The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-21

ica's Cup Will Ee COntended for, the
vigilant is VanGuished BY the Newer
! yessel--Not that the visilant is Any
SLOUGH, Neither, But Because the De-
fender just Has Streaks and Streaks OF
speed in Her--The Race from Start to
Finish.
New York, July 20.--The Defender
| has met the Vigilant and vanquiShed
| her over a coures of fifteen miles TO
| WinWard and return in the same waters
| that the cup race will take place in
| September. The course was one Of the
kind wherein the Valkyrie III will meet
| the cup defender and that the Defend
| er is boat much superior to the Vigil
| liant was clearly proven. The new boat
not only outsailed the old champion TO
! a rema rka BILE extent, but she outfooted
| her as we'll when sailing TO windward.
! Moreover, on the run home before the
/ wind. with the Vigilant'S center board
| hauled, she gained on the champion, an
! advantage that her most enthusiastic
| admirers did not anticipate.
The weather was about what is to be
| expected during the season in which
/ the cup races VIII take DldcC. lEtIc
| was a good breeze of from twelve 10
! fifteen knots an hour blowing through
out the day and the sea was smooth.
taking everything into considera ton,
the trial was all that could have been
asked for in its results. 1t is believed
that the Vigilant has been improved
from five to ten minutes in a course of
thirty miles over her form Of 1893 and if
this is the case, the Defender must be a
/ ~ II, l.
derstand that the race of today and
that of Monday may do away altogeth-
er with the necessity of formal trial
races. Therefore, the very interesting
race was witnessed by a comparative
ly small number of people.
\ BEAUTIFUL START.
A yachtsman who has witnessed all
the races during the last twenty years
says that in his experience he never
saw anything prettier in the way of a
start than that Of today. They were
both of them over and away so quickly
after the starting gun doomed that
every onIooker knew the fight was to be
to the death.
The Nigilant was in perfect trim. It
is thought that the owner of the Vigi-
liant has spent anywhere from 50,000 TO
$4,000 in getting his boat ready either
to beat the Defender and in that way
enable him to carry out a cherished de-
sire, or to convince the American cup
committee that in beating his boat, the
Defender will be we'll worthy her name.
There is no doubt in the minds of any
expert who saw the race today that
the Vigilant was sailed for all that
was in her. That she was beaten can
be explained in only one way, that is,
the other racer was a better boat.
The program called for start at IL
a. ~. and it was only twenty minutes
after that hour that the regetta COM
mittee of the New York Yacht club,
who had arranged the race and were on
yacht, Sylvia, ordered the firing of the
preparatory gun.
CORUSE DOWN THE COAST.
The Sylvia took up a position to the
eastward of the Scotland lighthouse
and notified the yachts by signel that
the course was to be from an imagin-
ary line between the flagship and the
mainmast of the Scotland light to wind
ward out into the open sea or down the
New Jersey coast and return before
the wind.
The wind at this time was blowing
about ten miles an hour, almost due
from the south. The same breeze held
all day. 1t even increased during the
afternoon. but the sea was at no time
rough. The boats cruised around to
the eastward of the starting line until
the word was given. When that did
come both were standing in toward the
New Jersey coast with the wind COM
ing over their port sides. They tack
ed down the Defender always in the
lead and getting over the water at a
very rapid rate. The Vigilant appear
ed to be rather sluggish, even as early
in the day as that. But when they both
came around and headed back for the
Scotland light, the older yacht took on
more the form of a racer.
The Defender was ar least four
lengths ahead. Coming up close to the
light ship, the Defender was still sew
era! lengths ahead She came around
under the stern of the old vessel and
then stood off. Both yachts had set
main sails, stray sails, jib topsials with
a great club topsial at the head Of their
mastS.
HUGE TOP SAILS.
The Defenders club topsail is the big
gest top sail ever put at the head OF a
mast of a single stick, and in veiw of
the fact that the Defenders gait runs
almost UP and down from pole to deck,
the size of the sail may be estimated.
Round the light ship she flung her
self across the line in a way that was
not only clever from the expert stand
point, but beautiful. Within twenty
five seconds came the Vigilant and she
looked beautiful rounding the lightship.
The yachts started over the line OH the
starboard tack. The Defender was not
fifty feet beyond the line before she
went about, went over to the port tack
and headed in for the New Jersey shore.
The Vigilant continued on her tack of
shore up to 11:S5, or over four minutes
from the time that she went over on
her original tack. AT II 81 the Defender
went about again In tacks that fol-
lowed some people took the time be
tween luff into the wind and a full
sail on the other tack as ten seconds.
The Valkyrie Of 1898 was indisputa-
bly, 4 quick boat TO tack. 1t has been
estimated that she gained somewhere
between ten and fifteen seconds on the
Vigilant in getting about II the De
fender can make her turn from full
To full in anything like fifteen seconds
she will do. On every tack that was
made the Defender showed up in the
lead and her pointing up against the
wind was something astounding. The
Defender sails were almost always
chock full of wind. yet she headed up
higher than the old boat by from a
point to point and a half.
NOT THE DEFENDERS FAULT.
The He-reschoff model was steadily
increasing the lead until she mistock
the sno: where ne turning buoy was
pIaced and by this misjudgment lost
probably three and half minutes.
At the time the Defender made the
mistake ~ the buoy she was something
mora than mile ahead.
Getting back 70 her course however
she rounded the buoy two minutes and
thirty-four seconds ahead OF the Vigi-
liant Heading Nd for homo the Va
ran up balloon jsb top sails. swung over
their spinnaksr jibhOoms and set the!v
sails over them. In the handling q Ii.
-ssrr NE defender Sh1vva5 Tho av~arra---