The race on Saturday was down river, round a stake boat moored off Kajao Creek and back to the starting line between the Yuenfah and the Signal Station at Pootung; the length of the course being about 16 miles, and the tide ebb. The starting gun fired at 4 p.m., on the first stroke of the hour by the Customs clock, and only a few seconds elapsed before the Lorna was over the line followed in close order by the Spoondrift, Coronella, and Violet. The wind was fromthe eastward, a good working breeze, but, as usual, constantly varying in strength. "In beating down the' reach through the shipping, the order of success sion in starting was maintained as far as the Oil Tanks, where the Spoondrift, on the port tack,' weathered the Lorna and took the lead. She was sailed and was sailing splendidly, when suddenly her main halliard block strop parted; the mainsail came down by the run and she was out of the race, When one is astern and likely to remain so, an accident is sometimes welcome as an excuse for defeat, but to meet with such a mishap when in the van, after having passed one of the crack yachts of the fleet, is a disappointment extremely galling, and the sympathies of every onlooker were with the skipper and crew of the Spoondrift. Up to this point the bein Goronella had sailed better than at any time this season, maintaining her Position relatively to the Lorna very closely, but n the reaching and free wind sailing' that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.