Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-09-12

Lonsdale, Emperor Williams chum;
Harry McCalmont, called the wealth
lest commoner Of England" and G. B.
Robinson. Roughly speaking, she is
a fiat, shallow boat, with a deep fin
keel or fixed centerbOard, instead of
movable one, as on the Vigiant, and
relies like the Defender on the enorm-
Gus amount of lead placed very low
down for power. She has a tremend
Gus Oyerhang, and a great sheer
Viewed as a whole, she might be
called modified composite fin keel
cutter Of great beam and enormous
sail power. She is the ninth vessel
built expressly to capture the Ameri-
cas- cup. Her sail spread is the
largest ever carried on a single
sticker, and though it is not definitely
known just what she will throw to
the breeze in the races, it will be
about 1880 square feet of duck.
There are many new wrinkles in her
construction, in riveting and bracing,
of interest only to boat-making eX-
perts. Her mast from deck to head
measures 96 feet. The gaff is 50 feet
long, and her main boom is 105 feet
She has a steel mast ready to be put
up if necessary. 1t is a decided novelty
on racing yachts. 1t is 1O5 feet long.
and p inches in diameter. The
Valkyrie III was built especially for
the light winds which prevail off here
during the fall. In light winds she is
decidedly superior boat to the Bri-
tannia, which so signally defeated the
Vigilant, but in heavy wea ther she
showed such instability that there was
hasty addition of from twelve to
fifteen tons of outside lead on her
keel. Unless she was purposely held
back in her trial races in England, to
keep the Yankees from getting a line
on her." she may not after all be a
better boat than the Britannia. In
fact, there has been somewhat of a
public demand across the water that
the prince Of Wales's sturdy cutter
be sent over here. The VaIkyrie's
trials were not satisfactory. She was
in only three open races and one pri-
vate spin with the Ailsa. In the first
of the three the challenger ran away
from her rivals in a very light wind.
but being becalmed lost the prize. In
the next the wind was too heavy for
her to carry her enormous Spars and
sails. In the last, however, there was
WHOLESALE breeze and over a fifty
mile course the Valkyrie beat the
tor Yoio
The Defender is disappointment
at first glance compared with the
Valkyrie. She appears much smaller.
and really is. For the first time the
Yankee boat is the under sized craft.
Americans had hoped Herreshoff
would build a mountain of sails and
Spars, but The shrewd old designer be-
ieved he had reached the limit of
practicable sail area, and has sought
speed in an easier driven body aud
finer lines without material decrease
Of sail He dimensions are: Length
over all, 126 feet inches: beam, %
feet; d1aught, 10 feet: lead water line.
90 feet. Her gaff is 65 feet. her boom
1O5, and mast from deck to hounds
y feet. She is without doubt the
most costly racing craft ever built.
This fact doesn't bother her syndicate.
which is composed of W. K. Wander
bilt (worth $4,000, 900; E. D. Morgan.
and G. A. Ise1in. Her weight has
been reduced by the use of manganese
bronze and aluminium Being several
feet narrower than the challenger.
and lighter. she needs less sail to drive
her, and will have only about 1850