The New York Times | Enterprise, Tatoosh Win Cups in Newport Sailing

By William Wallace

August 7, 1977

NEWPORT, R. I., Aug. 6—Enterprise. the yacht many expect to be the fastest when the final trials to select the defender of the America's Cup are sailed later this month, beat her two competitors, Courageous and Independence, today and thereby won the Caritas Cup.

The Caritas Cup is another vintage prize out of the New York Yacht Club's vast cupboard of trophies as is the Astor Cup. The Astor, the gem of the New York Yacht Club's annual cruise, was won by Tatoosh, a new 47‐foot sloop owned by Robert Hutton of Greenwich, Conn.

The Caritas and Astor Cup competitions concluded the cruise, which began here a week ago for 51 yachts. The black‐hulled Tatoosh had the best overall record by far. She won the Una Cup a week ago and then took two firsts, a second and a fifth on the runs to Hadley's Harbor, Nantucket, Edgartown and Padanaram.

The three United States 12‐Meter boats used the 18.8‐mile triangular race as a sail testing device and the results had no particular meaning. America's Cup competition is for match racing, meaning one boat against another. When three boats race together the one that can get away from the others usually has the advantage although that did not happen today.

Ted Hood had Independence in the lead most of the way but the Marblehead skipper wound up last an account of poor luck rather than poor skill. The three were close together all the way round the course until near the end. Sailing downwind, Courageous and Enterprise split from Independence and went off the course line on a duel of their own. Hood headed for the finish line and was flabbergasted when the other two got a better slant of wind and, after jibing, zoomed to the finish line ahead of him.

Hood claims the wind shifts have constantly gone against him this summer although he could not have minded so much today as a three‐boat yacht race is patently ridiculous.

Enterprise, which tried out three different spinnakers, won by 37 seconds from Courageous, which tried out three different jibs, and by 68 from Independence.

These three will continue sail evaluations until the final trials begin Aug. 16. Enterprise now has a sparring partner with which to practice starts—Mariner, the ill‐fated Cup contender of 1974 now owned by Charles Conway and based at Oyster Bay, L.I.

This was a good racing day, the wind coming southwest at 12 to 14 knots. On the long eight‐mile windward beat towards Point Judith, which opened the race, the place to go as ever was as close to the Naraganset shore as one dared. There usually is an advantageous reverse current in there and the smart sailors always head right for that shore. Hood did and so did Martin (Skip) Purcell, the strategist for Hutton aboard Tatoosh, which sails out of the American Yacht Club in Rye, N.Y.

The latter was in Division II racing on handicap against such swift cruising yachts as Gem, Destination, Pride, Arieto and Jubilee. She wound up with the lowest corrected time and therefore Commodore Vincent Astor's Cup, the formal name of the 60‐year‐old trophy, was hers.

Although no better than fifth. behind Recluta in Class I today, Inverness had the best record of the big boats in the cruise fleet. She was the boat of the Commodore, Robert W. McCullough of Riverside, Conn.

Charles Leighton's Ericson 39, winner of the Corsair Cup last Saturday, was first in Class III again today. This.Marblehead yacht and crossbow, under charter to A. W. Vietor, were the best in their divisions.

Among the smaller yachts Formula One, a new One Tonner under charter to George Johnson, and John Foster's Paleomag, a little twin masted catboat, were best, Formula One being the class winner today.