' Shamrock ' and Captain Sycamore On Monday at Gosport
Sir Thomas Lipton's fifth 'Shamrock,' to race for the ' America's ' Cup, was launched. It was nearly eighty years ago that the American schooner ' America ' astounded everybody at Cowes by her speed, and ever since then British yachts have been failing to win the cup back from her. Under the conditions of the race, however, the challengers had to cross the Atlantic under their own sail, whereas the American defenders had not to be designed partly for an ocean passage. At last this rule has been altered. The American yachts henceforth. must satisfy Lloyd's rules. If pertinacity and unruffled good humour deserve success, Sir Thomas Lipton will win this time. Everyone who was present at the launch must have thought sadly of the skipper of the earlier' Shamrocks,' Captain Sycamore, who was buried that day. In the common judgment he was the greatest of all British racing skippers. His nerve never failed and his resourcefulness was wonderful. His one fault, was that occasionally he would carry on a duel with some particular yacht in a race so far as to luff her—and himself-,right off the course, thus breaking the yachtsman's golden rule that the right course is the shortest possible to the mark.
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