The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-12
is AFLOAT
WILL SOON COMPETE FOR CUP DE-
TENSE HONORS.
WITH TWO OTHER YACHTS
SHE WILL SAIL TO DISCOVER
WHICH is FASTEST.

New Boat Was Launched at the Bris-
toll Works of the HerreshOGs.
Daughter of c. oliver IseIin
Christened Her Great Crowd
Watched Her Glide From the
Ways-Had a Chance to Note Her
Lines and Compare Her With the
Constitution.
lance.
Bristol, r. l., April 11.-With an
American eagle at her bows the cup
defender Reliance was launched at the
Herreshoff works just before shutdown
to-day.
Five hundred persons stood beside
the glistening underbody of the yacht
when at 5:31 o'clock this afternoon Miss
Nora Iselin, daughter of c. oliver Ise-
lin, the managing owner of the boat,
broke with the sturdy blow of sill
yer hammer, the traditional bottle of
champagne, saying at the same time:
'T christen thee Reliance, and may
God bless thee!"
Three thousand persons in steam
yachts, rowboats, on the two piers
and on the street behind the shops,
greeted the initial plunge of the Re-
lance with lusty cheers, while bugler
on a torpedo boat played the Star
Spangled Banner"
Among the yachts anchored off the
works was the Constitution, the I'M
successful candidate for cup honors
two years ago, and this year destined
to be one of the keenest rivals against
the Reliance. The Constitution was
gaily bedecked with flags, and as the
Reliance lay for a few minutes along
side her older sister some comparison
of the lines of the two boats could be
made.
1t was then seen that the bow of
the Reliance turns out of the water
more sharply, that her stern is lower
and flatter and that she has a trifie
less freeboard.
Soon Takes n Trial Spin.
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 Aug.
81.
The Reliance is a decided departure
on the part of HerreShoff from his
other cup defenders and is an excel
txrTN Of
fat-foored, fin-keeled boats. She is
not such an extreme skimming dish
as was the Independence, but she
nevertheless resembles the Crown
inshield boat more than she does any
of her predecessors built here. Her
lines are very easy, with few hard
places and a graceful, sweeping curve
from the bilges into the garboards.
Her stern 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 Column
hia She has a long keel, but owing
to her good beam, does not carry so
much lead in the bulb as the other cup
defenders. 1t is believed that her
strongest point of sailing will be with
started sheets in comparatively
smooth sea. She is also likely to go
very fast down the wind, her long
keel holding her well on her course.
Her weakest point, therefore, will be
on the wind with fiattened sheets, a
point on which the Shamrock is said
to be very fast
The boat, however, with her easy
lines and her tremendous sail spread,
over $4,000 square feet, will be easily
driven, and it seemed to be the unani-
nous opinion of those yachtsmen who
saw her to-day that she would prove
the fastest sailing vessel ever built.
Launching a Success.
The launching was a great success.
The weather was perfect. The tender
of the Reliance, the steamer Sunbeam,
was moored alongside the south pier,
and Mr.. Iselin, with several of his
yachting friends, kept "open house"
on her all day.
The christening party came ashore
from the Sunbeam just before $50
o'clock, and at once mounted the lit
tie staging which ran out toward the
starboard bow of the yacht
Suspended by wire from the boat
was a quart bottle of American cham
payne, around the neck of which were
the Iseln colors. Miss Iselin, who
was gnowed in dark blue velvet and
wore a picture hat, was accompanied
by her father and Newbury Thorne,
Capt Woodbury. Kane, Col. William
Goddard, MIR. Iselin's father-in-law,
and her sister, Miss Fanny Iselin.
At 5:31 o'clock there came three
rings of a bell, and Immediately the
boat began to move. AS soon as she
was fairly started Miss Iselin smashed
the bottle of champagne with silver
hammer AS she did so she named the
boat. There was cheering and gen.
eral dash for pieces of the broken bot
tie as souvenirs, while the foaming
wine, after drenching the bow of the
boat, splashed on the floor below.
1t took Just ten minutes to launch