The week has been one of intense excitement for those
who love yacht-racing, owing to the telegrams as to the race between the' Defender' and the' Valkyrie,' with which the papers have been filled. The first of the "best out of five" races to decide the possession of the America Cup, which the American yacht Defender ' was defending, and Lord Dunraven's yacht Val- kyrie' challenging, took place on Saturday, with the result that the English yacht was beaten by 8 min. 49 sec. On Tues- day the second race resulted in a victory for the Valkyrie;' but as she had fouled the ' Defender' at the start, a protest was lodged by the Americans, and the Committee decided that, under the rules governing the race, the Valkyrie' was to blame, and the race must be held to have been won by the injured vessel. This sounds an unreasonable decision—it would be far better in such cases to decree a new race—but there is no doubt that the Committee acted with perfect fairness, and merely applied the strict rules. On Wednesday both yachts started for the third race, but almost immediately the' Valkyrie' retired from the contest, and allowed the Defender ' to sail over the course and win without opposition. Lord Dunraven's reason for acting thus was the interference with the com- peting vessels caused by the action of crowds of excursion steamers which thronged the water, and made it impossible to race under proper conditions. It appears that Lord Dun- raven asked that the race should be run in more secluded waters, and when this was refused, he determined to abandon the race. The fiasco is to be regretted. It must be remem- bered, however, that there was no sort of intentional unfairness shown by the Americans. The excursion steamers injured both yachts equally.
