Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-13
RACE
OF SEASON
ARBITRARY HANDICAP TO BE
SAILED TODAY
South Coast Fleet Enter In Last Event
Before Being Laid OF
Until Next Sum-
mer

The South Coast Yacht club will hold
It's great Last Chance" race today.
This takes the form of what is known
as the Arbitrary handicap" and from
spectators point of view it is the
most attractive event of the season.
All the yachts are handicapped accord
ing to what the regatta committee
thinks they can do. The general aver
age of time by which yachts won or
lost in the different races Is struck and
from that the handicap is figured. The
result is always closely contended'
and exciting race.
One great feature of this race is that
the yachts are not started all together,
but at Intervals according to their time
allowance. Then at the finish the first
boat over the line wins and the specta-
tors can see which craft takes the hon
ors without waiting to have compli-
Gated time allowances figured out for
them by the indefatigable Herbert
Carse
About seventeen yachts will enter.
1t is matter OF unwritten etiquette
that q. yacht owner enter his boat for
this race, whether she be in racing trim
or not, and very picturesque sight at
the start can be anticipated
1t is impossible to forecast, although
few good guesses may be made. The
first thing, to consider is the course.
This rs from the bell buoy off Point
Firmin to the whistling buoy off Point
Vincente and return. The first leg will
be dead to windward and the return
before the wind. Light sail handling
will be at discount. Spinnakers and
auxiliary ballooners will be spread, but
the crews will have all kinds of time in
which to get ready, and promptness
will be more matter of pride than
advantage. The Detroit, Mischief II,
Venus and Osborne will probably do the
best work to- windward while theI
Yankee, Columbine, Skidoo and Myth
should make up on the return before
the wind.
Detroit Scratch Boat
The Detroit is the scratch boat, while
the Yankee, which under ordinary cir
cumstances allows the former time,
will take sixteen minutes. If the Chi
cago freak is in anything like racing
trim she ought to be able to defeat the
Detroit easily. Both the Columbine
and Mischief II give her time and some
thing must be radically wrong II she
cannot beat these two boat for boat.
This makes the Yankees chances
look very rosy, but she must allow the
Venus fourteen minutes and it is doubt
full If she can do that over a twelve
mile course. The little Myth has one
hour and five minutes over the Detroit,
while both the Merlin and Valkyrie
have forty-ave minutes. The latter
has a splendid chance to come in first If
there is any wind to speak of. She is
typical heavy weather boat and can
carry all sail comfortably when larger
craft are reefing down.
The members of the rocking chair
fleet state that the committee has done
an excellent piece of handicapping and
they confidently expect to see the
yachts punched together at the finish.
with the advantage in favor of the
larger boats that come up behind and
blanket the smaller racers. There will
be room for some clever sailing at this
part of the race and some smart skip
per is liable to upset everybody's cal
culations at'the very last of the race.