiar, scene, aud as the stanCh
racing sloop Vindex slowly stemmed tue
tide just TO the northward of Fort Lafay
ette, with her bowsprit pointing at the
Atlantic Yacht Club anchorage, ia good
hour away, at the speed she was goiug),
three young men lying stretched at fun
length on her deck, drank in lis beauty
without speech, till suddenly one of them
broke the silence.
II say, Jordan" he drawIed, lazily,
'were you ever in a real out and out,
hammer and tongs, stick k-breaking racer"
NO" answered Jordan, slowly; I've
always had the luck to carry all my spars
home with me-"
We'll, then" said the third, 'you fell
lows ought to have been with me in my
match in the Corona against the TLisbe
two years ago"
BLAKE's STORY
"Tell US about it, Blake" said Jordan.
That's just what I'm going to CO.. re-
piled Blake, as he stretched himself more
comfortably
"It was in October, two years ago." he
| began, that we came down here To sail
! that match. 1t was the result of rather
| hot discussion on the clubhouse vcTandah,
between Driscoll and me, about he relative
merits of our boats We finally agreed to
race without time allowance over the old
! New York Yacht Club course Commodore
| Simms agreed to act as judge; he caIue down
| from Larchmont in his steam yaCn5 Psyche
! We went through the usual preparations;
| had the boats on the ways, aud nad them
pot-leaded to the sheer strakes; had the
| standing rigging setup and The running gear
| oyerhauled, and had the cabin fittings sent
| ashore The day before the match was as
fine a fall day as remember 1t was clear,
sunny and warm, with a nice steady lreeZe
from the southwestern ideal Gay for a race
| in ght-draught siXGy-footers. Tile cid
| weather sharpS down here said We were
going to have pretty much the same day on
the morrow, with the wind perhaps trifle
more southerly. Well, the sun Went Gown
redder than Billy Browns lew private
signal, and 1 made up my mind we would
have either flat calm or dirty rain But
as l didn't rate in the weather expert
class, kept my tongue still"
A SHIFTING WIND.
"When turned out at z o'clock the next
morning, however, 1 found that 1 didn't
know anything at all about the weather.
The wind was light, very light, and about
north by west. My sailing master said 1t
would die out before noon and come In
from the south 'ard-that was always the
| way with northerly wind in the morning.
But for once the ordinary rule didn't
| hold good. Instead of dying out the wind
worked over to the nor west and fresh
ened SO that at $50, when we got our
anchor and stood out for the starting
line 1t was blowing about all we needed
for carrying racing sail. However, both
of us sent up our club topSails and stood
by for lively run down to the SOU vest
spit.
The starting gun was fired at 10 O'Clock
to the second. and just twenty seconds
later I sent the VindeX across the line
with my main boom out to port and my
balloon jib topsail up in stops. L reck
oned that it wasn't quite safe to break II
out just then, but 1 counted on doing so as
soon as / got well under the lee of Slater
Island But. bless your heart, DriscoI
broke his out on the line, which he crossed
thirty seconds behind me, and at once
began to pick me up. So l broke out my big
headsails right away.
A TEARING BLOW.
'I tell you, boys, it made my hear
jump to see the way the topmast swaye'
at times under the tremendous strain thu
was put upon It. But we flew! The waite
fairly boiled under our lee bow. But Dris
coll wasn't satisfied. He wasn't gainln
on ME at as fast pace as he desired
So, when we were just about entering tn
Narrows, and the wind, drawing throug
the opening between the two islands
came pretty nearly aft, he lowered ava