Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-14
BIC FLEET STARTS
ON CHANNEL RACE
South Coast and Sunset Yacht
Clubs Craft Are Off for
Santa Barbara
BY BERT S. COLEMAN


With a stiff head wind to beat against
all day and part of the night, eight
boats of the South Coast and Sunset
Yacht clubs left the breakWater at 10
o'clock yesterday morning for the long
race to Santa Barbara, where the skip
pers and crews will be the guests of the
Santa Barbara Yacht club during the
regatta which lasts all this week at the
Channel city.
| Francis Hays handsome yawl, Win
some, led the fleet around the break
water, and she and the big sloop Nah
pc, with Morgan Adams at the stick,
commenced to leave the rest of the
fleet, with the exception of the new
sloop Alert, which hung on in the most
astonishing fashion. The Mischief l,
the Wave, the Minerva, the Ednaa nd
Wasp brought up the rear until the
fleet commenced to pass Point Firmin,
when the yachts struggled out in all
directions, each skipper sailing accord
ing to his own ideas as to beating into
a strong head wind. The SiWash was
so late getting her stores and crew
aboard that she started half an hour
| later than the others, and she COM
reef in her huge mainsail to keep her
on a more even keel. The big sloop has
rather bluff bows and sails much bet
ter standing up than do the other
yachts, most of which are constructed
to get their greatest speed when over
at a stiff angle.
Owing to her small size on the water
line, the Alert has big handicap ad-
vantage over the other craft in the
race and when the boats were last
seen as they were nearing Point Vim
cente the Alert appeared to be holding
up close enough to lift the cup If the
wind holds strong during the night.
Provided there is a light wind from the
eastward, as is generally the case, the
fleet Mah-pe will probably gain suf-
ffcient lead during the night to beat the
Alert and Winsome into Santa Barbara
by today at noon, when they are ex-
pected to arrive.
OTHERS CLOSE UP
Among the other craft, the Mischief
I and the Wave We're making a close
race of it, while the Edna, Wasp and
Minerva were also running close. Pro-
vided the wind drops, however, and
strikes the water in patches during the
night there is no predicting the winner.
Luck" will have much to do with
the winning of the contest, which is Tor
a cup presented by Commodore Smith
of the South Coast Yacht club.
A noticeable feature of the event this
year is that most of the racing boats
are cutting down the size of their
crews. When there are too many Co
rinthians aboard, an order to belay or
haul a sheet by the skipper is answered
by three or four yachtsmen who get in
each others way and ball things up.
The Mah-pe has cut down her crew of
nine to six, and the Wave sailed yeste"-
day with three men, The Mischief was
short-handed, and several were under
their allowance of Corinthians. Quite
number of the yachtsmen will go to
Santa Barbara by rail and today during
the week to join their boats.
The building of the Alert by Santa
Barbara spOrtsmen for this regatta in
dicates that yachting is greatly on the
boom in Southern California waters.
She is the latest type of racing ma
chine, and judging from her perform
ances so far in the past two weeks, 1t
looks as though she were due to carry
off everything, both because of her low
rating and natural speed.
According to report, there are thou
sands of persons heading for Santa
Barbara to take in the regatta this
week, and the boats from Los Angeles
will make a fine showing in front of
the Hotel Potter, from where nearly all
the events will be easily viewed
The racers are expected to arrive in
Santa Barbara at all hours today, and
Monday the Corinthians will rest up
after their cruise. Monday night there
will be a big reception to the yachtsmen
at Hotel Potter, and commencing Tues
day the regatta will be in full swing
until next Sunday when the fleet re-
turns to Los Angeles.