802 



YACHTING IN 1901. 



vals challenges have been received and races have 

 been sailed, as shown by the following list, the 

 victory in every case remaining with the Ameri- 

 can yacht or yachts, for in the earlier races the 

 defenders very naturally claimed the right to sail 

 under the conditions that were observed in the 

 original race that is, over the usual club course, 

 and with practically their whole fleet in reserve. 



These challenges and the contests which fol- 

 lowed were not acomplished without much cor- 

 respondence, several new deeds of gift, and the in- 

 stitution of various changes in the sailing con- 

 ditions and in the general management of the 

 races, which were in the interest of fair play. It 

 is not necessary here to review these readjust- 

 ments in detail, but some of them were very un- 

 pleasant, and threatened at the time to put an 

 end permanently to all international contests of 

 this character. In the end, however, a mutual 

 agreement was reached, and where the challenger 

 is of a fairly reasonable disposition, as has usu- 

 ally been the case, there is small danger of future 

 misunderstandings. 



The changes that have taken place since 1851 



hoped that eventually some more rational meth- 

 od will be devised to meet the conditions for inter- 

 national racing. At present it is a contest of 

 skill between the builders which shall come near- 

 est to building a craft that is unseaworthy and 

 yet sufficiently stanch to outlive the strains of a 

 few sharply contested and possibly stormy events. 



In the matter of models and rig, the designers 

 of the two countries, starting with very different 

 notions, now turn out boats so nearly alike that 

 only an expert can see any essential difference 

 when they are sailing side by side. The partizans 

 of each country claim that the other has appro- 

 priated their ideas, but the controversy involves 

 so many nice points that it can not be exhaus- 

 tively considered here. 



The races of 1901 are remarkable in several 

 ways. The challenger was Sir Thomas W. Lipton, 

 who had challenged and raced in 1899, when 

 Shamrock I was defeated by the Columbia. It 

 was therefore his second experience in racing on 

 this side the water, and judging by the results of 

 the races, which were very close, he may have 

 profited by his earlier defeat. 



in the models, rig, and equipment of racing yachts 

 have been largely influenced by the greatly in- 

 creased scale of expenditure favored by the un- 

 precedented accumulation of wealth. Until 1885 

 we Americans were content to entrust the defense 

 of our championship to the best available yacht 

 already afloat. The challenge of the Genesta, a 

 large cutter (a single-masted vessel, that is), 

 made it necessary to build something capable of 

 meeting her on equal terms. The result was the 

 Puritan, the first conspicuous success of the late 

 Edward Burgess, of Boston. She was a compara- 

 tively shallow centerboard sloop, which won hand- 

 somely from the deep-draft cutter that had 

 crossed the ocean to meet her. Since then every 

 challenge has been followed by the construction 

 of one or more 90-foot " single-stickers," as they 

 are called merely great racing-machines that 

 have to be made over in framework and rig to be of 

 use in ordinary cruising after their special mission 

 in defending the eup has been fulfilled. It is 



To meet Shamrock II, the challenger for 1901, 

 a new boat was built by the Herreshoff Brothers, 

 of Bristol, R. I., and named the Constitution. 

 The two-year-old Columbia, winner of the last 

 preceding of the national races, was put in com- 

 mission to set the pace for the new boat, which 

 was intended to be faster than her younger sis- 

 ter, and Capt. Urias Rhodes, a veteran Yankee/ 

 skipper, was placed in command, partly out of 

 deference to a popular demand. In point of fact, 

 the Columbia played her part of pacemaker so 

 effectively under her former sailing-master, Capt. 

 Charles Barr, that she beat the Constitution 

 to the satisfaction or the dissatisfaction of the 

 committee having the matter in charge, and was 

 chosen to defend the cup for the second time, as 

 the new boat did not succeed in proving her su- 

 periority. An element of international interest 

 was lent even to these preliminary trials, "for 

 Capt. Barr, though a naturalized citizen of the 

 United States, is Scotch by birth, and won his- 



