334 
FOREST <» AND STREAM. 
TAprh. 25, 1903. 
SHAMROCK III. 
Photo by Agnew & Son, Glasgow. 
keenest kind of competition, and it is expected that the 
attendance at every race will be very large. 
Commodore Cheney has expressed his intention of giv- 
ing orders for a cruise to take place on September 5, 6 
and 7. Several officers haA^e offered to give appropriate 
cups in connection with each of the three days' racing 
runs. Mrs. B. P. Cheney has expressed a desire to offer 
cups for the cruise. The fleet will doubtless disband at 
the close of the cruise, off Calf Island, where Commodore 
Chene3^'s summer home is situated. 
For some time past the open race on June 17 has been 
sailed over an outside course, either off Nah^.nt or Point 
Allerton. The Regatta Committee has decided to hold the 
race this j^ear in Hull Bay, on account of the difficulty 
of small boats anchoring off Point Allerton. 
Mr. B. B. Crowninshield has sold the steel steam yacht 
Ventura, owned by Mr. C. D. Miller, of Poughkeepsie, 
N. Y., to Mr. David Dunlop, of Petersburg, Va. Ventura 
is^ of steel construction, and was designed and built by 
Mr. Miller last season. She is gSft. over all, 75ft. water- 
line. 13ft. beam and 4ft. 6in. draft. He has also sold the 
T8-footer Vim, owned by Mr. A. T. Vigneron, of Provi- 
dence, to Mr. ?Ienry Saville, of Boston. Mr. Crownin- 
t-hield has received an order to design several fishermen 
for the Gulf of INTexico. They will be somewhat larger 
than the vessels designed by him for these fisheries last 
year, and will be equipped with auxilliary power. He is 
turning out the lines for a four-masted steel schooner, 
which will be built abroad. 
Mr. E. A. Boardman has sold the i8-footer Suzanne, 
sister boat to the champion INIalillian, owned by Mr. Nor- 
nisn F. Greek}', to Mr. G. Q. Hall, of Cleveland, O. She 
will be sailed on Lake Erie. 
The poor weather of the last week has caused the work 
on fitting out to cease. The amateurs are at it again, 
however, and one by one the boats are commencing to 
appear. They were at it hard to-day in all of the yards. 
The first race of the year was sailed to-day at Dorchester. 
Tt was given for sailing tenders of the Savin Hill Y. C. 
There was also some scrub racing in Duxbury Bay. 
John B. Killeen. 
English Letter. 
Since my last letter, Shamrock HI. has had a consider- 
able number of informal trials with the old boat, and the 
result has been in all cases satisfactory beyond expecta- 
tion. Tt seems that in all weathers, and on every point of 
sailing, the new yacht shows a very marked advance, and 
her superiority is most pronounced when turning to wind- 
ward. She is vQvy quick on her helm, and will bear 
pinching. She seems to work out to windward of her ap- 
parent course. Beyond all question, if you are to keep the 
Cup this 3'^ear, you will need a flier to defend it. 
After the informal spins on the Clyde, in which the new 
boat always gave great satisfaction, the tAVO yachts Avere 
brought to Wej-mouth last week-end. The Wejanouth 
course offers great advantage over the Clyde at this time 
of year, for the weather is generally very much better 
in the south of England, and the hard hail squalls of the 
Clyde spring are absent. The course is quite open, and 
much more akin to the real Cup course than any to be 
found on the Clyde. On Monday it was intended to sail 
a trial, but it was blowing too hard for an attempt at this 
early stage. On Wednesday, however, the yachts sailed 
from the Erin, anchored off Weymouth, round the Sham- 
bles lightship — about seven miles out in the channel. 
There was a nice breeze blowing out of the bay, and 
Shamrock I. went off in the weather berth, the wind being 
aft or a little on starboard quarter. Both had jib-headers 
or spinnakers set. Now, with the wind blowing in this 
direction at Weymouth you invariably find it more abeam, 
and stronger, when you breast Portland breakwater 
(about a mile out on the course sailed). Therefore the 
old boat picked this wind up first, stowed her spinnaker, 
and was off like a hare, leading the new boat round the 
lee mark by 24 seconds. Shamrock III. ought to have 
found it hard to get past on the turn to windward back, 
but she did it very easilj'. Within ten minutes she was 
through the old boat's lee and out across her bows, lead- 
ing her home by i min. 35 sec. They went round again, 
and the new boat ran the other by 45 seconds. Beating 
back she put on 2 min. 55 sec. more, beating the old 
boat by 5 min. 15 sec. in 28 miles. There was an interval 
of 15 minutes before they were started again. This time 
the breeze was stronger. Shamrock III. was first away 
by about 12 seconds, and rounded the ship one minute 
more to the good. On the beat back she was let go for 
all she was worth, and finished the round with a lead of 
5 min. 8 sec. — not bad work in fourteen miles ! Next day 
the two boats had a light weather spin down wind 15 
miles and back. They both had big topsails, and the new 
boat ran the old one by over ten minutes. When they 
hauled their wind again, she simply lost the old boat, and 
got so far ahead that she was hung up to let the gap 
lessen. They sailed into the anchorage with 17 minutes 
between them. 
Now, these were mere preparatory spins. To-morrow 
the first actual race for a prize will be sailed. But it is 
clear already that Herreshoff has caught a Tartar this 
tim^. My own opinion is that he caught one (disguised) 
in Shamrock I., and that he must turn out his new boat 
fit to give Columbia at the very least twelve minutes over 
the Cup course in a jackyard breeze, before he can begin 
to hope. I don't think there is any weather or any point 
of sailing in which Columbia could hold Shamrock III. 
She has not been tried in a seaway, but I shall be sur- 
prised if under those conditions she is not at her very 
iDest. Needless to say that hopes are high on our side, 
particularly among those who know the speed of the first 
Shamrock. Looking back on Herreshoff's work since 
Defender, it seems quite unlikely that he can make the 
necessary advance, provided he sticks to the same type. 
If the new boat is of the scow type, she may be very fast 
under given conditions, but those will hardly exist in a 
leeward and return race. Moreover, the scow is some- 
what discredited over here. The latest American importa- 
tion of that type to the Thames is a most gruesome fail- 
ure, and yet her races are always sailed in smooth water. 
The new Shamrock is a striking illustration of a fact 
that has often struck me before, viz., that the best type 
for any given rule of measurement is often not discovered 
until that rule has been abandoned. Under our old ton- 
nage rule, which produced Clara, there is no question 
whatever but that designers were wrong in so unsparingly 
sacrificing beam to length. That was conclusively proved 
by the sail-area rule that followed it. Now it is clear 
that the new Shamrock, with her deeper garboards, is by 
far a faster boat than the old ones, which is a true repre- 
sentative of Fife's best sail-area boats. And I am per- 
fectly certain that under our present rule nothing like the 
most suitable type has yet been attempted. When it is, 
that type will be found to be a particularly fine class of 
yacht, as racing yachts go. 
YACHTING NEWS NOTES. 
For advertising relating to this department see pages ii and iiL 
A FIRE started at 4 o'clock on the morning of April 14, 
in a stiff gale at West End, New Orleans. The Lake 
Ponchartrain terminus of the New Orleans Railway Com- 
pany was detroyed, as well as nearly the entire fleet of the 
Southern Y. C. With the wind blowing forty miles an 
hour, the flames spread so rapidly among the tinderbox 
hotels and buildings that some of the occupants barely 
escaped. 
The fire destroyed the Capital Hotel, Oliver's restau- 
rant, the Lake House, the old club house and the Alcia- 
tore House. It spread to the boat houses and bath 
houses, which were destroyed. The various boats of the 
Southern Y. C. were lying inside the levee, and they soon 
caught fire. Six boat houses, six steam or naphtha 
launches, one tug and twenty-six yachts were destroyed. 
Among the sailing boats destroyed were the Druid, Red 
Stern, Lilian, Zoe and Towanta and a sloop just arrived 
from New York. Some of the boat houses destroyed 
were handsomely fitted up as club houses. 
The loss is estimated at $100,000. 
>l •? •? 
The following racing figures have been adopted by the 
Regatta Committee of the New Rochelle Y. C. for the 
coming season : 
May 20, Spring Regatta — Raceabouts, New Rochelle and 
Manhasset and Larchmont 21ft. one-design classes. 
June 18, Raceabouts — New Rochelle and Manhasset 
one-design classes and 25ft. one-design class. 
•Jitne 19 — Second race for same classes. 
June 20, Annual Regatta— Final race for the above, and 
for other classes to be announced later. In addition to 
the above schedule, special races will be given for the 
New Rochelle one-design classes of i8-footers and i6ft. 
launches. 
The Regatta Committee consists of L. D. Huntington, 
Jr. ; J. D. Sparkman, P. L. Lloward, W. B. Thomas, O. 
H. Chellborg. 
YACHT CLUB NOTES. 
The Regatta Committee of the Seawanhaka-Con'nthian 
Y. C. has laid out the following racing schedule for the 
coming season : 
May 30 (Decoration Day). — Open race for raceabout.>i (Jen- 
nings cup, first race); club races for Seawanhaka knockabouts; 
15-footers. 
June 6, Saturday. — Club races for raceabouts (Jennings' cup, 
second race); Seawanhaka knockabouts; 15-footers (Center Island 
cup, first race). 
June 13, Saturday. — Club races for raceabouts (Jennings' cup, 
thiid race); Seawanhaka knockabouts; 15-footer.s (Center Island 
cup, second race). 
June 20, Saturday. — Special race for sloops. Class G (America's 
cup class). 
