Contenders for Defender

As 50-odd spectator boats rocked in the mildly choppy seas off Newport's Brenton Reef Lightship one morning last week, four sleek twelve-meters began the first of a series of races. Eight weeks from now, the winner will be named to defend the America's Cup against British challenger Sceptre (TIME, July 7).

Three of the four yachts were newly born, built especially for this event. Each was the product of minute designing and craftsmanship. The favorite: white-hulled Columbia, created by Olin Stephens, yachting's most successful designer in the last 20 years. Columbia was skippered by dashing Car and Yacht Racer Briggs Cunningham (TIME Cover, April 26, 1954), equipped with Ratsey sails made of a special new synthetic and financed by a New York Yacht Club syndicate headed by Manhattan Financier Henry Sears.

Mahogany-varnished Easterner was soon labeled the hard-luck ship. While being hauled, she fell out of her cradle, got badly scratched. In her first race, her winches fouled up, and she was forced to quit. Designed by C. Raymond Hunt, Easterner is called "a family boat" by her owner, Boston Banker Chandler Hovey, who has tried three times before to produce a Cup defender (with Yankee in 1930 and 1934, with Rainbow in 1937). She will be skippered by his sons Charles and Chandler Jr.

The light blue Weatherly, whose skipper, Arthur Knapp Jr., has sailed everything from dinghies to ocean cruisers, was designed by Philip Rhodes for a syndicate headed by New Jersey Shipping Executive Henry D. Mercer. With an experienced but highly individualistic crew, she becomes the unknown factor in the America's Cup trials.

But in the pairings for the first trial, the winner was none of the spanking new beauties but an outsider--the veteran, refurbished Vim. Designed by Olin Stephens 19 years ago, Vim is another family affair. Bought by New York Businessman John Matthews back in 1951 and fitted out for cruising, Vim had been refurbished and reconditioned for a try at the Defender trials. Young (24) Donald Matthews brashly matched tactics with Briggs Cunningham, beat him to the starting line, and brought Vim home a whole minute ahead of Columbia. The second race petered out in a slatting calm. But before the committee called the whole thing off, Weatherly had shown itself a ghoster to be reckoned with, leading Vim by an estimated five minutes.

The new boats were still far from tuned up, and much tinkering and jockeying still lay ahead before the Defender was chosen. These early races, explained one New York Yacht Club member, were "just light sparring or shadowboxing."

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