Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-09-04

pensive racing machines that lave no
further use after their little day of
victory, is a costly thing. 1t is EST
mated that the building, fitting, ind
racing of the Columbia and the 1eli-
ance cost fully half milliol and
more.
All will be agreed that that is much
to spend for the mere glory of de-
Tending trophy. The expense was not
nearly so much when the Puritan and
normal yachts of her % were
Tending off the efforts of over*s,a chal-
lengers to take from these sk6.es that
most famous OF all cups. Far after
these had been sailed to vict,j7y they
were just as useful as cruising yachts
as they we're notable as cup defend
ers. But with the advent of the rae
ing machine,' as it has come first to
the finish in these latter days, it came
about that when the races were over
the racers themselves were Gone.
Imperial Caesar, dead, and turn'd to
clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind
away.
The Reliance was Swimming dish
! with great depth of keel, which en-
| abled her to carry tremendous sail
| spread While nominally constructed
on a ninety-foot waterline. she mad
tremendous overhangs which served,
when she was heeled over by a nor
! NAL breeze, to make the length on
which she sailed much greater. By
these two means she cheated the rule
and got speed which English boats
could not equal, because boat built
| to beat her on similar lines could not
with safety cross the ocean to race.
The new rules sought to restrict this
| tendency to utilize tremendous over
hangs and to restrict the dra'ight
The first thing that was done was
to abandon the old measurement of
water-line and measure the actual line
on which the boat sailed. This made
the big overhang useless. To insure
their abandonment it was decided that
the sailing length could not be great.
er than Us per cent. of the water-line,
To offset the depth of keel it was de-
cided that the draught should not ex.
coed Is per cent. of the waterllne by
more than two and one-half feet, while
a premium was placed on displace-
ment. The new rule declared that the
greater the displacement of the boat
the lower her rating should be, and
further discountenanced the building
of skimming dish models by this
means. The exact restrictions that
were laid down were the outgrowth of
the most careful study by the clever
est naval architects in America, and
The new type did produce boats that
were comfortable and at the same
time fast.
So far as known, the king of Eng.
land is the only person of note now
living who saw the start and finish of
the race which won the America cup.
All who took part in building, de.
signing, and racing the America have
passed away. Commodore J. C. Stew.
ems died at a comparatively early age.
Sept 10, 1857. Hamilton Wilks died at
Pau, France, Dec. rs, 1852; Edward A.
Stevens in August, 1853, and the last
surviving owner, George L. SCHUYLER.
July 81, 1891. George Steers, who. de-
signed and built the America, met
with sad and sudden death. Just as
he was il the prime of life, in his
thirty-fourth year, he was accident
ally killed. His family had been spend.
ing the summer at Little Neck, l.. l..
and Sept. 25, 1856, with a horse and
carry-all, he started on his journey to
bring them home. His horse took
fright and ran away, throwing him out
and killing him