Plans of Sir Thomas Lipton. 
Sir Thomas Lipton left for home last week 
on the steamship Lusitania. He left rather 
earlier than he expected, but expressed himself 
as satisfied with his trip and sure that when he 
sent his challenge for another race for the 
America’s Cup it would be accepted. Just be¬ 
fore the steamer sailed, he said, “I shall have 
a challenge sent for a race for the America’s Cup 
early next year. It will ask for a race to be 
sadcd in 1911, and this statement I make with¬ 
out any qualifications. I am satisfied that the 
New York Y. C. will consider my challenge 
fairly, and I think that it will agree to meet 
me with a yacht of safe and sane type. Since 
I have been in this.country, I have met several 
of the leading yachtsmen here, and we have 
talked cup matters, and from what they have 
said. I feel certain that a race will be arranged." 
Sir Thomas has already commissioned Fife 
to design a yacht to be the challenger. It is a 
vessel of the 88-rating class, which, if the rules 
of the club are strictly in force, will be the 
largest yacht that can be built to compete for 
the cup. 
While Sir Thomas seems confident -that the 
club will accept his challenge, there is some 
doubt in yachting circles about this. Some 
yachtsmen think that the club would agree to 
let the cup yachts be measured by the club rule 
but they think that the club will'insist that the 
yachts measure 90 feet on the waterline and not 
be limited to the 88 class rating. In figurine 
out the workings of the*rule this makes quite 
a difference, and even Reliance would be eligible 
under this arrangement, although she would be 
heavily penalized for excess of draft, sail area 
and lose on the displacement. It might be 
shown that even with these penalities she could 
do well against a much smaller yacht. 
Maumee River Y. C. Officers. 
The recently elected officers of the Maumee 
River Y. C. are: Commodore, N. S. Larsen; 
Vice-Commodore, Phil. W. Spenker; Rear- 
Commodore, Frank H. Butler; Recording Sec¬ 
retary George M. Mclnnes; Financial Secre¬ 
tary, A. R. Perry. 
t ¥; S , tarr was elected delegate to the Inter- 
Lake Yachting Association, and George M Mc¬ 
lnnes, alternate. Under the new rules Com¬ 
modore Larsen will appoint the fleet captain, 
sail and power boat regatta committees, enter¬ 
tainment and house committees. 
The cruising yawl Kemah will be the flagship 
ot the club the coming year; the power'boat 
halcon will carry the flag of the vice-commo¬ 
dore, and the power boat Inez will be the yacht 
of the rear-commodore. 
The re-elected officers will be installed Dec. 
7 , on which occasion there will be an open 
meeting and entertainment. 
The annual.reports of the officers show that 
t le chib has just completed a very prosperous 
year At the beginning of the year the club 
leased commodious rooms in the Dodge Build¬ 
ing, Madison avenue and Erie street, and spent 
several hundred dollars in the purchase of up- 
to-date furniture, including two pool tables, 
jo do this it was necessary for the club to go 
m debt, as all its savings had been swamped in 
tne Broadway bank failure. Under the careful 
management of the board of directors, of which 
Morgan S. Reed is president, the club has paid 
every dollar of its indebtedness and starts the 
new year with an absolutely clean slate. The 
financial reports will be made at the annual 
meeting of the Maumee River Y. C. company 
early in January. 
• 0w ? er ® of the I( >foot racing craft compris¬ 
ing the Toledo fleet, expect to go before tlm 
annual meeting of the Inter-Lake Yachting As¬ 
sociation with a petition for a rule against pot¬ 
leading. It is said that the owners of this class 
of boats are unanimous in their sentiment 
against this practice, believing that it is a detri¬ 
ment to the sport. Owners of 16-footers at 
Cleveland and Detroit will be asked to co¬ 
operate. “Pot-leading is a disagreeable job, and 
last season some of my crew refused to take a 
hand in the work,” said a boat owner. “If it 
is prohibited, all contestants will be exactly 
on the same footing as if the pot-leading prac¬ 
tice were allowed to prevail.” 
New Boats by C. D. Mower. 
Charles D. Mower, who designed the. 
Bonder class yacht Joyette, winner of the Presi¬ 
dent Taft cup off Marblehead last summer, has 
designed several new boats to be built this 
winter, and is very busy just now designing 
others that so far have not gone beyond the 
paper, stage, but which have fair chances of 
materializing. He has designed a new Sonder 
boat for George C. Thomas, Jr., who this year 
sailed Bessie on Buzzard’s Bay and later off 
Marblehead. Mr. Thomas was very enthusiastic 
about this class and declared at the close of the 
season that he and several others would have 
new yachts before next season, and his new 
craft is being built by. Sheppard, of Essington. 
Sheppard is also building a small auxiliary cat- 
boat for Charles Longstreth, of Philadelphia, 
for use this winter at Jekyl Island. 
. A class of one-design yachts has been de¬ 
signed by Mr. Mower for use next season by 
the members of the summer colony of Fisher’s 
Island. These boats are being built by H. B. 
Nevins at City Island. In all seven are to be 
built. Ihey are to be 24 feet over all, it feet on 
the waterline and 18 inches draft. The sail 
plan will be comparatively small, and the yachts 
will have knockabout rigs. They will carry in¬ 
side ballast and be fitted with air tanks of 
sufficient capacity to float them in case of 
accident. 
A 40-foot power boat for E. G. Schmiedell, 
of San Francisco, for use.on Lake Lahoe, Cali- 
fornia, and a 35-foot auxiliary sloop for a yachts- 
man of Shanghai, have been designed by Mr. 
Mower, and he is now at work on a 70-foot 
cruising power boat for a New York yachts¬ 
man, which will be built at a yard near this city. 
Challenge Cup for Lower Bay. 
It is very probable that the cup offered 
through the Crescent Athletic Club, to boom 
yacht racing on the Lower Bay, will be offered 
for the Class S yachts. The conditions to 
govern this cup have not yet been framed, but. 
the committee is at work on them, and they 
will be announced as soon as possible. 
In Class S there are now more than thirty 
yachts in these waters. Down the Lower Bay 
there are seven. The Manchester Bay Y. C. 
has a class of five. There are the twelve Jewel 
S class, which will be increased next season, 
and the Larchmont Y. C. is to have an S class, 
so that with the new boats there should be be¬ 
tween thirty and forty of these yachts. 
It has been suggested that the new challenge 
cup be offered for a series of three races to be 
sailed toward the end of the season on the 
Lower. Bay. The yacht scoring the most 
points in the series will win a leg on the cup, 
and it must be won by the same owner three 
times to become his property. The cup is a 
valuable one, worth more than $1,000, which is 
just about the price of a new boat, so that it is 
too. big a trophy to be offered for one season’s 
racing. The Crescent Club in the event of these 
conditions being adopted will give a prize each 
year to the winner of the series. 
Already there have been assurances that if 
the cup is offered for this class yacht, that race 
on the Sound during the season will go to the 
Lower Bay to compete for this rich prize. The 
conditions to govern this cup will be announced 
as soon as they are definitely agreed upon. 
Palm Beach Motor Boat Races. 
The sixth annual regatta of the Palm Beach 
Power Boat Association will be held on Lake 
Worth on March 15, 16, 17 and 18. Many 
special prizes are offered for the different class 
races, and as the plans are being announced 
early, it is expected that many of the crack 
racers and cruisers and some new boats will 
be taken to Florida, dhere will be seven races 
and the best will be the Palm Beach Grand Prize, 
worth $2,500 in. gold. An owner winning the 
race twice obtains possession of the prize, in 
addition to the entrance fees of $50 for each 
boat, and. 3 per cent, interest on the original 
prize, which increases its value $75 each year 
that it is in competition. Each year the winner 
will receive a suitable silver cup. 
The Palm Beach cup, valued at $500, is for 
the best speed record, and a third prize also 
worth $500, known as the Association cup is 
for yachts designed and built in Florida. 
Boats that cannot make 12 miles an hour will 
not be allowed to compete for these prizes. 
Entrants for the Grand Prize will be disquali¬ 
fied unless they reach the Royal Poinciana 
Basin on or before March 6, and these will 
have to show a.minimum speed of 20 miles an 
hour for the entire course. 
The seven races have been classified as fol¬ 
lows: . Class A, all boats; Class B, 32 feet 
waterline and under; Class C, 32 feet waterline 
and over, Class BC, all boats on load waterline 
measurement; Class D, 17 miles an hour and 
under; Class E, 17 Miles an hour and over - 
Class DE, all speed boats. 
To Improve Pawtuxet Cove. 
Yachtsmen and boat owners of Pawtuxet are 
after a part of the $500,000, which the voters of 
the State decided at the last election should go 
toward the improvement of Rhode Island har¬ 
bors. At the meeting of the Pawtuxet Motor 
Boat Club, Commodore Arthur E. Rhodes ap¬ 
pointed Rear-Commodore Raymond E. Crans¬ 
ton, Albert J. Drownsfield and W. H. Kimball 
as 3, committee to take steps toward obtaining 
a part of the fund for Pawtuxet cove. 
Several of the members expressed themselves 
emphatically upon the matter, and asserted that 
it is time that the cove should rid itself of its 
reputation as a mud hole. The list of yachts 
and motor.boats that have come to grief on the 
rocks or in the mud at the entrance to the 
cove, includes almost every boat attached to 
the club. 
The club decided to circulate petitions among 
the yachtsmen in the State, and to present 
them later to. the General Assembly. Repre¬ 
sentatives of the club will appear also at any 
legislative hearings on the subject which may 
be held by the committee appointed by the Gen¬ 
eral Assembly. 
Canal Through Point Judith. 
Surveys are almost completed on a canal 
from Point Judith to Little Narragansett Bay, 
through a series, of ponds along" the Rhode 
Island coast. 1 his route is designed primarily 
for the accommodation of power boats and 
other small craft, and would obviate such going 
around Point Judith in stormy weather. There 
is no certainty yet when dredging will begin, 
but the surveyors are of the opinion that it will 
probably be a matter of two or three years yet 
before the new waterway is built. 
