Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-05-18
NEW DEFENDER WILL BE FAST.
There is No Cause for Alarm over Report
That Shamrock viii Take the Cup

''1hose yachting experts who profess to
know more about the dimensions OF Co.
lumbia than her designer Capt Nat Her.
reshof, and her managing owner, G.. Oil
YER lsclin. would be less firm in the belief
that Sir Thomas Lipton's Ffc-detiSned
challenger Shamrock will take away the
Americas cup if they really knew more
and imagined less"
A yachtman who has seen the new
defenders plans, her model and her d.
mansions made this statement after read
ing elaborate paper comparisons OF the
challenger and the defender.
'There is not the slightest doubt" no
said, that the Herreshoffs had a line
on Shamrocks dimensions months ago.
but they did not need or seek 1t. Design
ec Nat Herreshoff has not been asleep
since Defender was built He Is undoubt-
eddy the hardest working boatbuilder in
the world uniting with great technical
knowledge and aptitude indomitable en-
ergy and courage. Defenders weak points
impressed no one more strongly than they
did her builder, and for the last four
years he has labored to the end that tn y
should not appear in the next cup defend
eT built at Bristol. And they have been
eliminated so far as human forethought
is capable of doing. This Will he fully
demonstrated in the trial races"
That the Herreshoffs have seen fit to
abandon certain metais used in Defender
and to substitute another which they had
successfully tried in Vigilant, is no argu-
ment against that metal, nor should the
fact that the British boat will be plated
with ore of these discarded metals prove
that the challenger and the defender will
be on equal terms, so far as hull plating
Is concerned. The advantage, assumin
the experts are correctly informed, con-
corning Shamrock's plating of manganese
bronze, lies with the Herreshoff boat. and
It Is no mean advantage. The two yacht
will be as much unlike. probably, as Val
kyrie and Defender, and they will reflect
the best thought of the wodld's greatest
sloop yacht builders.
Columbia has been designed to sail h
American waters over a course on which
her designer is very much at home.
suppose even the experts will concent
that Hcrreshoff is better abe to design {
boat for American waters than any OF tn
British designers. This Is another mos
important advantage over Shamrock. /
there is any advantage IN skipper
thorough knowledge of local weather con
ditions at any given season that also i
in Columbia's favor, as 1t was in Britain
, MAS favor In her races with Nigilant IL
English waters.
There Is but one otheC really mpor
tant point of comparison and only thos
most directly interested can make it
/, Columbia's sail area. Those who haV
. taken their tips from the newspaper
know Columbla's hull metal and her ex
act racing length ninety feet Uhe limit
, water line and l92-foot over all, hut no
even the sailmakers can tell you how man.
square feet of canvas will go into Column
; bias working sails though some good an
|, proxmations have been given. nor Capt
Nat Herreshoffs reasons foe that design
They will he revelation, a star feature
, and this is why they are being more close
, ly guarded than any other part of TIL
, new cup defender Wait a while an
don't bet on the Shamrock"