The evening times., 1900-03-27
Upton WANTS THE CUP
Plans for the Next Great Ocean
Yacht Race.
The New Flyer to BE Designed by
WatsOn-The Shamrock to He Over
hauled by Fife-The Challenger to
Reach This Country in July or .Au-
Gust-The Letter From Fearon.

he told me last week of his decision to send
two yachts over to Sandy Hook, and that
both Fife and Watson will join them in
America. Since my cable of a few days ago
Sir Thomas has been in communication
with Fife, and greater overhaul of the
Shamrock will be made than was first men
toned, for Sir Thomas has within week
told Fife to make such alterations on the
Shamrock as will best improve her, and she
will have longer ends, besides new fore
body, and such other alterations as find ia
yor with Fife.
When | saw Sir Thomas Upton in Lon
don be was more than usually loath to dis
cuss his proposal to renew the challenge, or
say anything which might be construed
into desire to push forward a sporting
challenge while his countrymen were in
tent upon the life and death struggle which
is taking place in South Africa.
When this point had been made clear
he became more communicative, and it was
apparent that he was as keenly interested
as ever in the contest, and more than ever
determined to carry it through until he had
either won the Cup or exhausted every pos
sible chance of doing so.
L don't mind admitting now. he said,
IUdI III IDH HTSl GHdIitUSt tbT lht Cdp
took on hand job much bigger and much
more difficult than / anticipated. II is just
possible that il I had fully realized then
the immense amount of work there was in
volved in Cup contest and had known
how much of my time the affair would oe-
mand. / might have taken little longer
TO think over the proposal. do not mean
to say that / regret having entered the
contest for as a matter OF fact | made
ST. ian no
race than in anything else | ever under
took, and the contest enabled me to know
and appreciate the American people 9s
might never have done otherwise. Still, 1T
was rather a big job, and il is going 10 be
a good deal bigger before it is through.
AS the winning of the cup is an honor
TO which every British yachtsman might
be expected 10 aspire, | determined TO sink
nv own desire and to stand aside and see
if anyone else was desirous of entering the
contest No one came forward and | then
proceeded to fulfill the promise | made on
the day that the Shamrock was finally de-
feated to bring back another yacht carry
ing another challenge.
:" Il was rather in a difficulty in the mat
ter OF selecting a designer, for l am per-
perctly conscious OF how serious handi-
cap it was to Mr. Fife to be laid up at the
most critical stage of the racing. Stiil,
when thinking it over, | had the assurance
of Mr. Fife that the Shamrock was the
best yacht he could possibly turn out. l
make no claim to be able to follow the in
tricacies of design or TO compare one bull
with another. but viewing the matter from
a common sense business standpoint. it
seemed TO me that We must be prepared 10
beat the Shamrock handsomely before we
could have a chance of beating either the
Columbia or a new defender likely TO be
a more formidable opponent even than the
Columbia. In view of these facts, there
fore | decided to ask Mr.. George L. wat
son to accept commission to design
challenger. and ! am happy to say that Mr..
Watson has agreed
Another matter which influenced me in
this decision was that Mr. Fife has not
yet lost confidence in the Shamrock. He
admits that she was fairly beaten, but he
thinks there is far better sailing in her
than she has yet shown. and he is expert
menting Just now with view of ascertain
ing how she might be altered with adyan-
tage. He shall have absolute carte blanche
as to expense or anything else to enable
him to improve the Shamrock as much as
possible, and | shall be very glad indeed
if he succeeds in improving her to any
great extent.
With the Shamrock improved in every
possible Way-eyen to the extent of practi-
cally remodeling the hull and the best
boat that Watson can produce. | think |
can count safely this time on being able
to lay hands on the fastest boat that can
be produced in Britain. | am determined
to have at least the satisfaction of know
irg that / have done everything it was
possible to do to deserve success.
Questioned as to whether there was any
particular change he was likely to make
ro1 xE-ifh n
that followed in the last contest. Sir
Thomas said that while Mr.. Flies illness
was undoubtedly against the Shamrock's
chance of success. he thought the chief
mistake was that the yacht was brought TO
the start of the races without being prop
erIy tried. This would be well guarded
against on the next occasion.
The Shamrock and the new yacht. he
continued. will be raced in fair and
square contest, and if it should so happen
that the Shamrock can be so altered as to
make her able to beat the newer boat, |
should have little hesitation in employing
her. Naturally. l shall have much more
pleasure and more confidence if my newer
boat can beat the Shamrock-eyen the i'm !
proved Shamrock-as handsomely as she /
was beaten by the Columbia.
- Has anything been settled yet as to the |
build or construction Of the new boat? /
Will she be of metal|
Seeing that it has been proved. appar-
emily beyond doubt, that a metal hull can
be constructed equally strong as a wooden
one. and yet save large percentage of the
total weight, it seems to me beyond doubt
that the hull of the new yacht will be
metal sheathed. In saying this, however,
| speak as a rank outsider. with no par
ticular knowledge of what will be used
This is a matter entirely for Mr.. Watson.
NV concern is to see that he is not crib (
bed in any way through questions of ex- Z
pense. Mr.. Fife had absolute freedom to
spend whatever he thought necessary to
produce the fastest yacht that could be
turned out. and Mr.. Watson will work
under exactly the same conditions. /
so far as the choice of builders goes
I am equally in the dark. although looking
to Mr.. Watson's faith in the Scottish firms
and his belief in the advantage of having
a boat constantly under the designers
eve during construction, l should think it
extremely likely that the yacht will be
built on the Clyde. / had every possible
reason to be satisfied with the work of
Messrs Thorneycroft in building the Sham
rock, but this is matter for the designer,
and it is needless to say Mr. Watson VIII
work with an basolutely free hand.
In any case, nothing VIII be done with
the actual work until the challenge has
been formally lodged and accepted, and all
the conditions sttled. l hope to have this
done in July or August OF this year. II
we had any intention of leaving it to the
test races to decide whether the Shamrock
or the new yacht should carry the chal-
lenge we would, of course, be under the
necessity of asking a concession from our
American friends to meet this. but I +
scarcely think it likely that We shall have
such serious doubts of the probable ability
of the new boat as to induce us to take