1940: Yachting

New Yachts.

Yacht building in the larger classes slacked off in 1940, Robert W. Johnson's yawl Good News being the largest cruiser-racer to be commissioned during the year. She lost her maiden race, that from Miami to Nassau, to William LaBrot's Stormy Weather in February but she set a new record for the course in winning the St. Petersburg-Havana Race the next month, averaging 7.62 knots for the 284 nautical miles.

Yacht Races in North America.

Owing to the European War, the classic race to Bermuda, run by the Cruising Club of America, was cancelled and a race from Block Island, around Nantucket Lightship, thence to Mt. Desert Rock and finishing at Gloucester, was substituted. The 455-mile course was sailed in wet, cold and fog and Henry C. Taylor's yawl Baruna, winner of the 1938 Bermuda Race, was the winner. The cutter Blitzen, which won the 1939 Honolulu Race and is now owned by James H. Grove, was second. Class B honors went to Robert F. deCoppet's new cutter Coquette, with Robert H. Moore's Perroquet second. Perroquet later won the Bayside-Block Island contest.

The Stamford Yacht Club's Vineyard Race, run over the Labor Day week-end, brought out a large fleet and first place went to the husky cruising ketch Soerabaja, owned by Rudolph Loewenstein, with second place going to E. L. Raymond, Jr.'s, Chanteyman. Arthur W. Page's Rampage II took first in Class A with Perroquet second.

Perhaps the outstanding yacht of the year was Frank C. Paine's Gypsy, which cleaned up in a number of squadron runs on the cruises of the American and the New York Yacht Clubs and won the Eastern Yacht Club's race from New London to Marblehead in June.

Harold S. Vanderbilt's Twelve-Metre Vim also did well on these club cruises, winning a number of daily runs and capturing the King's Cup and the Astor Cup though losing the Long Island Sound Y.R.A. honors for the season to F. D. Bedford's Nyala by a narrow margin.

The Stars sailed their international championship races at San Diego, the title going to Rambunctious II, owned and sailed by James and Gordon Cowie. K. B. Millet's Viking won the Myrick Trophy and the women's team from the American Yacht Club took the Mrs. Charles Francis Adams Cup. The national junior championship title was taken by a crew skippered by Robert Coulson, of the Eastern Yacht Club, and the Williams College crew, Robert N. Bavier, Jr., and A. J. Santry, Jr., skippers, won the McMillan Trophy and the intercollegiate honors. Gardner Cox and Trevor Pardee, of Princeton, were the winners in the intercollegiate dinghy contest. C. S. Ogilvy took the Atlantic Coast title with his Star Spirit. C. S. Somervill won the national title in the Comet Class and Darby Metcalf in the Snipes.

On the Great Lakes, in the Mackinac Race from Chicago, Edward B. Lumbard repeated his 1939 victory in Bangalore, built in 1930, with the new Babson-Moller yawl Tahuna close astern. C. J. Peterson's sloop Batavia was first in Class A and third in the fleet. James R. Lowe's big yawl Manitou won the race from Port Huron to Mackinac in fast time with David William's Sonata second. Rainbow IV, P. C. Williamson, won in the cruising class.

On Lake Ontario, the Freeman Cup went to W. L. Ballantine's Eight-Metre Vision, of Toronto, which also took the Rochester Cup. A large fleet gathered on Lake Mendota off Madison, Wis., for the Inland Lakes meet. Sea Fox, J. S. Pillsbury, Jr., won in Class A; the Hannaford Brothers in Class E, with Lady Luck III; while the Wagners, in Skip-It-Too, won their third Class C championship from a fleet of 80.

Motor-Boat Racing.

Motor boat racing during the year was disappointing in the large boats, the classic Gold Cup being won at Northport, L. I., by Sidney Allen's Hotsy Totsy III in slow time after Notre Dame, My Sin and Gray Goose III had broken down. A week later, at the National Sweepstakes at Red Bank, N. J., Herbert Mendelson's Notre Dame set new lap and heat records but went out with a broken shaft and the prize was awarded to Jack Cooper's '225' Tops III. At the President's Cup Regatta at Washington, D. C., Notre Dame won the three heats over a rough course which cut down speed somewhat. When she was back in her home of Detroit, she hung up a record of 100.987 miles per hour over the measured mile.

In the 225-cubic-inch Class, Thomas Chatfield's latest Viper won the championship for the season and also the John Charles Thomas Trophy. George Schrafft's Chrissie IV and Jack Cooper's Tops III were well up in class competition. Henry Davis won in the 135 Class with his Eight Ball III and J. D. McIntyre in the '91's' with Happy Warrior III.

The Albany-New York Marathon was won by Clayton Bishop. Many records were set by the outboard during the year. The George H. Townsend Medal, the national high point trophy, was again won by Fred Jacoby, Jr.