The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-06
POINTS ON THE NEW YACHTS
(Continued from First Page.)

great August race will begin in deat earnest. Shamrock II. will be thor
 oughy licked. into shape before sh'
 starts for this country. She will b'
 lowed whenever possible by the stean
 yacht Erin, and on her arrival will bt
 fitted with her racing rig and her crew
 will devote all their energies to get hel
 in condition for the contest.
 The man at the helm of racing
 yacht is like the man behind the gun ir
 naval warfare. On him much depends
 The Constitution is exceptionally fla
 vored in this respect. For her amateur
 skipper she has a. man whose exploits | speak for themselves. Duncan Butler
 began with small craft, sailing them
 single-handed, and worked his way up-
 ward until by and by he had an oppor-
 tunity to show the extent of his powers
 on the Defender, when two years ago she figured as trial horse for the Co.,
 lumbia. Every pachtsman admired the
 pertinacious and bulldog fashion in
 which she was sailed They came up
 smiling after every dockdown blow.
 The secret of this was that they were handled by a sailor MT. Duncan had a
 naval training which compelled disci-
 pllne among all hands, The Scandlna-
 vian seamen who were getting licked
 all the time were never permitted to
 lose heart or to become demoralizad.
 The personal magnetism of the men in
 command kept them fully in control.
 In fact, they were nearly always bub- bling over with enthusiasm. The ama- teur was MT. Duncan; the professional TTYio a yacht handled to greater perfection in the teeth of discouraglng clrcum-
 stances than was Defender. The own
 CTS of Constitution are to be congratu-' lated on the personnel of their ma chine There will be only one skipper aboard the Constitution. The double-
 headed arrangement on Shamrock I, was most unsatisfactory. But it had its comic side, for instance, when the two skipper, Wringe and Hogarth, al- most came to blows on the quarter deck during one of the races off Sandy Hook, the difficulty being difference of opinion in the setting of a topsail. This so dlsgusted Lipton that he de- clared that he would never have two captains again, the result being that Sycamore Is in complete control of Shamrock( aided by W. Jameson, the cleverest of British amateurs
 10 find out what the capability of the Constitution actually is will require practical tests When yacht sails by herself she always seems to be going fast. It is only by racing against another craft that yachts speed and handiness can be accurately known For the special purpose of testing the Constitution the Columbia has been fitted out and when the proper time arrives she will come east and try out the Constitution in thorough manner. 1 Both yachts will be stationed at New port and, as fine sailing breezes blow with great regularity off Brenton's reef | and there is no shallow water to worry the deep draft craft. the contests are sure to be lively and interesting When 1 the two are joined by the Independence | things will be still more exciting, and | the yachting fraternity and the public | will be curious as to the re- suits achieved. Columbia, flying the | flag of E. D. Morgan, a former commo- dore of the New York Yacht club, who 1 ordered the Herreshoffs to build the eel ! ebrated Gloriana, will be sailed by ! Charles Barr, who skippered her during | her races with the Shamrock. Rhodes and Barr are strong rivals and both f being experts, some pretty examples of sea -jockeying are likely to occur in the slsirmishes. Captain Half, the veteran skipper of the Indepen- ience, is no tyro in the art so it will be veritable battle of the sea giants. August Belmont, the principal owner of he Constitutions also skillful sailor If yachts. but he will in no way inter- 'ere with the handling of the yacht, all authority having been delegated to MT. Butler Duncan.
 Taking Into account the mathemati- al precision which has all along char ,cterized the work of Nat Herreshoff n his gradual evolution of the 90-foot water line racing machine, it may be aken for granted that the Constitution will beat the Columbia by safe enough I margin. Yacht naval architecture in he hands of the Bristol wizard Is be- oming almost an exact science. He is the marine Marconi He las revolutionized the whole art of acht designing. He has ventuged into chemes of form and into subtle intric- cies of construction unheard of be- ore He has led the Britishers by the ose The Constitution in all the per ection of her scientific shape can be racked backward to Gloriana. sham ock had in her all the crude elements the Defender, but the master hand ) lick them into shape was lacking. At this time it would be presumptu- us to forecast the possible achieve rents of the Constitution against the which is very backward. is the hope of Boston that the Law ,n craft shall humble the pride of the aughty Herreshoffs. Boston in fact els something of the old cup defending which prevailed in those lorlous days when Puritan, Mayfow and Volunteer, those great Burgess cations, carried all before them and wered the colors of New York. The achtsmen have not forgotten how the 1ung and talented Burgess struck out oldly for himself and by wise com nation of deep keel, broad bear, out de lead and center board brought out
 type of racing craft that vanquished