The San Francisco call., 1899-09-30

to the division of the crew into two
watches, one working all night and the
other working all day. When the Sham
rock was first exposed to view every one
was OF the opinion that her lead keel
was not covered with metal, similar to
the Columbia's, but when the underbody
was polished off It was seen that the lead
was protected by sheet copper, over which
a coating of red anti-corrosive paint had
| been put To-day the copper was polished
UP well and the very bottom sheets were
given coat Of dark red paint. The work
or polishing up the Columbia's hull will
( take at least another day, as at o'clock
this afternoon, when the men quit work
| there was still considerable surface about
the bilges that had not been touched The
Columbia, therefore, will not be fioated
out OF the dock until Monday morning
The new bobstay for the Columbia ar
rived from the Herreshoffs' works last
night and to-day Rigger Billman and his
men went TO work putting 1t in place
The new piece of wire rope is about one
and one-quarter inches in diameter slight
ly larger than the one which broke last
week and as 1t had been given a two
hundred-ton test before 1t was sent here
from Bristol it should carry the boat
through the races. When the bobstay had
been secured at each end the slack was
taken up by turning the bowsprlt out
board. There is still chance to work
the bowsprit out six or seven inches, and
when the wire stay stretches more the
slack will be taken up.
The port side of the Columbia was given
II cOdl OI lTtSn white paint ana the star
board side will be repainted Tomorrow
The top sides of the Shamrock were
painted a delicate shade of green also
to-day so that both craft will go into the
races as they We're originally painted not
wfthstanding the theory that there was
loss of speed by so doing. Among the
most interested of the spectators that saw
the Columbia to-day were Captains Archie
Hogarth and Wringe and Sailmaker Rat
sey of the Shamrock. These gentlemen
were piloted to the navy yard by Painter
Mitchell, who had been experimenting the
painting of the Irish yacht, and Mate
outside the yard.
AT the drydock the party found Captain
Barr and Measurer John Hyslop and for
an hour the rival captains talked over the
relative merits OF the two boats and
viewed the Columbias hull at close quar-
ters.> The Englishmen did not care to
express any opinion other than to say that
the Columbia was a fine looking craft.
Besides .repainting the topsides and
securing the hull of the Shamrock there
was considerable other work done about
the boat. Most important of all was the
putting on of a new bobstay. Designer
Fife evidently did not care to run the
risk of carrying that important piece of
rigging away during a race and instead
of having the new sfa3 a single wire rope
1t was made double and was wound for
more than half its length with marlin to
prevent chafing. There was some talk
about the Erie basin that the Shamrock
would be fioated out of the dock to-mor-
row afternoon and as the craft is about
rumor. but John NJ. Hyslop, official meas
urer of the New York Yacht Club, said
this afternoon that he would put the tape
to the two boats next Monday. He will
yard before she leaves the drydock and
then will board the Shamrock's tug, Law
renee, and go around to the Erie basin
to measure the Irish cutter.