Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-14
SKDOO WINS
IN HANDICAP
DEFEATS OTHER SOUTH COAST
cLUB'o CRAFT

coIumbine Close Second In Arbitrary
Handicap Which Closed Season,
Mischief II Third and Mon-
soon Fourth
The Skidoo surprised everybody by win
ming the arbitrary handicap race Of the
South Coast Yacht club yesterday. The
| Columbine was close second, Mischief II
was third, Monsoon fourth, Detroit fifth
and the Marie made sixth place over the
| Venus by the narrow margin of two sec
onds. The balance of the yachts strag-
| gled in, but no official time was taken, as
1t was not worth while for the judges
boat to wait at the whistling buoy any
longer. The Yankee did not cover the
course and had no chance from the start.
! The morning dawned with a thick mist
| obscuring the sky and the sun did not
show itself till most of the yachtsmen
had finished breakfast. The barometer
fell in the night, which at this time of the
year is an infallible sign of light breeze
the next day There was only the very
| lightest breath of air all the morning, and
those yachts that were in the inner farbor
had to be towed out. The judges launch
was promptly on time at the start, which
Is more than can be said of the smaller
craft, which were supposed to start at
11:45.|
! After some delay the Hilda crossed the
line. and she was followed at the proper
interval by the Osborn. The Venus made
a good start and the larger boats all got
off well, with the exception of the Yam
kee. She was late in leaving her moor
ings, and in spite of friendly tow from
| the launch Albatross she started after
| the Columbine, whereas she should have
started eight minutes before the Mitchell
! racer.
| Finally the Detroit came down on the
| line and poked her bowsprit past The
whistling buoy just as the gun fired. In
the light air she gained rapidly on all
the other yachts, and it looked as though
| she was certain to overtake the Column
bine before the Point Vincente stakeboat
was reached. The Yankee thought she
would play smart and stood way out 10
sea, hoping to find more wind. For
time Densham's idea worked very well,
for she found a steady, If light, breeze,
while the other yachts were punched to-
gether off Portuguese bend, almost in the
doldrums Then the wind increased in
near shore and dropped out in the open
so that the Chicago freak was out of the
race from that time.
Skidoo Creeps Up
Meanwhile the Skidoo was creeping up
on the smaller fry that had started ahead
| of her and Capt. Wedgwood did some very
| clever windward work with the old shoe
/ store. He was well in the lead by the
time he reached the Point vincente whist
| ling buoy rounded it and had his kites
| flying before any of the other boats had
| even tackled to make the mark. At this
| time the Columbne had gained on Mis-
| chief II and Monsoon, but was hardly
| close enough to pass them before passing
| the weather mark.
| But Joe Pugh got into a luffing match
with Walter Folsom. The Monsoon was
| to windward of the Mischief, and the lat
| ter was unable to run through the others
| lee. Pugh kept on out to sea on the star
board tack, and when Walter put about
| to try and get away Pugh followed suit
| and kept his black rival In a sorry pre-
dicament. as he held the weather berth
and would not let Welter get away from
| him.
While these two were having their little
| fun together the Columbine crept up on
them and rounded the stakeboat ahead.
| 1t was nip and tuck between the Mischief
and Monsoon, but the latter passed the
buoy first and would have taken third
place in the race If she had been shade
faster running before the wind.
The Detroit ran into trouble before she
reached the weather mark. The same
thing happened that has been recorded
three times this season-her throat hal
yard gave way. Instead of a rope tackle,
such as is generally used on a halyard
she has a wire, one end of which Is made
fast to the gaff whence 1t runs up to a
single block; watch tackle Is made fast
to the fall of the wire rope so that when
the sail Is hoisted there is but single
line instead of four or five. This reduces
windage and is a generally used method
on the modern racing freak. Unfor-
tunately the wire, which was put in new
only ten days ago, was not strong enough
to stand the strain and friction on the
block and parted, and Dodge had to~beat
to windward the best way he could with
his gaff up and down the mast.
Detroit's Chance Gone
Coming down the wind the slack main
sail did not make so much difference, but
the Detroit had lost much valuable time
before the weather mark was reached,
and 1t was evident that she had no chance
to overtake any of the yachts ahead OF
her. Her huge spinnaker was drawing
we'll and carrying her along at fine
speed, but not fast enough for her to
reach the fishing line in better tnan nrth
place.
The finish of the first two yachts was
very exciting. From the weather mark
the Columbine simply rushed through the
water and gained steadily on the twenty |
three craft When they were off Portu- |
guese bend it seemed certain that she
would overtake her rival, but the Wind
was still fukey and the slSidoo got few
lucky puffs off shore which enabled her to
hold her own for some time. BY the
time the Columbine ran into the better
wind the other boat was out of danger |
and Cant. Wedgwood crossed the line |
winner by an even three minutes.
Although the weather was very light all
day the handicaps proved to have been
well figured The first seven yachts at
the finish were all in bunch, and 1t was
a wonderfully pretty sight as they raced
down to the mark before the freshening
breeze with their spinnakers glistening
like huge white wings in the rays of the
afternoon sun. The judges boat mad sew
eral guests aboard and other launches
tootr oart,as ont TO watch the race. The |