Hail Columbia!

Old friends and old rivals at hundreds of races, they are two of the finest sailors in the world. But each had only a supporting role at the start of the summer's competition to choose the U.S. boat that this month will defend the America's Cup --world's most prestigious sailing trophy --against the British challenger Sceptre. Last week, as the final trials of the four 12-meter yachts began in open ocean ten miles off Newport, R.I., the two took over. Cornelius ("Corny") Shields was at the wheel of the spanking-new Columbia for the all-important start and the windward legs, and Emil ("Bus") Mosbacher Jr. was principal skipper of the 19-year-old Vim.

With ruthless efficiency, Shields and Columbia beat Weatherly twice and Easterner once, and Mosbacher and Vim beat Easterner once and Weatherly twice. The selection committee eliminated both Weatherly (seven wins, seven losses) and Easterner (no wins, 14 losses), thereby cleared the decks for the final duel between Columbia (eleven wins, four defeats), owned by a New York Yacht Club syndicate, and Vim (ten wins, five defeats), owned by Business Executive John N. Matthews.

Both sloops were designed by famed Yacht Architect Olin Stephens; both are 69 ft. 7 in. in overall length; both are sleek products of the complex 12-meter formula, which balances off such speed-governing factors as sail area, waterline length and mast height.

Tacks & Tactics. At 63, Corny Shields's hair is sail-white, but he is still the crafty helmsman and stern crew commander who, in half a century of competition, may well have won more races and honors than any other sailor in history (TIME cover, July 27, 1953). Competing in his first formal race since a 1956 heart attack, Investment Banker Shields worked up to part-time captain by stages--first by skippering her trial horse Nereus, then advising from Columbia's tender, finally plotting strategy from the boat's cockpit for regular Helmsman Briggs Cunningham, topflight yachtsman, longtime sports-car designer and racer (TIME cover, April 26, 1954).

Investor (real estate, oil) Bus Mosbacher is only 36, but he has matched tacks and tactics with Shields for a decade--mostly in the hard-sailing International class and dinghies--on the waters of Long Island Sound. A sailor since childhood, Mosbacher is famed for his starts and his skill with light air.

Both Mosbacher and Shields are masters of the deceptively simple theory of match racing between near-equal boats, i.e., that the start, which is usually into the wind, is crucial. The boat that can leap out a bit ahead of its opponent can blanket or backwind the following yacht. Both skippers are also skilled at the sly tactics of dodging blanketing, stage such realistic faking of new tacks that their scurrying foredeck crews even prepare to take the gigantic genoa jibs to the lee side--the usual preparations for coming about.

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 of way under racing rules. Mosbacher deftly drove Shields well beyond the marking buoy, then suddenly came about and crossed the line a full 20 sec. ahead. Vim won by ii sec.

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 sea to win by 2 min. 22 sec.

Going into this week's final action, the heavy favorites to be picked by the selection committee to defend the America's Cup against Sceptre were Columbia and wily Corny Shields, who knew how to squeeze every knot of speed out of her.

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