Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-08
WINTER FLEET
TOHOLD RACES
TEN EVENTS ARE SCHEDULED
BY YACHTSMEN
FoRTNlGHTLY CONTESTS WILL
BEGIN NOVEMBER
South Coast Club Members Plan for
Busy season-5oats Of Like De-
sign Will Contest - Good
Seamanshlp Tested

When the sun gets three points
abaft the fore scuttle on November
the experienced mariners of the South
Coast Yacht club will turn loose a fleet
of winter racers which will keep the
sport at top notch until springtime.
Then will come collisions and capsizes,
wet pants, the hue and cry of the
chase, the scorn of the victor and the
brazen excuses of the defeated. For
there Is only one victor to each race,
while for all the others there is nothing
but the chewing of bullets to stand the
pain.
Ten races were yesterday scheduled
by Stewart Laughlin and c. r. w.
Hubbell of the regatta committee, and
these will be sailed fortnightly, be-
ginning Sunday, November 7. After
the first series now announced, which
will continue the contests into the new
year, there will be an exchange of
boats in each days racing, so that
the skipper and crew which do the
best all-round work may possibly win
on any vessel. Eight or nine vessels
will compete, and they all chip in
IS to buy the prizes which are memen-
toes of victory.
What makes the racing in this class
particularly keen is the fact that all
the vessels are confined to one design
and are built as nearly alike as pos
sible, the intention being to make good
seamanship count for more than struc-
tural differences in the vessels. But it
is just eighteen years since 1t was
proved in New York that there is no
such thing as complete identity in a
racing fleet, and even among the New
port thirties, which Herreshoff built as
exactly alike as possible, victory near
ly always went to the longest purse
The man who had five or six suits Of
canvas to choose from, and could af-
ford spinnakers and ballooners of the
lightest gossamer silk, could always
win in the catspaws The same truth
was apparent in the racing of this
local fleet last winter, when Walter
Folsom's Little Mischief II ran up a
long line of wins and seemed a safe
winner of the series until another boat
got a fine suit Of expensive sails from
the east and outsailed everything with
ease. Still, good sails do not make
the whole story, because Joe Pugh's
expensive importations were as good as
anybody IS and his Elue Fin never took
place. In these contests there are
no one-design shippers, and this was
shown when Joe Fellows opened last
winters tournament with a number of
firsts and then sold his Red Fox to
dNO4u lIlS illlpuldlIOn LIdL ne IdQ given
himself an advantage in her construc-
ton. If such an imputation was made,
it must have been dissipated by the
fact that after the sale the Red Fox
became an "also ram"
This proof as to difference in skip
pers touches the keynote of the game,
and the rivalry for supremacy in
reputation is exceedingly keen. In fact
the personal hatreds cordially ex-
changed by some of the shippers in
this game lend that point and venom
to the contests which the best interest
and amusement Of the spectators seem
to need. In this barbaric neighborhood
some Of the men do not return shaking
hands and laughing over their own
mistakes and defeat, as they do at
Marblehead. They grind their teeth
and think out ways to accomplish the
other fellows undoing. The most in
tense yachting interest the world ever
knew in the Americas cup racing was
built on hatred, and the coming racing
of the one-design dories promises some
of that ginger which made the Roman
arena so successful.