The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-14
NEW SEA GREYHOUND
Launching of the Reliance,
Destined to Defend the
America Cup.
(By the Associated Press.)

Bristol, r. l., April 11.-With an Amer
lean eagle at her bow the cup defender
Reliance was launched at the Herreshoff
Works Just before shutdown today. Five
hundred persons stood beside the glist-
ening underbody Of the yacht when at
5:31 o'clock this Afternoon Miss MIRA Ise-
lin, daughter of G. oliver Iselin, the
managing owner of the boat, broke with
the sturdy blow of a silver hammer, the
traditional bottle of champagne saying at
the same time:
Il christen thee Reliance, and may
God bless thee
Three thousand persons in steam
yachts, row-b boats, on the two piers and
on the street behind the shops, greeted
the initial plunge of the Reliance with
lustry cheers while a bugler on a tor
pedo boat, played the Star Spangled Ban
ner.
Among the yachts anchored off the
works was the Constitution, the unsuc-
cessful candidate for cup honors two
years ago and this year destined to be
one of the keenest rivals against the Re-
lance. The Constitution was gayly be-
decked with flags and as the Reliance lay
few a few minutes alongside her older
sister, some comparison of the lines of
the two boats could be made. 1t was
seen that the bow of the Reliance turns
out of the water more 1--arply, that her
stern is lower and flatter and that she
has a trifle less free board. The new
boat, however, was soon hauled back into
the dock where she will be rugged. 1t is
expected that she will have her trial spin
in about ten days, after which she will
have a thorough trying-out, meeting
both the Constitution and the Columbia
in a series of races in Long Island
Sound, off Sandy Hook and at Newport.
Should she prove superior to her two
rivals, she will meet Shamrock III. in
the first of the cup races on August 21st.
The Reliance is a decided departure on
the part of Herreshoff from his other cup
defenders and is an excellent example
of the American type of fatted- foored,
fin keeled boats. She is not such an ex-
treme Swimming dish as was the indie
pendence, but she nevertheless resembles
the Crowninshield boat more than she
does any of her predecessors built here.
Her lines are easy with a few hard places
and a graceful, sweeping curve from the
Dul5eS INTO the DdFDOdTuS. I1eF SlSTu
is very fiat, so that she will leave but
little wake, while her bow, although not
quite so broad and fiat as that of the
Independence is still very much different
from the bow of either the Constitution
or the Columbia. She has "a long keel,
but owing to her good beam does not
carry so much lead in the bulge as the
other cup defenders. 1t is believed that
her strongest point of sailing will be with
started sheets in a comparatively smooth
sea. She is also likely to go very fast
down the wind. her long keel holding her
we'll on her course. Her weakest point,
therefore, will be on the wind with fiat
tened sheets, a point on which the Sham
rock III is said to be very fast.
The boat, however, with her easy lines,
and tremendous sail spread over 1000
square feet will be easy driven, and it
seemed to be the unanimous opinion of
those yachtsmen who saw her today that
she would prove the fastest sailing vessel
ever built.