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Lipton Ready to Challenge. 
Sir Thomas Lipton arrived here on the 
steamship Cedric last Monday morning. He 
has not brought a challenge with him for a race 
for the America’s Cup, but wishes to consult 
with yachtsmen here with a view to arrange a 
race to be sailed in 1911. He cannot arrange 
a race for next year because it takes time to 
design the challenger and to build her. He 
wants to race with a yacht of the H class, 88- 
rating under the rule, and he will ask the club 
to meet him and arrange a contest between 
boats of wholesome type and not with a freak. 
Sir Thomas said that if the club declined a 
race under its own rules, it might as well give 
up all idea of there ever being a race again, be¬ 
cause no one on the other side would challenge 
under the old conditions. Under those con¬ 
ditions the challenger, he said, was a beaten 
boat before she left the other side. Sir Thomas 
said that freaks like the Reliance and Shamrock 
had caused yachtsmen here to change the rule 
of measurement because it had developed a 
freak, and he could not understand why the 
club should want a wholesome type of yacht 
and modern rules for its regattas and should 
insist on an obsolete rule for the cup races. 
While here he will discuss the matter with 
members of the New York Y. C., and if they 
assure him that a challenge will be accepted for 
a race under their own rules, he will challenge 
at once. Fife and Mylne are at work drawing 
lines of a challenger, and if he succeeds in 
arranging things satisfactorily, he will get busy 
at once. 
Now that efforts are being made to resume 
racing for the America’s Cup, a review of the 
history of that cup and of the changes that 
have been made, not only in the yachts that 
competed in the races, but in the conditions that 
governed is not out of place. This is a critical 
time in the history of the trophy: Sir Thomas 
is here ready to issue a challenge for a race, 
and he will ask, through his club, conditions 
that to the average yachtsman of this country 
seem to be perfectly fair. He will build a yacht 
to race that will rate eighty-eight feet, and 
he wants the New York Y. C. to agree to 
sail under its own rules. Fie is not asking that 
any rule is used in this race, nor is he asking 
any concessions. It seems like a straightfor¬ 
ward, sportsmanlike challenge, and the club, if 
it declines, will practically admit to the yacht¬ 
ing world that it has no faith in its own rules. 
For five years the defending club has been try¬ 
ing out this rule, and the feeling among racing 
members and among the designers is that it is 
a good one. These five years will count much 
in the club’s favor if a race is arranged because 
of the experience of the workings of the rule 
that have been obtained. Should the club de¬ 
cline the challenge, as it did two years ago, 
there will be no more racing for the cup until 
it decides that its stand was a wrong one, be¬ 
cause no foreign yachtsman will challenge under 
the rule that has been discarded, and which at 
its best only produces a freak. 
The club declined the challenge two years 
ago for two reasons. Sir Thomas named a 
yacht of sixty-eight feet rating, which the mem¬ 
bers thought would not be in keeping with the 
dignity of the cup, because it was not of the 
largest size allowed. Fie also asked for a race 
m accordance with the rules of the club, which 
the deed specially stipulates. This rule places 
restriction on the model and form of racing 
yachts, and the club declared that yachts to 
compete for the America’s Cup should not have 
to comply with any restrictions except the limi¬ 
tation of waterline length. This is the stand 
that has caused so much trouble, and a careful 
study of the history of the cup will show that 
the club had no precedent for such action, and 
that instead every opinion expressed by the 
donors of the cup and every race sailed has 
been governed by the existing rules of the club. 
The America’s Cup has had a peculiar 
effect on yachting in this country. When the 
cup was won in 1851 by America, the two 
types representing British and American yachts 
were as different as it was possible to make 
them. The American yachtsmen favored the 
broad, beamy, shoal draft centerboard craft, 
while the British were developing the narrow, 
deep-keeled vessel. The vessels themselves 
were of good, wholesome design, but with 
differences. These two types kept distinct until 
Thistle came here, and then Volunteer, built 
for the defence of the cup, was a compromise 
craft, having a little less beam than yachts of 
her size had formerly had and a little more 
draft. Thistle, too, was leading away from the 
deep, narrow cutter, like Genesta and Galatea, 
and she had more beam and less draft. Both 
these yachts, too, had clipper bows, while up 
to that date, 1887, the racers had been mostly 
of the plumb stem type. 
When the first Valkyrie came here there were 
more changes in the types. The overhanging 
bow had become popular, and Valkyrie and 
Vigilant, the defending yacht, were the first 
cup racers to have excessive overhangs. Vigilant 
was practically a keel boat with a centerboard, 
and with the increase of ballast and over all 
length, sail area was increased. Puritan, in 1885, 
was 81 feet Ip2 inches on the waterline, 94 feet 
over all and spread 7,982 square feet of canvas. 
Vigilant, in 1893, was 86.19 feet on the water¬ 
line, 124 feet Over all and spread 11,272 square 
feet of canvas. 
Two years later the American yacht Defender 
broke away entirely from the American type 
and was an out and out keel boat, very much 
like Valkyrie of 1893 in appearance, while the 
Valkyrie that came in 1895 was bigger and 
beamier than any British boat that had come 
to race here. On both of these yachts the sail 
spread for vessels of their type was enormous, 
but although they inspired wonder, they by no 
means reached the limit. 
Sir Thomas Lipton came in 1899 with the first 
Shamrock, and Columbia was built to defend 
the cup. These two vessels were deep-keeled 
cutters, each having nearly 100 tons of lead on 
the keel and drawing about 20 feet of water. 
Their over all lengths had grown and the sail 
spread exceeded 13,000 square feet on both 
yachts. The increase in sail spread did not 
stop here. In 1903 when Reliance was built she 
was 143 feet over all, under 90 feet on the water¬ 
line and spread more than 16,000 square feet of 
canvas. 
These big yachts had grown to be mere rac¬ 
ing machines. They were absolutely worthless 
for any other purposes except for racing. They 
were costly, unwieldy and dangerous, and their 
development was hardly in accordance with the 
objects for which yacht clubs are organized and 
for which the sport of yacht racing is main¬ 
tained. They are worthless for any other pur¬ 
pose except racing. 
The excessive growth in dimensions of the 
cup defenders had its effect on smaller yachts, 
and in this country as well as abroad the freak 
was rapidly crowding the. sound type out, ex¬ 
cept for cruising purposes. It was impossible 
to have a yacht that would be a good cruiser 
and be able to win as a racer, and yachtsmen 
realized that something had to be done to de¬ 
velop a more wholesome type. The yachtsmen 
conferred, rules were framed and finally one 
was adopted that imposed restrictions on over 
all length, on draft and on sail area and put a 
premium on displacement, and with some slight 
modifications that rule still stands and is now 
known as the universal rule and is in force 
wherever there is yacht racing on this side of 
the Atlantic. It is a sound rule, as tests have 
shown, and is giving general satisfaction. On 
the other side the European yachtsmen adopted 
a rule that worked in a similar way. They, too, 
are pleased with their rule. 
Now, having rules of measurement that in 
club races have proved to be satisfactory, Sir 
Thomas Lipton asks for a race, and he will ask, 
too, that the rules that govern the construction 
and the measurements of the racers shall be 
those of the New York Y. C. In plain w'ords 
he comes armed with a challenge from one of 
the clubs of which he is a member and practi¬ 
cally says: “I will build a yacht to meet a yacht 
to represent the New York Y. C. and your 
lules shall govern.” 
Can the New York Y. C. afford to decline 
such a challenge? A prominent member of the 
club talking of the situation as it now stands 
said: “If Sir Thomas comes with a challenge 
naming a 90-foot waterline yacht and asks that 
the rules of the club govern, the club must ac¬ 
cept or stultify itself and the America’s Cup 
as a trophy for the encouragement of yacht 
racing will be shelved for ever.” The club de¬ 
clined the challenge two years ago, but then 
Sir Thomas named a small yacht, and it was the 
opinion of the members then that it was not in 
keeping with the dignity of the cup to race for 
it with anything but vessels of the largest class.. 
The club then said that it was of the opinion 
that the cup stood for speed on a given water¬ 
line length only, and that cup racers should not 
be hampered with any restrictions except that ■ 
named in the deed of gift, waterline length. 
Whether that is the proper interpretation of 
the deed of gift, is a matter of opinion. Many 
members of the club, and among them are those 
who have had long years of membership and 
were familiar with the plans of the donors of 
this cup, think that the deed of gift in its word¬ 
ing shows that the club is wrong. In the origi¬ 
nal deed it was stated that “any organized yacht 
club of any foreign country shall be entitled 
to sail a match for this cup with any yacht or i 
other vessel of not less than thirty or more 
than 300 tons, measured by the custom house 
rule of the country to which the vessel belongs. 1 
A 30-ton vessel to-day would be about the size 
of Altair and a 300-ton vessel would be as large 
as Atlantic, so that the donors showed in the 
wording of the deed it was a matter of mutual - 
agreement as to the size of yachts that should 
race. 
Another clause in that deed said that the 
challengers and the challenge might mutually 
agree on the terms of the match, but failing to 
agree the “match shall be sailed over the usual 
course for the annual regatta of the yacht club 
in possession of the cup and subject to its 
rules and sailing regulations.” The rules and 
sailing regulations of a yacht club always tell 
how the racing craft shall be measured and 
what allowance a larger yacht shall give to a 
smaller one. for each mile of the course to be 
sailed. This would indicate again that the 
races were to be sailed with full time allowance, 
and that the system of measurement and allow¬ 
ance in force by the club holding the cup should 
govern. 
A study of the conditions that have governed 
all races for the America’s cup since Cambria 
first challenged in 1870 show that until the 
present time there have been several changes 
in the measurement rule of the New York Y. 
C., and that cup racers have always been meas¬ 
ured in accordance with that rule. 
America won the cup in an open regatta. A 
prize was offered by the Royal Yacht Squadron 
for a race around the Isle of Wight. The race 
was for yachts of any nationality and to be 
