Off Newport

On sultry grey days without sun and days when light airs rolled the sea into innumerable gay reflections of summer, the America's Cup yachts sailed their first official trials off Newport, R. I. On Vincent Astor's Nourmahal the skippers met and sat around a table while Commodore Astor drew four slips of paper out of a hat, each with the name of a yacht on it. It had been decided that yacht A would race B the first day, and C the second, D the third, with the order changing correspondingly for the other boats in each race. Three times they raced to a mark and back, then began a new series of three races on a triangular course to test reaching.

It was a surprising series in many ways --one that made it hard for the yachtsmen peering through glasses from the committee boat to tell which contender they liked best. In the windward and leeward tests, Enterprise was at its best in a light breeze, swift into the wind but slow off it. In calm weather on the third day of racing she beat Whirlwind nicely, but her victory over Yankee in the fourth race did not mean much as Yankee's jib ripped open on the second leg. The men on the committee boat did not see the jib tear and were surprised when a newsman told them about it. Weetamoe was masterfully sailed by George Nichols--so well sailed that she seemed the best boat in any situation so long as there was wind enough to give her hull the headway it needed. She beat each of her rivals on the windward and leeward course and then won the first race on the reaching course. Racing Enterprise next day, Weetamoe blew out the duralumin headboard of her mainsail in a 17-mi. breeze, had to withdraw. Skipper Vanderbilt of Enterprise put about likewise, refused the hollow victory. Designer W. Starling Burgess went aloft in a bo'sun's chair to make sure Enterprise's rigging was shipshape. The halyard fouled and he was stuck at the masthead, red whiskers blowing in the breeze, for more than an hour. In the last race of the week, Enterprise was the only contender to finish within the time limit, again proving her ability to move without wind.

Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of the Navy, usually in a brown sweater, white trousers, a canvas hat, a blue shirt with a red necktie, made Yankee look smart beating Enterprise the first day. Yankee carried a single big jib and jib topsail in place of her usual double head rig. Her weakness with this rig was that she sagged off badly to leeward. Whirlwind's trouble was an addiction to bad starts. On the second day, racing Yankee, Skipper Paul Hammond on Whirlwind left the straight course and veered toward shore looking for a wind, found one, beat Secretary Adams in by nearly eight minutes.

The races continued while committeemen argued about the boats, not at all sure yet which they would pick to race Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock V on Sept. 13.

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