Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-10-06

tention as she sailed about to see how
her latest champion would defend it.
Preparations were made aboard both
yachts for the lightest airs before the
start. The Columbia discarded her
heavy steel top sail yard for lighter
and longer pine one, and the Irish boat
sent aloft the largest club top sail ever
seen on her, larger by yards than any
used in her trials on this side.
Mrs. Iselin. wife of the managing
owner of the Yankee boat, who never
fails to be aboard during race. was
snugly ensconced in the companionway
of the Columbia. attired in a jaunty
white flannel yachting costume with a
red streamer around her hat.
AS soon as the committee boat had
hoisted the signal letters I'D. C. L."
making the course fifteen miles south
east by south, dead before the wind and
return, a putting tug steamed straight
out to sea to plant the outer mark.
which neither of the racers was des-
tined to round to-day.
There was some pretty Vancouver
ing behind the line before the start.
each breaking out her balloon jib and
lowering her spinnaker boom as they
jockeyed for position. Both got across
in the smoke of the last gun, the white
beauty lenth ahead and in the wind
ward berth. The wind was blowing
hardly five knots. AS she crossed the
green boat broke out her spinnaker
which was in stops. 1t is an English
fashion to hoist this sail from the boom
and the Shamrock in her trials chung
to the English way, but since her ar
rival she has
LEARNED MANY YANKEE TRICKS
and breaking out the spinnaker is one
of them. The cup defender was lit
tie slow in getting her big delaying
sail out and this somewhat dampened
the ardor of the patriotic throng of
Americans, who love nothing so much
as forehandedness and snap, but sixty
seconds later both boats were on even
terms, fleeing before the gentle breeze
wing and wing, spinnaker balancing
main sail and a bulging balloon jib
drawing forward. The bells in the en-
CINE rooms of the excursion feet
changed and the careening hulls started
forward in pursuit.
But they slowed down almost imme-
diateIy and then stopped. The lazy
breeze was carrying the big yachts
down the wind at a snails pace. They
drifted along like two lazy clouds Of
smoke upon the surface of the water;
their frail hulls slipping through the
placid seas as gently and peacefully as
if they had been in dreamless sleep.
For almost an hour the spectators on
the excursion boats watched them drift
along like Coolridge's Painted ship
upon a painted ocean, The only
cheering feature of the situation was
that the Columbia steadily gained
ground, as inch by inch she crept along.
At the end of fifteen minutes several
lengths of clear wa-er showed between
her and her green rival. The bands
played and few whistles footed. On,
on she moved until she was fully five
hundred yards ahead 1t was pictur-
esque but not exciting.
The immense spread of canvas, in
Guiding the balloon jib, was drawing in
the gentle breeze. The whole crew of
each yacht was aft to act as ballast and
keep the head of the yachts up. Only
few of them were busy easing sheets
and tightening halyards. Then the
wind began to die and the great bal
looms of canvas forward collapsed like
meal sacks. At the same time the wind
canted little and Columbia concluded
to change her tactics. She took in her
spinnaker and tried reaching, leaving
the balloon jib set 1t was a challenge
to the Shamrock on her best point Of
sailing and Captain Hogarth eagerly ac-
cepted the gauge. They went heading
over toward the Long Island shore, and
the Columbia continued
TO INCREASE HER LEAD.
The Shamrock, chagrined, attempted to
crowd on little more canvas by set
ting her stay sail, but it only kept the
precious wind from her balloon and the
sail itself hung from the stay as limp
and listless as a wet rag. In a few
minutes she took it down. AS the
yachts appeared nearer the Long Island
shore the haze lifted for moment and
Long Beach, with its big hotel and de-
serted cottages, rose as II by enchant-
ment from the deep. Then It closed
down again and the lazy yachts drifted
on. The great ocean liner Augusta Vic
toria, OF the Hamburg American line,
outward bound TO Southampton. broke
through the mystic circle where the
yachts were battling for the supremacy
and slowed down for . moment to let