Larchmont Y. C. Race, July 21, 1897. 
I left New Rochelle in my little lift, spritsail 
skiff for a quiet day all by my "lonely” on the 
Sound, but had hardly got outside the “neck” 
when along came a friend of mine in a 20ft. 
skipjack and begged me to go along and help 
him race her at Larchmont. 
“A race! Gee! I’d leave home for a yacht 
race” So I got aboard his cat—the “Willie B” 
was her name—and we towed my little box 
astern. He had a friend with him, but he was 
a rank greenhorn on the water. 
When the preparatory gun for the first class 
went off we were eating our lunch with out boat 
tied to the club float. As there Was a half an 
hour yet before our class was to start we fin 
ished our meal, had a smoke, and then stood 
out for the line, anchoring my boat on the way. 
Minnetonka got away first a length on our 
lee bow with Sandbourn in the Dorothy about 
could sec in the water. One of the catboat’s 
men had jumped and caught hold of Norota’s 
bowsprit when the crash came, the others clung 
to the nearly-sunk boat until the tug Lucken- 
bach, the judges’ boat, came full speed to the 
scene and rescued them. 
A line was made fast around Dorothy’s mast 
and the tug towed her down off Larchmont 
where her mast pulled out and she sank stern 
first. 
We continued to d <3 good work close in under 
Milton Point with Minnetonka away off shore, 
when all of a sudden down came our mainsail, 
a fluttering wreck about our heads. The hook 
on the throat halliard block had snapped off. 
We lowered the sail and I took some marline 
and the block up to lash it fast, but a four inch 
mast with only one thin wire stay is a hard thing 
to climb when a wide, fiat catboat is slapping it 
about in a steep sea. I couldn’t hold on long- 
enough for my friend on deck to overhaul the 
mg to get it below the cockpit floor we started 
to investigate and were not long in discovering 
the cause of all the water. 
Her chine seam on the leeward, port side, had 
opened an eighth of an inch for three feet or 
more, and every time she went over a wave 
about half a bucket of water came squirting in. 
Then we were disgusted and gave up the race 
and ran in to Larchmont to bail out and land 
our sick friend. 
So that race, at one time a cinch, ended igno- 
miniously. 
A New Boat in (he Handicap Class. 
Vice-Commodore B. R. Stoddard, of the New 
Rochelle Y. C., has purchased the Bar Harbor 
25 ft. class sloop Pearless, built by Lawley, from 
Crowninshield’s designs. Her dimensions are, 
42ft. over all, 26ft. waterline, 10ft. beam and she 
carries 1,000 sq. ft. of sail. She has hollow 
spars and two suits of sails, one by Ratsey and 
one by Wilson & Silsbee. 
All the talent from the west end of Long 
Island Sound is invited to go to Newport on 
April 11 and help bring her to New York. What 
is left of her after that crowd gets through, Mr. 
Stoddard intends to race in the handicap class. 
The 1908 meet of the Inter-Lake Yachting As-, 
sociation will be held this summer at Put-in-Bay 
during the week of July 19-25. Two to three 
hundred dollars in prizes will be distributed 
among 21-footers, 18-footers. 16-footers, cat- 
boats, 18-raters, cruisers, power boats and 
dinghies. There will also be other special events 
such as games, fireworks, squadron sails, con¬ 
certs and banquets ending in a grand ball. A 
most enjoyable week of water sports is looked 
forward to. 
four lengths astern of us, all three funning off 
before a hard puffy nor'west breeze for a mark 
boat two miles out in the Sound. From there 
we had a broad reach to a mark off Milton 
Point and a beat home twice around. 
Minnetonka led to the first mark and there 
got in irons and refused to jibe or tack. They 
got way aft on her overhang, trying to make 
her pay off. Then one boy got on her bow and 
tried to paddle her bow around by kicking with 
his feet in the water. 
We rounded the mark boat about four minutes 
ahead of Dorothy and the two of us were half 
way to the second buoy before they got her out 
of irons, and then they had to get out an oar and 
row her bow around. We were too far away to 
see this, but Dorothy’s crew said they had to 
row her around. They could see them. 
It was blowing so hard it was all I could do 
to keep our old tub of a skipjack from broach 
ing-to, but when we rounded the second mark, 
and hauled on a wind for home, she stood up 
nobly, and we passed several of the cats in the 
class above us who had had to stop and reef. 
We were slicing our way to windward in fine 
style with Dorothy half a mile astern, and Min¬ 
netonka just rounding the mark about a mile 
astern, when I saw the 40-footer Norota coming 
like a steamboat, her lee rail clear under water 
on the starboard tack, and Dorothy heading to 
cross her bows very close on the port tack. 
T could see it was going to be close, and it 
certainly was. Norota’s bowsprit went into the 
cat’s sail, and the latter boat just rolled over 
'and disappeared under the sloop’s bows. 
Neither crew had seen each other. Everyone 
was hanging out over the weather side and no 
one watching to leeward. 
As Norota forged ahead there was no catboat 
in sight for a minute, and then I saw it come 
up under her stern, capsized. Norota put her 
helm hard up and wore around to the scene of 
disaster to pick up the two struggling men we 
halliard so it would reach the eyebolt in the 
mast. 
By going up again in a bowline on the peak 
halliard 1 lashed it fast and we made sail and 
went on. But in the meanwhile Minnetonka had 
put in a reef and was way ahead of us. To 
make matters worse .our greenhorn lay over the 
side so sea sick we tied his shoes on extra tight 
to prevent them going up with the rest. 
We were considering landing him on the 
judges’ boat and proceeding when my feet sud¬ 
denly became wet. Then we found the boat had 
more water in her than she slfould, so after bail- 
K K It 
Mr. M. S. Kattenhorn’s yawl Surprise has 
been in commission about two weeks. Her 
owner is one of the early birds who comes early 
and stays late. The little cutter I. O. was a close 
second in getting over to her moorings in Echo 
Bay, New Rochelle. 
« « « 
Commodore E. W. Clark, Corinthian Y. C., 
of Philadelphia, has had the fast racing sloop 
Irolita altered into a schooner at Ilerreshoff’s 
yard during the past winter. 
NOROTA RAMS THE DOROTHY. 
