The America’s Cup. 
Almost every issue of the British yachting 
papers has something to say about the Amer¬ 
ica’s Cup. They all criticise the New York Y. 
C. and all want to know why the troubles 
; standing in the way of a challenge being ac¬ 
cepted cannot be cleared away, and they heartily 
support Sir Thomas Lipton in his efforts to 
arrange a race under conditions that will give 
the challenger a fair chance of success and 
cause the construction of yachts built under 
rules that will develop a yacht of wholesome 
type. 
Sir Thomas Lipton has frequently expressed 
himself of late as being ready and anxious to 
arrange another race, but he feels that he can¬ 
not ask his club to send another challenge to 
the New York Y. C. unless that club intimates 
in some way that the challenge will be accepted. 
' Sir Thomas has stated the terms under which 
he is willing to race. He will build a 90-footer 
—or two, if the club will allow him to do so. and 
come here with the better one. A 90ft. sloop 
is the largest yacht allowed under the terms of 
\ the Deed of Gift. Then he will ask that the 
challenged and the challengers get together 
under the mutual agreement clause and agree 
on rules to govern the construction and meas¬ 
urement of the yachts, and he is perfectly will- 
jl ing that the present New York Y. C. rules 
!l should govern the match. Sir Thomas does 
not want to have a challenge sent by the Royal 
Irish Y. C. and have it declined as the last was, 
because he realizes that his own club would not 
like anything like that to happen, and so he 
would like some one who can speak for the 
New York Y. C. to tell him to go ahead. 
In selecting the present rules of the New 
York Y. C., Sir Thomas is not taking any ad- 
j vantage of conditions. Those rules have been 
in force for some years. Several yachts that 
have won fast races have been built to conform 
to those rules and designers in this country are 
thoroughly familiar with them. They are dif¬ 
ferent from the British or International rules 
i and the British designers would have to make a 
careful study of them and would naturally oe 
at a disadvantage because they have not yet 
turned out a yacht to race under them. Sir 
Thomas thinks, though, that if he can succeed 
in getting a race for the America’s Cup under 
these rules, whether he wins or loses, he will 
1 have done something for the sport and have 
revived interest in International racing, and 
when he is beaten, others will continue the at¬ 
tack and perhaps finally succeed in winning the 
cup back to it original home. 
Sir Thomas has many friends in this coun¬ 
try. He has friends in the New York Y. C. 
who would like to see the club announce where 
| it stands, but the New York Y. C. is not in the 
habit of doing things that way and will only 
I announce itself when a challenge or some 
official notification calls for an answer. 
About a year ago a challenge was received 
!' on behalf of Sir Thomas. He named a vessel 
1 75ft. on the waterline or of Class J, according 
to the classification, because he thought that 
would be a good type of yacht to build, and one 
that would find popular favor here. It would 
! have been popular and several yachts would 
i have been built for the defense of the cup. The 
New York Y. C., however, declined the chal¬ 
lenge on the ground that the size named was 
too small, and that only first-class vessels should 
I sail for the cup. and because, in the opinion of 
those who ruled the club then, an America’s 
Cup yacht should be built without any restric¬ 
tions, and that the cup stood for speed on a 
! given waterline length only. The club may 
have been right in determining to keep the 
! trophy for yachts of the first class, but the 
history of the America’s Cup shows that it is 
r 
wrong in ruling that yachts to sail for it must 
be built without any restrictions. 
The Cup has been held by the New York Y. 
C. ever since it was deeded to the club as a 
perpetual challenge trophy in 1857. The original 
Deed of Gift said: “The parties desiring to 
sail for the Cup may make any match with the 
yacht club in possession of the same that may 
be determined upon by mutual consent; but, in 
case of disagreement as to terms, the match 
shall be sailed over the usual course for the 
annual regatta of the yacht club in possession 
of the Cup, subject to its rules and sailing regu¬ 
lations.” 
In 1870 the schooner Cambria, owned by 
James Ashbury, raced against a fleet of yachts 
of the New York Y. C. for the cup. The race 
was sailed under the rules of the New York 
Y. C. The rule of measurement then in force 
was to obtain the cubic contents of the vessel’s 
under-water body, and Cambria, although she 
finished tenth in the race, through her time 
allowance was placed eighth. 
Soon after this the rule was changed, so that 
the measurement of a yacht was the cubic con¬ 
tents of a vessel below the lowest point of free¬ 
board. This rule was in force when Livonia, 
Countess of Dufferin and Atalanta raced for 
the cup. 
When Sir Richard Sutton challenged with 
Genesta the rule of measurement was twice 
length, plus square root of sail area divided by 
three. In arranging this match, the most 
serious point of difference was the method of 
figuring time allowance, and George L. 
Schuyler, the survivor of the original donors of 
the cup, to whom the matter was referred, de¬ 
cided that the New York Yacht Club’s 
method should be employed on the principle 
that the rules of the club in possession of 
the cup should always govern measurement for 
time allowance. Puritan allowed Genesta 28s. 
over the inside course, and 31s. over the 40- 
mile course. This rule was in force when 
Galatea raced in 1886 and Thistle came here in 
1887. 
After the race between Mischief and Atalanta 
it was deemed advisable for various reasons to 
change the Deed of Gift, so the cup was re¬ 
turned to Mr. Schuyler, who re-deeded it to the 
club. In this new deed is this clause: “The 
parties intending to sail for the cup may, by 
mutual consent, make any arrangement satis¬ 
factory to both as to date, course, time allow¬ 
ance, number of trials, rules and sailing regula¬ 
tions. and any and all conditions of the match, 
in which case also the six months’ notice may 
be waived.” 
Another clause says: “In case the parties 
cannot mutually agree upon terms of a match, 
then the challenging party shall have the right 
to contest for the cup in one trial, sailed over 
the usual course of the annual regatta of the 
club holding the cup, subject to its rules and 
sailing regulations.” 
After the race with Thistle the deed was again 
changed. This new deed had the same mutual 
agreement clause, and it added that in case of 
(he parties not being able to agree, three races 
should be sailed subject to the rules and sailing 
regulations of the club holding the cup, but 
without any time allowance. 
The rule of measurement was changed ir. 1891 
to what was known as the Seawanhaka rule. 
This rule was load waterline length, plus square 
root of sail area divided by two. This rule pre¬ 
vailed in the races in which the challengers were 
the two Valkyries and three Shamrocks. It was 
generally termed a cheating rule because it de¬ 
veloped a type of yacht that did not pay proper 
penalties when measured. Waterline was meas¬ 
ured when the j'achts were in the basin in ab¬ 
solutely smooth water and these waterlines were 
always under 90ft. When sailing they heeled 
so that their lengths increased to at least 120ft., 
and it was on the 120ft. that they carried their 
enormous sail spreads. To stop this type of 
yacht and to develop a more wholesome type, 
the New York Y. C. adopted its present rule. 
This rule has become general in all clubs racing 
on the. Atlantic Coast and on the Great Lakes. 
It limits sail area, draft and excessive over¬ 
hangs and puts a premium on displacement. It 
was recently endorsed by the delegates to the 
Atlantic Coast Conference representing some 
90 clubs. 
It will be seen that in all the races sailed for 
the America’s Cup the rules of the New York 
Y. C. relating to measurement and to time 
allowance have been in force. In each race the 
yachts have been measured according to the 
rule of the club, and since the first race was 
sailed, the rule has been changed four times. 
Each change made was to put certain restric¬ 
tions on the building of racing vessels and to 
make them pay proper penalties for length sail 
area, etc. 
Now while the Deed of Gift says that the 
rules of the club holding the cup (and each of 
the three deeds have said this) must prevail, the 
members of the New York Y. C. have acted 
contrary to the spirit and letter of the deed. 
A careful study of the history of the cup, of 
the men who won the trophy and deeded it to 
the New York Y. C„ of their methods and 
idea of sport, show that the cup was offered 
primarilv to encourage International yacht rac- 
ing, and when those men were alive, racing 
machines such as Reliance were not even 
dreamed of. The simple way in which the first 
deed is worded shows that to mutually agree 
was all that was necessary. There were no re¬ 
strictions. ,Qf course, it takes two to mutually 
agree, and the New York Y. C. at present pre¬ 
fers to insist on a strict interpretation of the 
deed and. failing to agree on terms with the 
challenger, will defend the cup by racing boat 
for boat against the challenger. 
England and the Cup. 
. A foreign view of the America’s Cup situa¬ 
tion and on International yachting generally is 
printed in the Yachting World, which says: 
“Although the position of both parties to the 
America’s Cup contest was made so clear in 
the progress of the last negotiations that no 
further discussion seems necessary, the time is 
not unfitting for a final glance at the pesition. 
There is little to be added to what is already 
known regarding the attitude of the parties tc 
these negotiations. Nor is there much likelihood 
of any good purpose being served by any 
further debate of the position. The unques¬ 
tioned stipulation which provides for the lodg¬ 
ing of the challenge ten clear months before the 
racing makes it, however, full time that a 
definite decision should be come to on the im¬ 
portant point as to whether there is or is not 
to be an America’s Cup contest in 1909. If we 
judge only by what has already been made 
known to the public in this connection, the 
answer to the query would be that the chances 
of a contest next year are hopelessly remote. 
Even if a challenge were sent out by the next 
mail and even if it were found that the difficul¬ 
ties had all been cleared off in some miraculous 
fashion, the racing could not possibly take place 
before the end of August, and recent contests 
have amply demonstrated the folly of leaving 
this important fixture to the fag end of the 
summer. 
“It is a matter of fairly general knowledge that 
the efforts to re-establish the America’s Cup 
contest as a sporting link between this country 
and the United States have been altogether 
abandoned in the interval. There is still a con¬ 
siderable body of American opinion which holtls 
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