Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-10-17

Columbia got the better of it. She
clearly out-manoeuvred her rival,
eventually forcing her over the line first
! by half a length, but leaving Columbia
in the weather position. Close hauled
on the starboard tack, the yachts
plunged seward, heeling to the twelve
| knot breeze. The first few minutes of
| the race were the most interesting.
| They made beautiful picture as they
raced away like hounds. Their sails
to the nautical eye were perfection in
/ fit. They looked as if they might have
been carved out of alabaster, so firm
and fautlless were the lines 1t was
soon apparent that the white flyer
WAS FORGING AHEAD.
The clear water began to show between
them. The Columbia not only seemed
to outfoot the challenger, but the ex-
perts saw that she pointed higher. TWAS
| astonishing how she sliced her way up
! into the wind. Within fifteen minutes
| she had lead of five lengths and from
| that time on, the race was hers. The
| patriots were jubilant and the bands,
which began playing, never stopped I'M
| til the race was over. The Columbia
seemed more tender than the foreigner,
showing yards of her bronze underbody
as she leaned away with her lee rail al
most awash Steadily she continued to
draw ahead until within half an hour,
having unequivocally demonstrated her
superiority in windward work, it be-
| came only a question of how far the
white flyer would beat her to the outer
mark. AS the yachts got farther out
the seas grew more turbulent and the
spray spurted higher from their bows
Many excursionists came to grief and
the tug boats plunging through the head
| seas, sent the spray aloft to their pilot
! houses and some of them were flooded
! from stem to stern.
The work of the patrol feet was per-
feet. The revenue cutters line ahead
to leeward and the torpedo boats line
abreast and astern held the yachts in
! the hollow Of moving right angle,
which changed direction with each tack
and kept the yachts as free from inter-
ference as if they had been sailing in
the middle of the Atlantic.
| Tho Cbo,oroal- F0o+od
neither in speed, nor in pointing could
she compare with Columbia. Then the
three shippers on the challenger put
their heads together and tried new tao
tics. The Shamrock made
A DOZEN SHORT BOARDS.
Evidently her shippers were under
the impression that she was quicker on
| her heel and better at fore reaching
/ than the Yankee boat, but the Columbia
proved quite as nimble as Shamrock.
| Timed by stop watch both boats were
Is seconds in stays and when the Brit
| isher's write home they will tell their
friends that the white beauty was fully
as clever as the challenger at fore
reaching. When the Shamrock got
through with this line of tactics, Col
umbia had increased her lead until she
was half a mile ahead. At the end of
another half hour. as the wind continued
to freshen, the Shamrock took in her
baby jib top sail, figuring that without
/ this light head sail she might be able
to hug the wind closer. The Columbia
held on to hers and as Shamrock did not
improve her position at the end of ten
minutes her shippers again set the sail.
BY o'clock Shamrock was fully a
mile and a half astern and Columbia
was a winner all over. AS the Asso-
eiated Press boat on her way to the
outer mark passed the Manning, Cap
tain Evans. who was on the bridge,
shouted, Amt she a peach"
Nothing could have been prettier than
the way Columbia swept around the
outer mark, gracefully as a swan. Both
boats had edged far to the southwark
of their course and as the rules required
that the mark should be passed on the
starboard hand, Columbia tackled down
to port and came over on the starboard
tack as she approached the float. AS
she neared it her spinnaker pole was
like knights lance in rest. As she
swung around she eased off her main
boom, let her spinnaker pole drop to
port and breaking out the cloud of
canvas fed homeward like a scared
deer. Her big balloon jib Blossomed
out As seconds later The few ships
of the excursion fleet at the outer mark
gave her a rousing reception. The
Shamrock was already hopelessly
beaten. A quarter of a mile from the
home run, the Columbia crossed the
path OF the Shamrock still beating to
| windward. and robbed her OF the wind
for = minute a. she went past. 1t was