Sport: Yachts & Yachtsmen

(See front cover)

Admonished through calm foggy days by a soft choir of foghorns, harbor whistles and bell buoys; winked at on clear evenings by shore-lights and lighthouses, 50 of the finest U.S. sailing ships set out last fortnight on the annual cruise of the New York Yacht Club, principal U.S. yachting event of any summer when there is no racing for the America's Cup. Riding at anchor in Newport before the first day's run was Weetamoe, which Frederick H. Prince of Boston had purchased from the members of the Weetamoe Syndicate and which had won three races the week before the cruise. Riding near was Resolute, which defended the America's Cup in 1920, and Gerard B. Lambert's Vanitie, Resolute's rival in the 1920 trials. There were half a dozen Class M sloops—Walter Keith Shaw's Andiamo, sluggish in races the week before the cruise till her captain removed from her keel 100 ft. of lobster line and two lobster pots; Harold Vanderbilt's Prestige, Floyd Leslie Carlisle's Avatar, and Commodore of the New York Yacht Club Winthrop Williams Aldrich's Valiant, all with shiny new duralumin masts; and Chandler Hovey's wooden-masted Istalena.* There were four 40-footers, five 10-metre boats, two Seawanhaka schooners, and six schooners in a special cruising class never before included on a New York Yacht Club cruise.

Observers noted that though the racing fleet was as numerous as usual the accompanying fleet was smaller than it has been for 30 years. A few big auxiliaries—Cornelius Crane's Illyria, Gerard Lambert's three-master Atlantic, Floyd Leslie Carlisle's Michabo—were ready to follow the races, but of the customary squadron of large steam yachts there were only two: Hiram Edward Manville's Hi-Esmaro and George Fisher Baker's Viking. On board the Viking, because his own flagship Valiant was too small. Commodore Aldrich held a meeting of all captains the night before the cruise began.

Weetamoe beat Vanitie and Resolute on the first day's run from Brenton's Cove Light Ship to West Chop on Martha's Vineyard. Andiamo beat the other M-boats, when Prestige, after leading half the way, dropped back to finish last in her class. The second day was so foggy the race committee considered calling off the longest leg of the cruise, 73 miles around Cape Cod to Provincetown. When the fog finally lifted, there was almost no wind; the boats drifted along the rough elbow of the Cape till dark. Word came that Michabo had run aground on Shovelful Shoal off the upper tip of Long Island; then that H.G. Leslie's 40-footer Typhoon, mistaking the headlights of cars for harbor lights, had run aground on the ocean shore across the Cape from Provincetown. Vanitie, Valiant and many another were towed into Provincetown harbor; the rest, tacking slowly against a light head wind, made port late that night or the next day, when no races were scheduled.