Table Top for Centreboard Brought "Gorilla" In: Schooner Days CCCIX (309)

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Some Red Hot Contests For Prince of Wales Cup When Schooners' Sails Speckled The Lake Horizon

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There is a lot of lively narrative in the "Annals of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club" just issued and covering eighty-five years of sailing.

Saturday's heavy blow forced the club to postpone its cruising race to Oakville, because there was so big a sea running in each gap that a sailing yacht could not get out. It recalls the Prince of Wales Cup race of 1865, mentioned in the new book, where the yachts were storm-tossed in the lake all night, unable to enter port. A vigorous picture of the old iron Rivet and Mr. G. H. Wyatt's Arrow in this gale enlivens the record. Each was at this time schooner rigged, and they rode out the storm stripped to bare poles or snugged to jib and mainsail with both masts bending under the strain. The result of the race was long in dispute, on the point of how the course was covered. It was a stiff order, even without the gale development, for the racers had to go to Port Dalhousie and back, and the entrance to Toronto Harbor was then by the old Western Gap, a narrow buoyed channel a thousand feet north of the present protected one. Some of the fleet went into Port Dalhousie and stayed there and then was probably the question of how the Port Dalhousie buoy was rounded, if it stayed in position. The Arrow was declared the winner.

This race broke the string of victories of the Gorilla of Cobourg, which had won the Prince of Wales Cup each time in the three preceding races for it. Gorilla was a centreboard sloop, as ugly as her name, owned by R. Standley, and usually painted green. She had a long racing career. These same "Annals" also tell of her struggle to regain the Prince of Wales Cup later, in another race strenuous enough to send one of the contestants back in a sinking condition. The book says:

The Prince of Wales Cup race of 1870 was against a piping easterly breeze and tumbling sea, on Sept. 7th. The start was at 9.40 a.m., the yachts lying at their moorings with headsails down until the crack of the gun. The contestants were Mr. George Eadie's new cutter-rigged centreboarder Ida, which was first away; Commodore Hodder's schooner Geraldine, with the Cobourg sloop Gorilla hard on her heels, followed by Mr. J. H. G. Hagarty's schooner Kestrel, sailed by Mr. H. J. Grasett, and Mr. B. R. Clarkson's cutter Glance and the little 6-ton cutter, Stella, owned by Mr. H. Moffat. The course was to Niagara—a tight jam on the port tack after leaving; the shelter of the island.

Running out of the gap, which was then merely a channel through the sandbar, Gorilla tried to edge past Geraldine, and in so doing, took the ground. Geraldine was so close that she could not clear her, and the two bumped, bow and bow, the schooner shooting on and leaving the sloop pounding on the bar. As soon as Gorilla lifted off the shoal she "went ahead like a steamboat," according to the account of the Toronto Globe, and passed all the fleet but Ida. The latter had set her gafftopsail and was leaping over the high-rolling seas. The rest of the fleet, with the exception of Gorilla, were under lowers.

Ida was well to windward, but could not carry her press of sail, and had to round up to take in her gafftopsail, tie a reef in her mainsail, and shift to her second jib. Gorilla was now coming up fast, when in a roll of the sea her centreboard split, and part of it floated in her wake. Possibly it had been damaged in grounding. Nothing daunted, Capt. Donovan of Cobourg unscrewed one of the leaves of the cabin table from its hinges and jammed it down the centreboard box.

So the race went on, Ida holding a position far out to windward, but slipping slowly astern, and Gorilla leading the fleet. In mid lake the two leaders had run the other contestants out of sight. Glance had not been able to stand the pounding and was flying distress signals, with the water over her cabin floor. Kestrel ran down to her assistance and, shortening sail, stood by her while both yachts squared away for Port Dalhousie, which was well under their lee. Seven miles from Niagara the sea was so high that Gorilla's mainboom was dragging in the water, and she had to top it up and take in her gafftopsail. Two miles back on Gorilla's weather quarter Ida toiled along, alternately flung almost clear of the wave tops and buried to her cabin roof in the troughs. Thinking herself too far to the eastward she eased her sheets and came flying down, with the wind three points free; but her skipper had misjudged the scend of the seas and she sagged off to leeward, across Gorilla's wake, and she had to go in stays twice before she could reach the stake-boat. Gorilla beat her to it by half a mile, the time taken by Capt. Royatt, who acted as judge, being:

Capt. Royatt declared Ida the winner by 1 minute and 50 seconds, corrected time, Gorilla having to make her allowance on account of the difference in tonnage. Gorilla measured 27 or 28 tons to Ida's 15.

The decision aroused a storm of protest, for Gorilla and Ida were the keenest rivals. Gorilla claimed that the time was incorrectly taken, and that she had a larger margin than 7 minutes and 40 seconds, but the decision stood, and she had to console herself with a $50 cup which was offered as second prize.

The Prince of Wales Cup was at this time generally spoken of as the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, and was the most desirable prize that could be offered in an open regatta, bringing entries from ports up and down the lake—as the original Prince of Wales regatta of 1860 had done.

Rivalry between Gorilla and Ida amounted almost to bitterness, this being the second time this season that the Ida had humbled the pride of Cobourg. On August 17th, 1870, the pair had battled all day off Cobourg, in a race which started at 7.20 a.m. The Ida was then fresh from Montreal, and was sailed by the renowned Capt. Alex. Cuthbert and a crew of Cobourg yachtsmen. Gorilla, on the other hand, was sailed by yachtsmen from Toronto, Kingston, and other places, all of them "outsiders" and all said to be professionals with the exception of the skipper, Capt. Donovan. It was blowing very hard, so much so that two deep-draught spectator yachts stayed in harbor all day. Ida sprang her boom and carried away her top-mast, but she seemed to sail all the faster with the absence of her tophamper, and won the race by 27 minutes. Capt. Cuthbert declared with pride that Cobourg men had beaten the Cobourg boat.

Gorilla had, up to this time, enjoyed a reputation of invincibility. Members of the Toronto Rowing Club were heavy backers of her in this Cobourg match, and even after its very conclusive result they expressed themselves as desirous of pitting her against the Ida or any other yacht on fresh water, for a considerable sum. Yacht racing was not at this time free from the taint of betting.

The following letter from the Globe of Sept. 10th, 1870, gives a glimpse of the Prince of Wales Cup race from the viewpoint of a well known member of the club who took part in it—none other than Lt.-Col., H. J. Grasett, later chief constable of Toronto:

"Sir,—Will you kindly allow me to correct an error in your account of the race for the Prince of Wales Cup which appeared in your issue of Sept. 8th, in which it was stated that the yacht Kestrel met with some mishap compelling her to bear away for Port Dalhousie, the Glance accompanying her for the purpose of rendering any assistance that might be required? Now the facts are as follows:

"About 3.30 p.m. we observed the Glance making signals of distress, and on approaching her we found that she was leaking badly and her crew could with difficulty keep her afloat with constant bailing. The Glance, finding in her sinking condition it would be impossible to continue her course for Niagara, bore away for Port Dalhousie, signaling the Kestrel to follow, which she did with reduced sail, in order to keep as close as possible to that craft.

"By this contretemps we were prevented from taking any further share in the race. At the time of the accident the Kestrel was under all lower plain canvas and making excellent weather of it, proving herself, as she always has done, a staunch and weatherly vessel.

"Hoping you will find space in your valuable columns for this letter, which may, it is hoped, dispel the false impressions regarding the seaworthiness of the Kestrel, which your account was calculated to convey.

(Signed) "H. J. GRASETT,

"Capt. Yacht Kestrel."

It should be noted that in these days—and indeed for a quarter of a century longer—the term "captain" was generally used for the commander of a yacht, whether professional or amateur. The modern "skipper" was promoted, so to speak, from fishermen and coasters to Corinthian command of yachts, towards the close of the nineteenth century. Which recalls the true story that when the Mayor of Toronto made the civic address of welcome to Aelmilius Jarvis, after the winning of the Canada's Cup, his Worship, in a panic over the proper title to use amongong captains, commodores and macing skippers, gulped hard and commenced with: "Skippodore Jarvis on behalf"—etc.

"THE LITTLE 6-TON CUTTER STELLA OWNED BY MR. H. MOFFAT," in the Prince of Wales Cup Race of 1870—from a portrait in Annals of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club.

THE KESTREL, OF WHICH THE LATE CHIEF CONSTABLE GRASETT WAS "CAPTAIN," dropped out to the rescue of the sinking Glance—from a portrait in Annals of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club

THE "RIVET" (LEFT) AND THE "ARROW" (RIGHT) EXCHANGE SIGNALS IN THE GALE OF 1865- from an old painting reproduced in "ANNALS OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN YACHT CLUB."