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New Cup Defender

New Cup Defender image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
May
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Some Features of the Herreshoffs' Latest Creation 

The latest candidate for cup defense honors is being rushed to completion in the yards of the Herreshoffs, at Bristol, R. I., for launching April 15, says the New York World. The latest information shows that the boat is already in frame, that she is a marvel of beauty in regard to lines and construction, that while her frames and ribs are heavier than usual the shell is lighter, that the frames of nickel steel are stronger than in any other racing boat the Herreshoffs have built, that the shell is the lightest on record except that of the old Defender and that her mast of nickel steep plates is the strongest spar that the Herreshoffs have ever turned out. 

One of the most notable features about her is the generous use of Tobin bronze. This strenuous metal is used for the underbody of the boat. It entirely covers the lead for the keel and also the sheathing for the craft far above the waterline. 

So far as the mast is concerned the details are explicit. What the engine is to a steamboat the mast is to a sailing yacht. In this instance the mast itself seems so strongly imbedded in the hull of the ship that it resembles the roots of an oak tree. It is 110 feet from stem to head. It is made of plates of nickel steel 7.40 inch thick. Its diameter is 26 inches. It is strengthened by ten bulb angled stiffeners made of solid nickel steel 2 1/2 inches by 2 inches, the whole making a cylindrical tube that a man of moderate girth measurement could crawl through. 

It is the strongest spar ever turned out by the Herreshoffs. It must be interesting to the mathematicians who measure sail areas to know the distance from the center of the mast to the stern is 50 feet, that the distance from the center of the mast to the topsail is 80 feet 4 inches. The boom of the new craft is 114 feet long, four feet longer than Columbia's. It is strength ended by ten flanges plates to stiffen it. Grant speed is being made in the construction of the yacht. The riveters are only three days behind the layout, so that the hull will be completed by the first week in April. There is also one gang on the inside riveting up the mast step. The men are rushing things and working harder than they ever worked before.