The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-07-25
YACHT RACING
ENT|C|NG SPORT
Public Not Familiar With Many
Intricate Features

Less than / per cent of the reading
public is acquainted with the distinc
tive features of the modern racing
yacht of today. OF the columns daily
devoted to descriptions of yacht races,
eagerly devoured by yachting enthusi-
asts, the general reader passes the
matter up, as the Englishman would
the baseball dope.
Take the cup defense class now
fighting To determine which shall go to
the mark with Lipton's Shamrock.
The $500, 900 which 1t costs to build and
operate any Of the three, has been
spent for hulls of Mcneil metal and
Tobin bronze at a cost of 25 cents per
pound, hollow steel spars on which the
very finest cotton duck. costing as high
as 81 yard. is stretched; plow steel
wire rigging; crew of sixteen or sew
enteen men, with paid skipper, and n
steamer acting as tender. on board
! which the crew lives, help make an
expensive sport.
There is absolutely nothing inside
these shells excepting steel frames and
few lockers below for holding light
sails. The rigging runs into the hull
and is set up below by hand winches
for the America cup deed of gift rules
that no mechanical appliances shall be
used in operating these vessels.
And then when they yet under way
here is where YOU must understand
what they are trying to do. a horse
specializes-hc is a good PAGER, runner
or trotter-but a yacht must do all
these equally well. The boats are gen
orally sent over triangular course,
one direction always being into the
wind.
Sailors Must Be Masters.
OF course a boat cannot sail into the
eye of the breeze. When you see the
sails fluttering and the boat isn't
making any Roadway, she is pointing
directly into the wind. The finest de-
vclopment of the yacht is called
"pointing"-tha is, sailing as nearly
as possible into the wind. or in the di-
rection from which the wind is blow
in". Here 1t is necessary to tack back
and forth the pressure Of the wind aft
er the boats head pays off a few points
cxcrting enough force TO drive the
craft forward, just as ii is necessary
to use only a slight pressure to shove
a board through the water when the
narrow edge is up and down. a ruddcr
astern keeps the direction constantly
controlled and the boat naturally sail
ing nearest to the wind and making the
fcwest lacks is the fastest.
After reaching the mark highest i'm
the wind, called the windward mark
because you have to sail to windward
to reach It, the buoy is rounded and
the breeze gets back OF YOU. All the
sails are Stacked off. or the sheets arc
started-and sheets aboard ship mean
ropes and lines. not convas. Allowing
the boom to swing cupboard a little, at
of the yacht so the mainsail can catch
the breeze--you are then reaching"
Tho wind il on one side, abcam of the
yacht or just abaft the beam-.n other
words almost across the stern. Strange
as II may seem to those not acquaint-
ed, this is the fastest point of sailing.
You arc reaching across the wind and
beating IL by getting ahead of it al
ways.
How Defenders Are Constructed.
The third point is called RUNNING"
Here the wind is directly astern of the
boat. The sheets are all eased away,
so that the mainsail is standing prac-
tically at right angles To the yacht
Here the spinnaker is broken out
The sail is hoisted to the top of the
mast and a movable boom is set out
opposite the main boom, and on this
the sail is hauled out A sheet leads
inboard and the canvas is broken out.
another sail similar to tho mainsail
just opposite and balancing the latter.
being thus provided. This spinnaker
boom on the Rcsoute for example. is
over 20 feet long, and it requires con-
siderable speed and agility To set such
SPAR which is carried tied to the
deck. When you are running before
the wind or going with 1t you do not
mako the speed that is possible in