Evening star., 1899-09-21

Comments ON the Arrangements fol
the Americn's Cup Races.


A member of a well-known regatta COM
mittee consulted yesterday as to his
opinion about the arrangements made yes
terday at the White House to keep the
course clear for the Americas cup races.
He said: THE difficulties cannot be wholly
remedied by any number of police, torpedo
or any kind of patrol boats. There sit
uations in triangular races which cannot
be remedied long as excursion steamers
are allowed to follow Moreover, this fleet
of patrolling steamers is just likely to
prove Objectionable to one both of the
racers as the excursion steamers. My rea-
sons for saying SO are as follows: The
course cannot be laid out till the last mo-
ment. The first leg Of a triangular course
must be laid out dead TO windWard, as th.5
wind at the time happens to be, 50 as to
secure some beating in the race. The
windward and leeWard races must also be
started either dead to windward or directly
TO leeWard. If otrstarted in this way these
races are Spelled Consequently, until the
last half-houf before the start no one. not
even the members of the regatta committee
themselves. know what courses the yachts
will be started on, Up till this point the
captains of the patrol boats know no more
about the courses Khan the captains Of the
excursion steamers, and unless the cap
tains of all patrol boats are made to un-
derstand the Intentions Of the regatta COM
mittee at'1heJ tastsmoment they will be as
likely as any others to get in the way of
themselves. ( ~
AT the second mark of triangular
course difficulties with excursion steamers
or the swelis7 theYd create have never been
avoided, anda never Will be avoided. The
first leg Of the Course 10 dead, set to wind
ward and the racers beat out TO the first
mark. The next two legs of the triangle
are two broad reaches After rounding the
first mark the racers fly off to the second
and If there is any wind they totally cut
f.lr yk
round the second mark and .urn for the
finishing line they have in all cases to go
directly in front of or through the feet that
his been following. In some cases the
steamers are able to get past the line of
the home course, especially if they cut off
large corner, but in the last two ohal-
lenge races both competitors had to sail
pretty nearly through the enLire fleet. This
is a position which cannot be avoideG as
long as excursion steamers are allowed to
follow the yachts
The captain of the press tug Jack Dyk-
man said yesterday that the captains of
excursion steamers and tugboats were GO
ing to be more careful this year than ever
before. He said: They will absolutely re-
fuse to go within mile of the racers.
They don't intend to lose their licenses to
please their passengers. They personally
are going to be held, responsible by the
authorities. We all know that in this case
the officials mean business, and that they
will withdraw the license of any captain
who dsobeys the general orders by plac-
ing his boat in a wrong position. When
the President gives after like this his
personal attention you An bet he intends
that the course shall be kept clear. [ fore
see lot of trouble which will come on be-
tween passengers of excursion steamers
and the captains of those vessels. The pas
sengers will want to go close to the racers
and the captains will positively refuse 10
take their boats there. There isn't any
captain that is going to lose his license to
please a few excursiunIStS.'
The United States statute under which
Captain Evans will act was passed by Con-
gress and approved May 10, 1896 1t fol-
lows in part:
That in order to provide for the safety
Of passengers on excursion steamers,
yachts oarsmen and all craft whether as
observers or participants taking part IN
fegattas, amateur or professional, that
may hereafter be held on navigable waters
the Secretary of the Treasury be and he
is hereby authorized and empowered in his
discretion to detail revenue cutters to en-
force such rules as may be adopted to in
sure the safety of passengers on said ex-
cursion steamers, yachts. oarsmen and all
craft whether observers or partici-
pants iIf such regattas."
The quartermaSter' department of the
army has arranged to have the transport
Mcpherson attend the races for the benefit
of army officials and their families.