The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-10-01
REGARDLESS OF ALLOWANCE
Official Figures Under the Rules
Give Time at One Minute
Thirty-two Seconds.

ed for the old Americas cup the
white flyer, Columbia, today beat the
British challenger over a windward
and leeward course of 80 nautical
miles by the narrow bargin of 80 Sec
onds. AS Lipton's latest aspirant for
cup honors must allow the defender
43 seconds on account of the extra
S34 square feet Of canvas in her sail
area the official record, under the
rules, gives her the victory by one
minute and % seconds.
AS a spectacle the contest was SUI
perb. From the time the two sky
scraping racers crossed the starting
line until they sped across the finish
line four and a half hours later the
result was in doubt and the excite
ment aboard the excursion fleet in
creased until men became frenzied
and women almost historical. So
evenly matched were these two ac-
ing machines that never after they
started were the rival shippers out
Of each others hail and more than
~three-quarters of the time they were
so close that Charlie Barr who had
the tiller aboard the Aberican could
have tossed a biscuit to Captain
Sycamore on the Shamrock. For miles
as they beat their way to the outer
mark the black shadow of Sham
rocks huge club topsail was painted
on the big main sail of Columbia and
for an hour on the run home, with the
yachts flying like scared deer before
the following wind, they ran almost
beam and beam as if they had been
harnessed together.
The memory of the races between
the Genesta and the Puritan in 1885
and the Vigilant in 1894, which have
been treasured by yachtsmen up to
this time, will be forgotten after the
magnificent duel Of today. 1t will
live forever in the memory of those
who witnessed it. In the years to
come the yachtsmen of two nations
will recount the thrilling story of the
celebrated first race between Colum-
bia and Shamrock II, sailed off New
York harbor in the first year of the
new century.
AS a result of today's race, though
faith in the Columbia still remains
in the hearts of the patriots, all the
experts admit that the British boat
is the ablest sloop ever sent to these
waters to lift the hundred guinea cup
which the old schooner America
brought across the Atlantic so years
ago. and that the superiority of sea-
manship and American naval archi-
lecture as represented by the defend
er remains to be established. The
quality of a sailing ship is measur-
ed by her ability to carve her way
into an adv rse wind and in the Is
mile thresh to windward today the
golden challenger gained 80 seconds
while on the run home her lead was
eaten up and Columbia crossed the
finish line exactly 81 seconds before
the Shamrock. 1t must be remem-
bered, however, that the challenger
to windward to her advantage and
the nautical experts said after the
race hat during the outward journey
she had been sailed to absolute per
lection, while before the wind the
American yacht not only showed q
feteer pair of heels, but. in the opin'
ion of the sharps, was better handled.
Disappointed by the fuke of Thurs,
day, the crowd which sailed down to
Sandy Hook lightship today was
somewhat smaller than in the open
ing day, but even so, the colony of
steamships, yachts, tug boats, sailing
vessels and various craft of every
description formed an angle at the
starting line, miles long.
1t was an ideal day for a race. The
curtain of haze which had hung over
the bay and shore in the early morn.
ing had lifted, making the whole
course visible to the thousands along
the Long Island coast. The sun blaz.
ed from a spotless vault of blue and
the fresh breeze. blowing straight in
from the Atlantic was strong enough
to spill the foam out of the green
swells and hurry long black ripples OF
smoke shoreward from the stacks OF
the excursion fleet. The old sailors
who sntlffed the air said the wind
was the draught from the big storm
which was reported to be raging or
the Atlantic coast.
The big single stickers behlne
proudly putting tugs had preceded the