3-028-454 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Yacht-Race: the Sappho and Cambria rounding off St. Catherine's, 1870. '...the third and final race between the American yacht Sappho, belonging to Mr. Douglas, and the British yacht Cambria, owned by Mr. Ashbury, resulted, like the two former races, in the victory of the Sappho...The course was...along three sides of a triangle, the total length being sixty miles...[starting at the Nab lightship, off the Isle of Wight]...The whole interest of the race as a trial of sailing qualities in the yachts, and of skill in their commanders and crews, was confined to the first or windward course...[View shows the yachts] rounding off the St. Catherine's Lighthouse, when the fog lifted suddenly, just before they stood out from the shore. The mark-boat lay about seven miles and a half off St. Catherine's, and from the last tack made under the point the yachts had to stretch off into the Channel on a long reach for the steamer to complete the first angle of the course in the twenty miles' beat to windward...returning to the Nab, the winning yacht made use of a failing breeze...while the Cambria was becalmed, and had to be fetched by a steamer. Mr. Ashbury's yacht has, nevertheless,...fulfilled the best expectations of her performance'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.