Word: vim
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Just seven miles away, off rocky Point Judith last week, the Aussie challenger was in action too-racing against her 23-year-old trial horse, Vim. No spectator fleet dogged Gretel's wake, but day after day the crews bent to their tasks under the calculating gaze of their own, one-man selection committee, the man they call "Big Daddy": Sir Frank Packer, 55, newspaper publisher, millionaire sportsman, and boss of the Down Under syndicate that has poured $700,000 into the white-hulled Aussie challenger. Last week Packer did not even take time...
Fortnight ago, Packer gave her a sterner test. When a raging nor'easter swept into Newport from the slate-grey North Atlantic, he ordered Gretel to sea for a race against Vim. As small-craft warnings fluttered along the Rhode Island coast, the two boats ran boldly before the 25-knot wind, working up speeds as high as 12 knots, lee rails awash and scant yards of churning ocean separating their glistening hulls. Aboard Vim, Helmsman Archie Robertson braced himself against the cockpit wall and strained to hold the wheel steady. Aboard Gretel, Skipper Jock Sturrock wiped salt spume...
...fast, she simply could not be caught-even by accident. Just one-quarter mile from the finish line, Gretel's light blue Genoa jib tore loose from its main clew and flopped overboard. But the damage was quickly repaired and Gretel swept triumphantly past Brenton Reef lightship, with Vim trailing in her wake...
Back in Newport Harbor, Skipper Sturrock headed for Fair Oaks, a sprawling, 27-room mansion that Sir Frank Packer has leased for the summer. Pipe clenched firmly in his teeth, Packer listened silently to Sturrock's account of Gretel's race with Vim. "She may do," Sir Frank nodded. "She may do, after...
...play the game that counts; it's whether you survive." This is how a friend of John Kennedy's describes the problem of matching the "vim and vigah" of the Kennedy clan at play. Not since Teddy Roosevelt has the U.S. had such an active First Family-and the tab for being a Kennedy guest is often a heart-pounding, muscle-aching round of activities. Last week, like many other Americans, the Kennedys were deep in vacation plans, and training for vacation as if they were about to be landed on the primitive beaches of Borneo...