The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-08-04
ONLY \ MIRACLE. GAN STOP EASY WIN FOR RANGER
Sopwith to See It Through in One-sided Yacht Race
 for America Cup
BY HENRY McLEMORE United Press Staff COrrespondent)


 Newport, R. l., August 1. - (UP) - MT. Sopwith will see it through.
 Whipped in two kinds of weather and on two kinds of courses, the stubborn Briton sailed Endeavour II out through east passage today to keep Q date with a boat that has proved too good for him, and a skipper that has beaten him six times in eight starts.
 Endeavour IT was two down to Harold Vandervilt's Ranger in the 18th British effort to wrest the 86- year-old Americas cup, and there was hardly man in this sea-go- ing village today who gave him a Chinaman's chance to turn the trick.
 Endeavour II slipped out through the straits, after a day of rest, carrying all the medicine the doc tor could give her. Sopwith and Charlie Nicholson, Endeavour ITS designer, spent the day of grace, which the British challenger asked after Mondays race, working over the boat.
 The hull was polished, sails tested, lead, and new sail added to En- deavour I1's locker. The halyards were frightened, the prov greased end the bottom Scraped.
 But as far as most of the sea- faring folks in Newport were con- cerned, you could throw out the wind lifts, the double-clewed Genoa jibS and the lobster pots and the race would still be to the swift. And Ranger Is the swiftest class J boat ever beat to windward from Brenton's Reef lightship.
 Ranger needed only two more victories in the seven-race series to keep the 50 cup in American where 1t has remained since 1851.
 Sopwith tonight was in the same spot Vanderbilt was in three years ago when Endeavour I, took two out of two from Rainbow and then lost four straight and booted the series. But that time 1t was a clever sailor against faster boat.
 Today Vanderbilt goes to sea - the best racing skipper in the Americas cup history - with a bet ter boat and two races under his belt.
 Souwith, apparently clutching at straws, had a double-clewed Genoa Jib, similar to Vanderbilt,s famous head rig, ordered for Endeavour II yesterday. A special crew of sail makers was rushed to Bristol to complete the job.
 The British challenger yacht was frightened by the three tons, re- moved fro mthe keel, giving her a displacement weight of 16l tons, compared to 1885 for Ranger.
 But even Nicholson, to whom Endeavour II was the dram of a half century of boat designing, was read yto admit the task was all but hopeless.
 "Endeavour II, is IS minutes slower than Ranger on a 30-mile course" He said, and that was the story of the last two races.
 You can toss out mistakes in sailing technique and forget lobster pots: you can cease to worry about the wind and the trim of the sheets, but you can ignore two straight victories by the largest margins any boat has won in 50 years of Ameri- cas- cup racing.
 The weatherman said 1t would be "fair, with moderate northerly winds, becoming variable" At the New York Yacht Club a six-to- seven-mile wind was predicted
 The weather was fair and the course fast, and diminishing spec tator fleet was on hand to watch a determined Englishman make his third bid against fate.