AMERICA'S THREE NEW CUP DEFENDERS

Their Owners, Designers and Skippers, and Their Chances of Defeating Sir Thomas Lipton's Challenger, Shamrock IV

Lawrence Perry

NEXT September the America's Cup will again be the object of international competition. At that time a defender of our nautical prestige will meet Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock IV (this is his fourth attempt upon the cup) off Sandy Hook, in a series of windward and leeward and triangular races, to determine whether the cup shall remain in America, or whether, after thirteen attempts, England will regain it.

These races will be interesting for several reasons. In the first place, the competing yachts will measure seventyfive feet water-line length, instead of ninety feet—as has been the case for the past thirty years — and secondly, the racers of 1914 will have been constructed to conform with rules of measurement calling for a sane type of craft rather than a racing machine. For the cup races next September will no doubt be entered yachts comparatively wholesome and qualified to spend years as racing crafts after their cup days are over.

IN the years between 1885, when Puritan and Gcncsta raced, and the last cup event in 1903, between Reliance and Shamrock III, designers were confronted by but one restriction—they must not build a yacht intended as America's cup contestant whose water-line length would exceed ninety feet. As long as a designer kept within this limit he had ..a free field in the matter of beam and draught, and could crack on as much sail as he wished. The result came to be yachts with some ninety tons of lead hanging deep down under water in a fin keel, greater breadth of beam, and long overhangs, all of which, it will be grasped, gave the boat sufficient stability t. soert an extraordinary area of canvas. There wasn't much real boat to marine contrivances of this sort, but there was a whole lot of stability and a bewildering amount of speed. Reliance, for example, with water-line length of not quite ninety feet, had overhangs fore and aft, like the roof of a Swiss chalet: her deck was nearly one hundred and fifty feet long and she carried' sixteen thousand two hundred and forty-seven square feet of sail. She cost more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to build, equip and operate.

Sir Thomas, when he challenged, naming a seventy-five foot yacht, suggested that the contestants be designed and built under the so-called Uniform Rules,, which the New York Yacht Club had adopted in 1906; to all this the Americans agreed. This new rule, briefly, puts a premium upon a wholesome hull and penalizes sail area, so that the designer who inclines toward a freak boat and heavy spread of canvas, must give more time to a competitor—designed to fit the rules more closely—than, theoretically, she can afford to give; therefore the supposition is that the cup racers this year will have relatively full underbodies, overhangs not exaggerated, and approximately ten thousand square feet of sail.

Three designers, whose relative meritshave long been subject of dispute among their adherents, are evolving competitors for the honor of meeting the Lipton challenger— Nathaniel G. HerreshofT, of Bristol, R. I., William Gardner, of New York City, and George Owen, of Boston. Pitting the genius of this trio of superb designers, one against the other, is a mighty fine thing to have brought about, and for this fact, if for none other, the "genial Baronet" is entitled to the thanks of the American sporting public. Of course, to Herreshoff, because of his great galaxy of defenders, beginning with Vigilant in 1893, and coming down to Reliance, attaches the highest prestige and perhaps the greatest confidence of the public. The yacht which he was commissioned to design and build, without expense limit, is known as the "Hag officers' yacht," because she was ordered by two present and four past flag officers of the New York Yacht Club, namely, Vice-Commodore George F. Baker, Rear-Commodore J. P. Morgan, former Commodores Cornelius Vanderbilt, Frederick G. Bourne, Arthur Curtis James and former Vice-Commodore Henry.

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Various reports have emanated from Bristol concerning details of design and construction of this yacht, but the fact is, that nothing definite is known concerning her. That she will be a wonderful sloop may be postulated from the fact that Nat HerreshofT, the omnipotent "wizard of Bristol" is her creator. She will be launched late in April, it is believed, and will at once begin tuning up for the races which will determine which of the three competitors will defend the cup.

The second aspirant, for international honors, is being built at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, for a syndicate of Boston, New York and Philadelphia yachtsmen, headed by George M. Pynchon, owner of the fine sixty-foot sloop lstalcna, Charles Hayden of Boston and E. Walter Clark, owner of the ninety-foot schooner yacht Irolita, formerly J. Roger Maxwell's King's Cup winner, Queen. This sloop is the creation of George Owen, a designer whose inexperience in evolving large yachts is the only point that can be made against him. As a designer of sloops, comparatively small, his first, Dorello, remains unbeaten in her class. William Gardner has designed the third at the instance of Alexander S. Cochran, who is alone defraying the entire expense. Gardner is a designer who has produced some of the finest boats that ever sported canvas, such, for example, as the transatlantic champion, the schooner Atlantic, and such crack sloops as Medora, Gardenia, Windward, Irondequoit, Michicago and the like. She is taking form in Lawleys yards in Boston, cradle of several illustrious defenders, and unquestionably will be a boat qualified to take a lot of beating.

AS skippers, it is to be feared we have none of the class of "Hank" HafT and "Charlie" Barr, than whom no greater ever handled stick, but, nevertheless, three tried and true men will be aboard the sloops in their races. The "flag officers' yacht" will have as master Chris Christensen, who has had much experience as a racing skipper, and has had the inestimable advantage of having sailed as mate to the great Barr himself. The managing owner of this sloop will be Robert W. Emmons, 2nd, of Boston, whose experience with racing yachts extends over many years.

Capt. William Howell, navigator of Effort when she won the King's Cup in 1906, skipper of Pynchon's sloop, lstalcna, will be sailing master of the George Owen tri-city yacht. Messrs. Pynchon and Clark, both splendid Corinthians, will have charge of the after deck of the yacht.

William F. Dennis will navigate the Cochran boat. Captain Dennis is one of the best schooner captains in the world, his last two commands having been Elmina and Morton F. Plant s great schooner yacht Elena. Dennis has fundamental objections to managing owners, so the chances are his command will be absolute.

Of the challenger built at Gosport, no more is actually known as to details of design and construction than of the three American sloops. Charles Nicholson, her designer, is of the younger school, a man whose creations such as Istria and the 1913 schooner Margharita, define him as a genius of high order. He is a designer of striking originality, and one, moreover, who has the courage of his convictions. He is sure to create a vessel of extreme design, which will prove either a flier or a great failure, for nobody who has followed his career could imagine him producing a mediocrity; and if ever the trophy is to be brought back across the Atlantic, it is just such a designer who is likely to be instrumental in doing it. Another encouraging feature is that Mr. Nicholson is just now at the top of his form, and during the past season his yachts carried all before them. By the conditions of the deed of gift the challenging party has to name his vessel ten months before the contest, whilst the defenders are not called upon to nominate their representative until the morning of the first race. Thus, need for secrecy as to the lines and dimensions of Shamrock IV is obvious, and all we know is that Sir Thomas has challenged with a cutter of seventy-five feet water-line, to race under the universal rule. The cutter is in course of construction at Camper and Nicholson's yard at Gosport. She is in a large closed-in shed with a glass roof, to guard her lines from prying eyes.

An interesting feature of the cup event will be the appearance at the stick of Shamrock IV of an amateur, W. P. Burton, regarded in England as the most accomplished sailor of his time. During the past few seasons he has held his own with the best professionals. He has won two hundred and thirty-five first prizes and one hundred and forty other prizes, giving the fine aggregate of three hundred and seventy-five flags. Captain Albert Turner, the professional sailing master of the challenger, will be associated with Mr. Burton.