A breeze was wanting on the opening morning of the Royal Yacht Squadron Regatta to put animation in the scene afloat, still in the flood of sunshine it was a brilliant spectacle. There was a galaxy of private yachts, and quite a fleet of fighting ships of various nationalities riding on the Solent dressed in bunting, the German Emperor's new 'Hohenzollern' looming up a very Triton amongst the host, through which the racing fleet had presently to thread their way eastward. The starters for Her Majesty's Cup were the 'Meteor,' 'Britannia,' 'Valkyrie,' 'Viking,' _née_ 'Wendur,' and 'Mohawk.' An alteration in the course had been made by substituting the Bullock patch buoy for the Nab, and with thoughtful consideration for the length of leg of the modern craft, the three-fathom North Bramble Channel was left out. A dreadfully slow run was made eastward, the 16-1/2 miles from Cowes to the eastern limit of the course taking about 2-1/2 hours to cover. The breezes came in puffs out of every cloud, but mostly from the north or north-west, and in this sort of weather it was absolutely humiliating that the aspirant for America Cup honours should be led round the lee mark by the seven-season-old 'Meteor.' With a better and fairly true breeze westerly 'Valkyrie' and 'Britannia' on a close reach in to the Noman passed the Emperor's cutter, and, from mark to mark eight miles, 'Valkyrie' beat 'Meteor' exactly 4 mins. After fetching well up to Cowes, they turned through the roads, and then got a northerly slant in the west channel; a flying weather-tide settled them bodily to windward, and at Lymington mark 'Valkyrie,' which had gone in grand form to windward, was 3 mins. ahead of 'Britannia' and 15 mins. 40 secs. of 'Meteor,' the time allowance of the last named having thus run out by 68 secs. The wind was breezing up, and they ran through a roaring ebb tide at a fair speed, the modern boats pushing out a tremendous bow wave. The 'Meteor' unquestionably had a stronger following breeze than the two leaders, and with about 3-1/2 ft. less draught than 'Valkyrie,' she could be edged inside the tide rift on the north shore, the result being that she gained 50 secs. on 'Valkyrie,' yet with an allowance of 14 mins. 32 secs. she thus lost by 18 secs. On the question being raised that 'Valkyrie' had not followed the track marked on the official chart furnished, it was admitted that she had left the Nab on the wrong hand, and the Sailing Committee disqualified her and declared the 'Meteor' winner of Her Majesty's Cup. It may be said that the 'Wendur' after rounding Lymington mark attempted to set her spinnaker, but lost the sail, which was picked up by a pilot boat. Worse still, the boom was let drop in the water, and on it breaking two of the crew were badly hurt.