New-York tribune., 1901-04-28
YACHTING.
THE COMING INTERNATIONAL CONTESTS
TO BE MORE CAPTIVATING
THAN EVER.

Comparatively few stop consider the extra I'M
portance OF mind matter in the America
Cup contests. Given the engineering Skill anu 'ie
detail of construction and each boat Is an iuea'
conception materiazed. Nowadays winner
cannot be expected out of a patchwork anaif' ouilt
practically with parts of other boats Ihae was
"hat the first Shamrock was. with sides ana quar-
ters repeating in modified form the faults or the
Aisa with the beam of Valkyrie ILL., with the
ballast power of the Defender. but without her
simness. and sail plan which In the fore triangle
lacked good imitation. to say nothing OF racing
perlence. Many such craft thought hrst class
until they meet with the symmetrical product OF one
mind' when single performance may be more In
structiye than an of talk In such a case
IL was discovered that the forebody of Valkyre
III did not fit suitably the after half the Ailsa,
ana the general truth is that a Medci Venus Is
not constructed with the best selected frag-
ments of ancient art
For the coming contests the situation Is much
more captivating than 1t has ever been, because 1t
Is admitted by the best designers that the limit
lot highest speed is about reached and that with
the exception OF such notifications will be ap-
parent In the Cup yachts of this year they have
iitue 'hat is new to propose. The Independence is
d cross between Mr.. Crowninshields champion race
about and the Gardner Cartoon the above water
appearance being after that of the raceabout, and
tne business portion being largely Cartoon. OF the
1erreshoH defender Constitution nothing seems to
Dc confidently known, except that her beam is
SIX ieet. II this be true, II will mean that
Herreshon is never certain about this important
iheasurement-also. perhaps. that he is able to win
no matter how he shifts about He gave the
rishah' t"enty-six feet beam and beat Valkyrie
L. "hlch mad waterline beam of about twenty
TWO leet. In 1895 he gave the Defender a waterline
beam OF twenty-five feet and won again with the
positions reversed Valkyrie III having about
t"enty-si1 feet beam In 1899 he again with
the Columbia at twenty-rour feet beam the first
ehamrocks beam not being ascertained beyond
uouDt. though she looked to be Iaae
iee'. why Herreshofr should now go back to
"eh'S six feet after making such a brilliant
less a' t"enty-four feet remains for the future
discover Watson and the Boston designer have
oo'h given their coming craft a beam of exactly
~ feet, and the suggestion that it ought
~ oe anything else would be a daring one In
'' II cannot readily be believed that :he repea ted
',rsefieht about the HerreshoT model is true.
Ne OUTLOOK Is rendered doubly interesting from
.e lact that at this juncture Watson comes to the
'front.' and in effect says the world:
f 4 our boats my boats. all the racers of previous
bean' ia nave nav been wrongly shaped with the
wrong place The sterns have been too wide The
been too narrow 100 d heavy The entrances have
@ Hnion govern the passage Of long objects through
bulky somewheps nd where be they have have
should have the bulkiness forward and not aft
BY word OF mouth Mr.. Watson has said nothing
ABOUT this' and he Is modest about his hopes of
success, but that is what his boat says as inter-
preting his thoughts, The Importance to the
yachting public OF the points which Watson has
orought up for international consideration seems
70 nave produced peculiar silence. The truth Is
that nooody-not even Watson hmself-knows how
the seeming discoveries OF the tank tests with
models are going to work when built into a sailing
racer. But the peculiarity is this-that while the
American designers admit that they can only hope
TO beat the Columbia by small margin. and that
they are practically the end of their inventive
powers the announcement OF Sir Thomas Upton
that discovery for better speed has been made is
not one to be ignored. II is certainly made at
random nor without the best advice Of Designer
watson. Sir Thomas has been confident before.
and he knows all about the difficulties OF the sud
den awakening. When, therefore. he says. Il
am confident that | will bring the Cup England"
II is reasonable to try and understand his meaning.