New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-07-27
By w. O. Mcclellan

By w. O. Mcclellan
The final race for the Americas
Cup, which was called off on Satur.
day, because there was too much
wind, was called off yesterday be-
cause there was no wind at all. It
will be decided to-day. Is.
In drifting match on an oily,
smooth sea, with scarcely the
whisper of breeze, Resolute and
Shamrock glided languidly through
the sheen Of the lazy sun-lit sea for
four hours and half.
Sometimes in a dead still calm
they lay like twin replicas of Cole
ridges painted ship upon a painted
ocean. Or one might use the cont
temptuous metaphor of the boat
SWANS mate of the destroyer
Semmes, as he summed himself on the
forecastle head, two big sea coolies
crawling around on pane Of glass"
oHdHIOck crosses First
There was less than four-knot
breeze when the racers started half an
hour late. Shamrock crossed the line
first and maintained her lead until shs
elided into the doldrums off the JERSEY
highlands at 2 O'CLOCK. Resoiute came
up and passed her while her spread of
canvas tapped idly. Then the drifting
began, and Resolute. which has out
footed Shamrock against the wind and
with it, demonstrated that she could
outfoot the challenger in the matter of
drifting
When the race was called for the DAY
Resolute was hardly within five miles
of the mark, while Shamrock was two
miles astern. Whatever breeze there
might have been Captain Charles
Francis Adams seemed to find and hold,
and Resolute moved ahead with pain
full sluggishness, but moved.
Gave the Wind a Chance
The regatta committee was faced
with problem at the scheduled start
ing time. The course called for the
beat to wlndward and return and the
wind was coming off the jersey shore
what there was of it. To carry out the
conditions of the race the committee
would have to shift either New jersey
OF the wind. The shifting of New Jer-
sey seemed to be too much of a prob
lem, and it was decided to wait and
give the wind chance to be obliging
Finally the sloops were sent off in a
light northerly breeze and headed away
to the familiar Jersey coast. The chal-
lenger glided over the line at twenty
nine seconds past the half hour and the
Resolute followed just sixty-eight sec
onds later. The challenger maintained
her lead until the breeze died sudden
ly, and as her huge sails started to flap
Resolute came on and glided past
her, Captain Charles Francis Adams
clinging to the last to the gauzy skirts
of the zephyrs.
The rest was watchful waiting of the
sort that was displayed when Sham
rock won the race over the triangular
course On that day, while Reso-
lutte was caught in the doldrums,
Shamrock, with her ridiculous "fddler's
jib," caught the edge of a breeze and
moved on, while the defender lay pc
Gained.
Resolute Outluffs Shamrock
But there was not ripple on that
smooth sheen outside the Ambrose
Channel yesterday. The smoke from
the loling steam vessels that loafed
alohSS!ue me course pointed StralRnC
upward. Resolute moved in the light
est of zephyrs, while Shamrock seemed
to fall behind, idle as the bits of drift
from all the world that washed along
side
Technically, it was a luffng contest
while it lasted, but the landsmen caught
it as loafing contest and let it go
at that; The skipper of Resolute
outluffed Shamrock, while Shamrock
outloafed Resolute and the experts
waxed bitter over the lost oppor-
tunity of Saturday, when there was a
real wind and lively water, conditions
that would have made this last race
a real salt sea drama
The attendant feet was much smaller
Yesterday. The fight for the Americas
Cup seems to have drifted into an ant
climax as far as the interest of the
layman is concerned. The John f..
Hylan bobbed out to display polite of
fetal interest. The Iron Steamboat and
the Fall River liner carving "a languid
crowd of sightseers still followed, but
the little yachts were far less numerous
than they have been any day sincw
the races began. Il
May Not Finish To-day 4
The drifting pace became so in.
tolerably slow that the steam vessels
had to back time and again as the
racers loafed off the Jersey coast. At
4 O'Clock it became fairly certain that
there would be no race, but the drift
ing contest was not called off until af-
ter o'clock. By that time the yachts
had travelled about ten of the thirty
miles, with the mark still hidden in
the heat haze somewhere near the Cor
sair. which loafed on the horizon.
Before the start Shamrock twice
turned around the Victoria, where Sir
Thomas Upton looked her over from
the bridge. A seaplane futtered down
beside Sir Thomas's foatin. headauar.
te and lay there. hardly moving on
tendant boats lay cluttered un Ike
toy boats in pond. 1t did not look
like propitious start for the CLIMAX
OF the. quest of the Americas can n