828 



YACHTING. 



cast 8,454 for Harrison electors, while the Demo- 

 cratic and People's party cast 7,722 for Weaver 

 electors. 



When the newly-elected Democratic Governor, 

 John E. Osborne, attempted to take office on 

 Dec. 2, 1892, some difficulty was experienced. 



He reached the executive office only through a 

 window, which had been forced open by a car- 

 penter. Gov. Barber, meanwhile, former Secre- 

 tary of State and acting governor, declared that 

 he would not resign until his successor produced 

 his certificate of election and regularly qualified. 



YACHTING. In the "Annual Cyclopedia" 

 for 1885 was published a condensed but compre- 

 hensive article on " Yachting." reviewing its de- 

 velopment to that time the immediate occasion 

 being the first of three international races which 

 greatly stimulated popular interest in the sport. 



The year 1886 saw a race between the 



"Galatea " and the " Mayflower," and 1887 one 



between the " Thistle" and the " Volunteer,'' the 



Americans winning handsomely in both instances. 



It was certainly remarkable that such note- 

 worthy success should attend first efforts in the 

 direction of designing and building large sloops. 

 The "Puritan" and the "Priscilla" were so 

 evenly matched in the trial race of 1885 that there 

 was room for difference of opinion as to which 

 was the better boat. The " Puritan '' was chosen, 

 however, and brought into prominence the name 

 of her designer, the late Edward Burgess, of 

 Boston, whose subsequent work in the " May- 

 flower" and the " Thistle," as well as in a large 

 fleet of other vessels, placed him easily at the 

 head of American designers. 



During all these years American sloops and 

 English cutters had been modifying one another 

 in model and rig. The sloop had grown deeper 

 and narrower, and the cutter had grown broader 

 and shallower, but the sloop retained her dis- 

 tinctive center-board, and, as we have seen, 

 maintained her supremacy in all the interna- 

 tional contests. The center-board, too, at first 

 ruled out by British yacht clubs, at last won its 

 way to recognition, and is now acknowledged as 

 a legitimate nautical device by the Royal Yacht 

 Racing Association rules. 



A somewhat vexatious experience of challenges 

 and races in three successive years convinced the 

 managers of the New York Yacht Club that 

 further modifications were necessary in the deed 

 of gift. Accordingly, the cup was given back to 

 Mr. Schuyler, and a third deed was drawn with 

 great care, intended to cover all possible points of 

 controversy. It need not here be quoted except 

 in two of its specifications; namely, the " dimen- 

 sion clause " and the " mutual agreement clause. " 

 The first of these requires that a challenge must 

 be filed ten months in advance of the intended 

 races, and must give length and beam on load- 

 water line, and extreme draught, the dimensions 

 not to be exceeded, under certain specified penal- 

 ties. The mutual agreement clause reads : " The 

 club challenging for the cup and the club hold- 

 ing the same may, by mutual consent, make any 

 arrangements satisfactory to both, as to dates, 

 course, number of trials, rules and sailing regu- 

 lations, and any and all other conditions of the 

 match ; in which case also the ten months' notice 

 may be waived." 



The promulgation of this deed called out so 

 much denunciation that the New York Yacht 

 Club deemed it best to announce that the condi- 

 tions under which the cup races of 1885, 1886. and 

 1887 were sailed were still satisfactory, and that 

 they were open to any challenge, but it must 

 be positively understood that the winner must 

 hold the cup under the new deed. 



Obviously, these provisions were intended to be 

 at once liberal and binding : liberal in the "mu- 

 tual agreement cause," and binding in that no 

 foreign club, having won it, should be permitted 

 to guard the cup with new and possibly prohibi- 

 tive conditions. At first, English yachting au- 

 thorities declared that no British club could 

 challenge under such conditions, and six years 

 passed before the true intent of the deed became 

 apparent to them. In November, 1892, however, 

 Lord Dunraven challenged, with the consent of 

 the Royal Yacht Squadron, and the challenge 

 was duly accepted. His new cutter, the "Val- 

 kyrie," has not at this writing been authentically 

 described, beyond her general dimensions. 



She was designed by G. L. Watson, and is 

 building on the Clyde, by Henderson & Co. 

 Hardly was this news made public when it was 

 announced that the Prince of Wales and A. D. 

 Clark had each ordered large cutters. Lord 

 Dunraven will therefore have at least three new 

 rivals against which to test the merits of the 

 ' ' Valkyrie " before crossing the ocean. 



A short time before the Dunraven challenge 

 was made public, Royal Phelps Carroll, of the 

 New York Yacht Club, challenged for an Eng- 

 lish trophy known as the Victoria Gold Cup, 

 and for the Brenton's Reef Cups, which were 

 captured by the ' ' Genesta " when she was here in 

 1885. At the same time, he gave his order 

 to the Herreshoffs, of Bristol, R. I., for an 85- 

 foot cutter (the "Navahoe") with which to cross 

 the ocean. These challenges have been ratified 

 in due form. It was at first thought that Mr. 

 Carroll's cutter would perhaps be called upon to 

 serve as a cup defender, and her owner even ex- 

 pressed his willingness to forego his foreign voy- 

 age ; but within a very short time orders were 

 placed with the Herreshoffs for two ' ' cup-defend- 

 ers, "and with Lawley, of Boston, for two more, so 

 that there will be no fewer than four first-class 

 single-stickers to compete for the honor of defend- 

 ing the cup. At this writing few details are 

 known concerning these boats, but center-boards 

 and keels with the latest improvements in oxit- 

 side ballast and the like will certainly be fully 

 represented. 



All these conditions point to an activity in 

 yachting circles, on both sides of the ocean, such 

 as has never before been witnessed-. 



