Half an hour after rounding the mark the boats were on even terms, and Columbia was slowly drawing ahead. The wind was now rapidly losing its force, and was scarcely five knots. Columbia's gain was not pronounced, and did not seem due to any superiority of handling, or favoring draft of wind. Her body seemed to slip more easily through the long swells that rocked the boats and caused the ends of their main-boom to dip occasionally, and, in spite of her smaller sail-plan she took and held the lead with ease, showing that her lines were better than the challenger's for such work.

Before half the homeward run was made it appeared the race was lost to Shamrock, for with the best of fortune she could hardly save her allowance of forty-three seconds, even though she reached the home line first. Near the finish a gentle wind coming up astern helped her on some, but it was soon gone; and at the line Columbia was a good ten lengths ahead, her gain in the elapsed time for the run being 1 m. 16 s., and for the race 37 s., to which was added her allowance of 43 s., giving her victory by 1 m. 20 s. corrected time. Columbia's elapsed time for the run home was 2 h. 5 m. 30 s., and Shamrock's was 2 h. 6 m. 46 s.