Word: boatful
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...launching last week of the Navy's second atomic submarine at Groton, Conn., 20,000 guests crowded into the Electric Boat shipyard and a Congressman's lady, Mrs. W. Sterling Cole of Bath, N.Y. cried, "I christen thee Seawolf.* Before she could swing the traditional champagne bottle, the sleek, 3,000-ton sub began sliding down the ways. To superstitious seamen, a botched christening means bad luck, but Elizabeth Cole made a last-second pitch, the twelve-ounce bottle of California champagne shattered, and bubbles splashed satisfactorily over the Seawolf's beflagged...
...carried a spinnaker all the way-a tricky test for her helmsmen. They had to fight the wheel so hard to keep the big-bellied sail full that sometimes, with two men working at once, they could stand only 15-minute "shotgun" watches without relief. On corrected time, no boat seemed to have a chance to catch the Constellation, and Dutch Captain Frank Hooykaas did a happy jig of victory...
This was a sport for navigator types-more akin to chess than racing-and in the next day's race, speed alone would count for nothing. Only the official observer on each boat would carry a watch; only he would be able to record just how close his skipper was keeping to his estimates. If all went well, if navigational skill was equal to predicted-log equations, every boat would churn past the finish line at Block Island at exactly 7 p.m. The time-measured margin of error (including the error at each control point) would determine the winner...
Porpoises played off the port beam of Hurricane III on the first leg. Under the muggy mist there was no breeze, and beyond Execution Rocks the boat passed no buoys where Skipper Du Mont could check for the telltale ripples that would help him estimate the tide. Still, he had a feeling he was moving too fast; he reduced engine speed as he pulled up to the first marker. Then the breeze freshened...
Best of Ten. Off Plum Island, Skipper Du Mont got the kind of break no sailor can guess in advance: he came upon a boat in distress. The ketch Rolling Stone, out of Red Bank, N.J., was rolling in the easy swell, her ensign flying upside down from the mizzenmast. She had lost her rudder shaft. Under the rules, no matter how much time Dr. Du Mont lost going to her aid, he would get a perfect score for leg 6. Within minutes, the Coast Guard had been called by radio, and Hurricane III was back on course...