Rainbow, May 15, 1934.
What a miserable day.
"BRISTOL, R. I., May 15 [1934]. --- Above the music of the mauls, abanging in rhythm, a new America's Cup yacht was set up in her cradle at the Herreshoff ship yard this morning. She began sliding down the greased ways to her launching. Then the infant ship of sail crept out of her cradle and floated in her element.
The yacht was the Rainbow, so christened by Mrs. Harold S. Vanderbilt, wife of her skipper-to-be. Tonight the new nautical creation lay in a slip, her great mast stepped and rigged ready for her to sail.
She might have been taken out under canvas late this afternoon but for lack of breeze and drab weather conditions. That would have been an all-time record, from hull in building shed to winged flight in one day. ... Mrs. Vanderbilt took one strike with a cloth-covered bottle of champagne. Then she swung a second time for a base hit. Rainbow was christened. But the yacht slid down out of the shed only until the tip of her lead bulb keel was an inch above the water. There she stopped. A connecting rod had broken in the motor unwinding the drum. There was a wait of half an hour until the rod could be replaced. Then the Rainbow went on.
... The building of the yacht had been merry work for breadwinners, some of whom had suffered idleness for the greater part of four years. Among them were veterans who helped build the Reliance thirty-one years ago.#
... The great duralumin mast, 165 feet long and weighing 5,685 pounds, was rolled out on the pier to be hoisted in slings from a lattice-steel derrick and placed in the yacht. Charles G. Nystrom of the Herreshoff firm, John Parkinson of Boston, who will be one of the yacht's afterguard, and Captain George Monsell, professional master of the racer, each placed a quarter down in the mast step for luck. They were careful to note that none of the coins was of 1929 date, the year the depression started.
Rope Stops Are Cut.
It was slow and careful work handling the heavy and unwieldy mast. Shortly after noon, however, it had been set in the step. The shrouds, headstay and backstays were set up and the mast secured. ..." (Source: Robbins, James. "Rainbow Launched At Bristol Yard." New York Times, May 16, 1934, p. 24.)
