Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-14
vANDERB|LT'S SKILL
AS SKIPPER FACTOR
0utmaneuvers British Rival
in Initial Test of CoIorfuI
Marine Spectacle.
BY JAMES E. CONNOLLY,
Novelist and Short Story Writer Famous fol
His Books on the Sea and Ships.

EWEOHl VI, ~. Il, OCPbCltlDSI
IN 13.-By minutes and SO
seconds the Enterprise
crossed the finish line this
afternoon a winner over Sir
Thomas Lipton's Shamrock v in
the first contest of the series for
the Americas Cup.
Harold Vanderbilt outmaneu-
vered his British rival in the 30
mile race, the American defender
winning by a quarter of a mile,
although the weather was be-
lieved to be Shamrock weather.
The official times were: Enterprise
started at ass, finished at 4:58.48. Her
elapsed time was hours minutes
and 48 seconds
Shamrock v started also 1885, fin
iShed at Sol. 40, Her elapsed time was
4 hours minutes and 40 seconds.
With these essential facts out of the
way, we can take the events OF this
eventful day in chronological order.
More yachts than were ever gathered
at one spot before lay to moorings last
night in Newport Harbor. Every ia
nous yacht that anybody ever heard of
on this coast and scores that nobody
ever heard of, motor and sail, were
there and every last one of them was
bringing every last hgl%, into action
cabin, deck and rigging lights to make
a bright show for the thousands along
the water front. The big fellows, the
two and three million dollar yachts,
were also there with powerful search
lights sweeping the clouds.
Gorgeous might Before"
After that preliminary scene, the
most gorgeous might before the bat
tie" back-drop ever staged for cup
or any race, 1t seemed pity when we.
rolled out of our hunks this morning
to find no promise of wind and plenty
of fog. Up TO noon 1t appeared there
would be no race.
We steamed out of the starting point
with the fog rolling in from the open
ocean. It was q lifting and falling fog
of white vapor. When 1t lifted so that
we could see any distance at all 1t
seemed as If we were back in Newport
Harbor the night before.
There lay that immense yachting
fleet, now with no lights Some of them
must have left before dawn TO make 1t.
They were spread for miles over the seas
cape. At the appointed starting hour
there still was thick fog and no wind.
It was a 20-to11 bet that the fog
would not lift or enough wind come
in time to start the race and have the
dark. However, the powers, possibly and
let us hope, out of humane considera-
ton for the tens of thousands who had
come from far and near to take in this
greatest of all sporting spectacles, de-
cided to give the weather man another
hour Of grace.
Catastrophe Is Averted.
On our boat, the destroyer Wilkes, we
got promise. while We waited, of more
lively action than even a cup race could
afford There was an excursion steamer,
the City of Lowell, and what appeared
to be thousands of people crowding her
decks. Her skipper must have been
overcome With a passionate urge to get
a closeup of the start of the race. He
poked his nose in by the inner sub
chaser guard boats, he got by them and
came careening for the stern of the
press boat, the destroyer Porter. She
missed the Porter. swung OF and came
bowling along toward our boat, the
destroyer wilkes. The sea was smooth
but there was a swell on, rolling from
the side, as she came headed for us.
She had sign along her side In letters
10 feet. Here was Rotary Club come
to take in the cup races.
Bowling down on US she came, look
ing like four-story house above u.s.
She belted us on our after starboard
our top plate beautifully dented and
some valuable gadget out of commits
sion in the steam department below
decks. No harm done, we were still
In full commission, to the disappoint-
ment of our gobs around deck who had
held high hopes of vital damage. two
months in the drydock and big shore
liberty for all hands.
Start Made in Fog.
The fog was thick as ever when the
two boats were sent away. The Enter
prise was first over the starting line
having perhaps two lengths the best Of
it. And then away went the green
boat and the white boat, and all I can
say of them for the next hour and a
half was that they were like two sl1ad
ows sliding through the white vapor,
each with mainsail and enormous spin
maker winged out, sailing parallel
courses a quarter mile apart We knew
which was which because the green one
had started on our left hand, the white
one on our right.
Where the turning buoy was we did
not know except that 1t was Is miles
south by west from the starting point.
It would be a blue and red buoy when
we should see it with the committee
boat standing by it. One hour and a
half after the start we got miraculous
break in the weather There were pre-
liminary signs, a thin bright line along
the horizon ahead and the sun all but
bursting through the clouds for half
a minute at a time.
The boats had gone 10 miles by our
destroyer reckoning when the log htted
and through the clouds came the bright
sun The white boat, We saw then, was
leading by full quarter mile, surpris-
ing news, because we had all been pretty
we'll fed with the story that the green
boat was q ghost when it came TO run
ming before a light wind. And up tC
this time there had not been better than
a 7-knot breeze Both boats still were
running with mainsail and spinnaKel
winged out.
Shamrock Makes Gain.
Nearing the outer mark the white
boat shifted her spinnaker for grea
balloon. the green boat did the same
During the last 2 miles the green boa
gained noticeably, bat she still was {
quarter mile back when Enterprise
turned the little red-and-blue buoy.
Pinching into the wind the white lat
sailed through the green ones Weathe
on her way back.
Both crews were lying out on oscE
close enough to whisper to each othe
almost in passing. It must have been
tough passing for the She mrock crews
the FIRST after 10 years. and they wer
clearly cutsailed after Is miles in VIVA
was not supposed to be the American
best point of sailing.
The return from the outer buoy wa
meant to be windward beat.
It was never that. Both boats mad
IL on a close reach all the way.
It was now beautiful weather th
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