Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-06
Continued from First Page.)

They were Resolute. designed and
built by Herreshoff for syndicate
composed of the flag officers of the
club; vanitie. designed by William
Gardner and built by Jacobs of City
and finally Defiance. designed by
George Owen and built at Lawley's
in Boston. for a syndicate headed by
George NJ. Pynchon. In the trial races
held in 1914 Defiance proved her in
feriority to her two sister sloops and
defeated vanitie in a great majority
of the races held. and in 1915 also
won a majority of races against the
Gardner creation. But there were
many. none the less. who believed
that vanitie suffered from few
reasonable flaws in design and con-
struction and that her handling had
been inept. So selection of de-
fender to sail against Shamrock "
was deferred until the outcome of the
trial races. which are now in progress.
In the meantime Shamrock Nv is
grooming up off Sandy Hook in tests
against twenty three-meter sloop.
called shamrock. which Sir mona
built for English racing after the
failure Of Shamrock III to win the
cup. So in reality the present chal-
lenger is the fifth Shamrock OF her
more anon.
Time Allowances.
1t will readily be recognized that
the question of time allowance must
enter into yacht races where design
ers are not building under the same
classification. else racing freaks of
immense propulsive power and scant
hulls might Conceivably be built to
sail against a rival of more conserva-
~. II \. L. N,,to fnr q
In fact. the system of time allowance
in vogue between 1885 and 1908 en-
couraged racing yachtmen emulous of
prizes to sacrifice .wholesomeness for
speed. To be specific. the time all
lowance which cup yachts-any rae
ing yachts. in fact-gave to smaller
craft was based on water-line length
and sail area. In, the case of boats
built to sail in Americas cup races
designers thereof were restricted to
water-line length not to exceed
ninety feet. Provided a designer OBJ
served this stipulation he could make
his hull as broad and as deep as he
wished and above could arrange for
any expanse of sail he saw At
The result was a very pronounced
tendency toward extreme types of
racing boats. craft characterized by
wide beam and lengSh on deck. ex
tensive draught and an enormous
spread of sail. Reliance was the last
word in sloops of the sort. There
never was such cleverly designed
racing machine. With water-line
on deck was las feet. her beam
(breadth) 81 feet and her draught
about 20 feet. The hull was quite flat
and her bilges hard. She was not
scow. but she Appropriated the scow
type. She cost at least $4,000 to
build: to handle her in a race a crew
of half a hundred men was required,
and she was useless for anything save
racing. Her days as a cup contestant
over, her value was apparent only in
the eyes of the junkman.
Reaction to Snner Bont.
In the years following the series in
which Reliance 903-
there came strong reaction among
American yachtsmen for racing rules
with respect to time allowance which
would produce saner boat. 1t will
have been noted that the old rule un
der which Reliance and other cup
yachts were built-water-line length
and sail area-produced a racer of
small displacement compared to the
area Of sail; in other words, freak
ish boat. The new rule-under pro-
visions Of which the 1920 cup races
will be measured-favorS displace-
ment and produces a boat with fuller
and deeper underwater body (more of
to the full overhanging ends of the
older type. For one thing boat such
as Reliance carried nearly 1900
square feet Of sail, as against sail
spreads of from 5000 to 1900 square
feet in cup racers Of the older type.
She could not have carried so much
sail under the present rule without
In n ivo oil
to a more consecutive rival.
In order that the workings of the
present rule will be clearly under
stood it may be said that racing
yachts are built to the limit of their
class. They are not only rated, but
classified on their measurement
which gives US practically an even set
not figure. and the first boat to cross
the line wins the race. But with the
cup yachts the first boat to
cross the line may not win the race,
because they are not racing under
seventy five foot rating, but under a
seventy live foot classification. Their
rating-upon which time allowance
is based-must be determined by sail
area. displacement and quarter beam.
On the basis of rating thus estab-
lished the cup yachts will sail their
races.
In the case of the present cup de-
tenders a water-line length of sew
enty-f1ve feet rather than ninety feet
was suggested by Sir Thomas Upton
in his challenge as a means of re-
ducing the great cost of racing for
the Americas cup. His theory was
that modern seventy-f1ve -footer
carried as much sail and had even
more power generally than an eighty
Ave or ninety-footer of twenty years
T,ro nj n inf
and purpose seventy-foot sloops
would provide as adequately as could
be desired a test of designing skill,
sound construction and relative abil-
ity of sailors and shippers. The New
York Yacht Club agreed to meet Sir
Thomas suggestion. hence the re
duced size of the competing yachts
Of 1920. Precise figures concerning
the Shamrock ", Resolute and Van.
lite have not been divulged. but there
is no question that they cost a great
deal less than. say, Columbia, the
three Shamrocks or Reliance, and
that the financial aspects of operation
and maintenance also involve COM
parative economy.
Shamrock ~ Not "Wholesome.''
From the wording of Sir Thomas
Lipton's original challenge one might
have imagined that his invention was
TO DullQ WnOleSoIne BOAT tine New
York Yacht Club members certainly
observed the principles of sanity in
Resolute and Vanitie). But Sham
rock w is by no means what may be
termed wholesome. She is indeed as
much of racing craft as her de-
signer. c. E. Nicholson. dared to lay
down in view of the rules upon which
time allowance will be based. And
for this she must pay in terms of time
Just how much time she
will have to allow either Of the Amer
lean boats in the cup races is ques-
ton. When she was first displayed
for public inspection and certain fig
ures concerning sail area and the
like were given out it looked as