Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-20
YACHTING

for the Americas cup means a twelfth
attempt by England to win the trophy.
In the old days a race could be sailed
for about the present cost of hiring one
tug in the challenger's fleet. Defending
yachts We're not built specially for one
series of races, and the New York Yacht
club was accustomed to turn out it's best
boats, or it's best fleet of boats, to meet
the invader.
The cup was originally won by the
America, in 1851, against a fleet of Eng
lish craft, and until after the Ashbury
races the defense on this side was con-
Quoted by a fleet. Mr.. Ashbury COM
planned that one boat could have no
chance against a fleet that was deter
mined on the blanketing process, and in
subsequent years one boat only was pro-
duced to defend the cup against a sole
challenger. A challenge arrived from
England in 1870, and then Mr.. Ashbury
raced the Cambria. a vessel still sailing,
against the Magic, and was beaten in
the one race then sailed. In 1871 Mr..
Ashbury brought over the schooner Lii
vonia, which was beaten by the schooner
Columbia, a yacht still sailing, at Phil
a%delphia, and by the schooner Sappho.
Then followed the years Of wordy war,
lCu Ol " ~ . SluC w SAS AoNS nav
Kemp, a yachting editor, through which
the trophy got it's first worldwide fame.
But nearly every one VINO took part In
those controversies hes passed away,
and the cur contests of today are more
nearly thosettof pure sport than they
ever were before.
The Canadians were the first to step
over the barriers raised by the late
James Ashbury, Dixon Kemp and others.
and in 1876 a schooner called the Countess
of Dufferin came to New York and sailed
two races against the schooner Made
leine, retiring defeated. In 1881 the
same designer, Alexander Cuthbert.
brought his sloop Atalanta n sailed
two races against the Mischief. with the
usual result.
It was not until Sir Richard Sutton's
challenge arrived. proposing a race with
his cutter Genesta, that boats were built
especially to compete in trial races be-
fore selection was made of a defender.
The Puritan, designed by Edward Bur-
CESS of Boston, met the Genesta on Sep
TENDER IA and 16, 1885, and the keel boat
of England was beaten by the center
board boat of America in the first race.
In the second forty-mile contest, twenty
miles to leeward off Sandy Hook and re-
turn, Inc 1eneSIa was only beaten by
one minute and thirty seconds, a sur
prising result, judged according to the
present time allowance scales, as the
tonnage of the Genesta was only eighty,
against the Puritan's one hundred and
forty Ions. Edward Burgess again stood
The test when Lieut.. Hem of the ENGLISH
royal navy brought over the Galatea.
The American sloop Mayflower agair re.
tanned the cup on this side. The Volun-
teer, the next creation of the celebrated
Burgess. was built to meet the cutter
Thistle. owned by James Bell. This boat
was the predecessor of the 1893 Vigilant.
The structural depth of the MayAower
vas nine feet, and the American bat
showed a gradual descending in depth
until the advent of the Defender. when
the draught took a sudden drop to 10 feet.
The Defender was succeeded by the Col
umbia, of last year, in which the draught
of water is 20 feet and 3 inches.
Both Challenger and Defender were
for the first time out and out keel boats
in 1896. 1t was in this series that the un-
p~leasantness with the Earl of Dunraven
arose. Into those troubled waters came
Thomas Upton. Knight of the Royal
Order of Good Will, with his olive branch
and a boat of the same color, and the
best thing he said was: Il believe that
all the races for the Americas Cup have
been sailed fairly."-N. Y. Tribune.