Word: vim
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...crew mistakes, and her victories largely came from her built-in speed. Sleek and sturdy, white-hulled Columbia was clearly the fastest boat throughout the elimination trials to pick a defender for the America's Cup. Last week she won two of three races from 19-year-old Vim, her final opponent, and the selection committee judged Columbia the gem of the ocean, fit to meet Britain's Sceptre this weekend in the start of the four-out-of-seven series that will be raced alternately over triangular and windward-leeward courses ten miles off Newport...
Heavy Weather. As the designer of the 19-year-old Vim, until this summer the finest 12-meter yacht in the world, Stephens had a good head start when he settled down last winter to create the 12-meter Columbia. The new boat posed special problems. In the summer, when the trials would be run, the breezes off Newport can be as soft as a whisper, but in September, cup race time, freshening winds often turn the waters into a white-capped obstacle course...
...design Stephens finally picked, after long sessions with seven models in the testing tanks at Hoboken's Stevens Institute of Technology, shows he had his weather eye cocked more on September than on summer. "Columbia differs from Vim only in a matter of inches," says he. But inches are as vital to a racing hull as to a fashion model. Columbia's bow sweeps gracefully into a full-bodied hull-a shape that helps her go swiftly to windward against a running sea. Stephens' calculations show that Columbia should do her best in the heavy weather that...
Fancy Free. In the opening race of their climactic series, Mosbacher put Vim across the starting line ahead of Columbia -but to leeward. Shields merely tacked to get free air, and walked away from Vim to finish with the wide lead of 4 min. i sec. Next day, before the gun, Mosbacher got astern of Columbia as Shields maneuvered toward the starting line. Both boats were on the starboard tack (wind over the right side), and Shields was trapped. He could not come about onto the port tack to get to the line without violating Mosbacher's right...
Upwind Fight. Shields tried for nothing fancy at the start of their third race, trailed Vim across the line by a boat length. But Shields was to windward, where he could get free air, and that was all he needed. Beating upwind against a 20-knot southwester on the twice-around, windward-leeward course of 24 miles, Columbia was out ahead rounding the first mark, plowed on through the running...