


 RORES Ty AND SRA Me 

[JuLy 6, 1907. 








Block Island Race. 
THE great small boat event of the year, the 
New York Athletic Club’s Block Island race, now 
a thing of the past, has furnished not only great 
sport for about one hundred and fifty small boat 
enthusiasts, but amusing for 
discussion and jokes. 
lhe honors once again go to Okee, one of the 
smallest beats in the fleet of thirty-one that 
started; a boat of 29ft. 5in. long on deck, owned 
by the Mahlstedt Bros., of New Rochelle, and 
sailed by one of them, John Mahlstedt, with 
Charles Mills and John Koebbe helping as crew. 
Twenty-two boats managed to finish by Monday 
night, but only fifteen finished by 7 o’clock: Sun- 
day night and were timed, as shown in the ac- 
companying table which all data as to 
oats’ length and times, etc. The start on this 
100 mile race was. off New Rochelle at 11:40 
A. M., one hour after the advertised time, owing 
o lack of wind. The thirty-one boats, of which 
no two were of the same model or size, made a 
most handsome sight, particularly as each one 
was fitted with small boats lashed an decks, ete., 
ike little ships. The largest being the 46ft. 6in. 
Bar Harbor Notos, owned by Mr. R. C. Mitchell, 
he smallest the 23ft. 1in. Exit, owned by L, D. 
luntington, Jr. .A little double ended keel craft, 
also some topics 
gives 
sloop rigged, with her sides carried up, and 
umbling home so her deck was flush fore and 
aft, with a small steering well aft, that had been 
made watertight for this race and a companion 
slide and small skylight added. Omoo, sailed by 





hil Howard and his wife, was the next smallest. 
. O.,. Mr. Marsland’s little .sea going cutter; 
Surprise, Mr. Kattenhorn’s yawl; the well known 
cutter »Mopsa, Mr. W. Sullivan’s craft, Tamer- 
ane, the yawl that won the Bermuda race last 
year, now owned by D. Bacon, and Little Peter, 
owned by Mr. F.. M. Weeks, were among the 
well known and easily recognized ones. 
Bobtail—recently purchased by Robt. Monks, 
had been put over so recently for this race she 
had not yet swelled up—was there, Vinet Trois. 
Mr. Brown's new Gielow Class Q racer; Tanya, 
Geo, Granberry; Marguerite, W. F. Clark. and 
Naiad, Dr. Palmer, were three old time foes in 
the handicap class. Nutmeg, owned by Mr. A. 
C. Jones, came down from Boston to go in this 
race with her big powerful flat hull, long shank- 
ended gaff and boom sticking Out beyond her 
mainsail with a sort of studding sail that could 
be hoisted in fair winds, looked dangerous. 
Busy Bee, Mr. R. S. Cuthbert’s raceabout, with 
a bulkhead built across to form a cabin, came 
in for her shore of gibes as the fleet maneuvered 
about shouting to old time a¢quaintances. Keno- 
sha’s Nantucket skipper had a head gear that 
probably accounted for her looping the loop 
around Block Island, and Rebel’s pilot wore a 
canvas tobacco pouch like a stone mason’s apron 
that proclaimed. him the high muck-a-muck of 
the order of the fig leaf 
At 11:40 a light southeast breeze was blow- 
ing and the Sound was smooth as a mill pond 
When the gun sounded Exit was but a second 
or two after it in crossing the line on the star- 
board tack with Tanya so close they were held 
apart by the crews putting their feet against 
Exit’s sides \stern of these two a bunch of 
about four boats were good naturedly rubbing 
sides, Naiad, Monsoon and others. There were 
foo many to enumerate how each one crossed: 
in fact, it was so close no one could keep track 
of so many : 
Three boats stood over under the New York 
shore, but the body of the fleet stood for Long 
Island, most of them fetched into Hempstead 
Harbor. The leaders, in a separate group, com- 
posed of Bobtail, Notos, Busy Bee. Nutmeg, 
Tanya and Tamerlane beat up direct for Matini- 
cock Point and passed it in the order named, 
By standing off shore Tanya headed off all 
but Bobtail and Notos, Busy Bee getting aground 
for a few moments off Center Island in hugging 
the beach too close. Then the wind backed to 
the southward and came out quite fresh. Bal- 
loon jibs were set and those boats with long legs 
began to demonstrate how they could reach. ‘The 
fleet of yachts racing off Oyster Bay in the 
Seawanhaka regatta were passed and made a 
most beautiful sight. 
Nutmeg and Vinet Trois had a luffine match 
about here in which the beaneaters won out. 
lamerlane came bowling along under the beach 
cutting off the buoys, which all the others kept 
outside of, and by so doing gained, as she kept 
ont of this tide, held the harder wind close into 
the beach, and sailed a shorter distance; but 
this act, unconsciously done as it: was, cost het 
all chance of the prize. Marguerite’s balloon 
ib came down by the run and up to evening 
this breeze held good. Then it hauled free and 
died out during the night. Spinnakers were set, 
taken in, and reset just tor crew practice. 
All night long it was a wind hunting game 

for those who, following the last of the ebb in 
the middle of: the Sound, found themselves be- 
calmed with a head tide to buck. Here was 
where the little Okee got in her fine work, for 
while most of the boats were becalmed she 
hugged the Long Island beach close, kept out 
of the tide,,and got into a ribbon of air that 
makes off the Long Island shore, but does not 
blow a quarter of a mile off it. 
Marguerite tried the north shore, but gave up 
and ran into Stamford. Alyce, that had been 
orking the north shore with Monsoon and 
Sagola, cut across to the Long Island shore. 
Monsoon. giving up off Horton’s Point, as it be- 
‘amme evident to her crew, they would be unable 
to get to business Monday if they kept on in 
such calm weather. Sunday morning found Bob- 
tail leading Notos, then Vingt Trois, Tamer- 
lane and Okee. Tanya led the second division 
with Little Peter half a mile astern out in the 
Sound, while Mopsa, Saladin, I. O., Naiad, 
\lyce, Busy Bee and Dipper worked the beach 
just in sight of them astern. Little Peter got 
a breath of air and ran in for the beach, but 
The result was when 

anya could not make it. 
a dark streak of water came off the shore Little 
Peter's rounded out in the sun and away 
she romped to disappear ahead before Panya 
could get near shore. The fleet astern also came 
up rapidly. Then fortune smiled on Tanya. The 
wind struck in northeast and she was then a 
mile to windward of the pursuing fleet. It 
shifted back to the south again until off Hotton’s 
Point. She was romping along with a strong 
quartering wind and ballooner set. 
To show how fickle the wind was on this 
record slow trip, when Horton’s Point was 
reached the wind appeared to be blowing harder 
just ahead, yet when Tanya ran into it her bal- 
loon jib came back with a resounding slap against 
the mast and then the wind was found to be 
blowing directly against the former wind. Sheets 
were trimmed in, working jib set. and as Plim 
Gut came into sight there was Little Peter be- 
calmed with the ocean beyond dark blue with a 
sails 
strong southwest breeze roughing it mp. Tanya 
ran up to within a half mile of Little Peter, 
then the latter got into the breeze, and when 
Tanya finally drifted through the calm belt <nd 
got the true sea breeze, Little Peter was a dot 
of white on the eastern horizon. 
It was running ebb, and with fair tide and 
lifted sheets Tanya was going about seven miles 
an hour. About half way across, the sunlight 
shinning on the sand bluffs of Block Island, could 
just be seen ahead, and then down came the 
fog, blowing in in great clouds of steam from 
seaward and shutting out everything from sight. 
Thicker and thicker grew the fog. Tanya raced 
alon¢ with balloon jib and outside that her work- 
ing jib: boomed out on the end of her spinnaker 



























































































































































boom. Notos made the island first at 2:29:33 
P. M., then came Bobtail at 2:32:05, Vingt Trois 
at 3:44:40, led Tamerlane by about a minute, 
then came Okee at 4:06:50, Little Peter at 
4:10:16, Tanya at 4:47:03, Nutmeg at 4:54:55. 
Naiad at 5:29:47, and so on as shown in the 
table until Sagola, the last to get in that night, 
arrived at 7:04:38. These boats made the island 
all right, some because they got a sight of it 
before the fog shut it out. Others because they 
could make out the boats leading them, but the 
poor chaps that had no other gitide but a com- 
pass, a small yacht hard to hold true on a course, 
a tide setting them to windward or leeward, and 
possibly some leeway or weather grip to allow 
for, were less fortunate. 
Exit’s first sight of the island was a fish net 
just south of the breakwater where she anchored 
until morning. Grace II. found the island by 
going aground. I. O. ran through a choppy patch 
of water, then struck a calm spot and thinking 
it the lee of the island anchored in the dense fog 
all night. Next morning a local fisherman in an 
auxiliary came along and towed them in. 
Kenosha like I. O. went past the southerly end 
of the island, then heard the horn.and hauled 
to the’ north, anchoring around on the opposite 
side of the island off east harbor. . 
Hazel gave up trying to make the igland and 
bore away north, anchoring off Watch Hill. 
Rebel, with the chairman of the race commit- 
tee aboard, came through the race at 4.30 P. M. 
on Sunday. Not finding land when twenty-eight 
miles had been logged they circled around to the 
northward until at 8.15 P. M. when: nothing hav- 
ing been sighted they anchored. Point Judith 
fog horn was heard next morning, they having 
dragged all night, and a bit of sunlight gave 
them a sight of the bluffs, so they finally made 
the island. : 
As a race it demonstrated that anyone was 
liable to win it. The wind was blowing in dif- 
ferent directions all over the Sound, but the 
men who hug Long Island beach in summer and 
New York beach in winter generally get the 
best of it as Okee did. 
Tue three American sonder ‘boats are now 
well on their way to Germany where they are ex- 
pected to arrive about July 15 at Kiel. 
The beats are: Spokane,’owned by F. Lewis 
Clark, of Spokane, Wash., vice-com. of the East- 
ern Y, C.; built in 1906 from designs by Clinton 
H. Crane, of New York; Chewink VIII., owned 
by F. G. Macomber, Jr., Corinthian Y. C.: built 
in 1907 from designs by Small Brothers, Bos- 
ton; Marblehead, owned by William H. Joyce 
and Sumner H. Foster, Boston Y. C.: built in 
1907 from designs by B. B. Crowninshield. 
Spokane is the heavy weather representative. 
Chewink is a fast all around performer And 
Marblehead is best for light weather. 
The crews, all amaters, three men to a boat, 
will follow their craft to Germany by a fast liner 
and will be at Kiel to take them in hand on their 
arrival. They ‘will thus have about a month in 
which to try them ont on the Kiel courses, be- 
fore the international match, which will begin 
Aug. 15. 
This will be none too long, as the two new 
boats of the team were scarcely tried in actual 
racing here before the trials off Marblehead re- 
sulting in their selection. Their owners expect 
to get much more speed out of’ them than they 
then showed. Spokane, on the other hand. being 
in her second season, ‘has “found herself,” and 
is in every way fit. 
Study of the German courses, tides and weather 
will form a very serious part of the preparatory 
work of the American crews at Kiel. The con- 
ditions differ materially from those in which the 
boats have hitherto sailed off Marblehead. 



