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Fifth Race. The tugboat used for setting the course marks broke down, almost delayed the start. Endeavour's crew, which had functioned ably since the first race, bungled an attempt to set a spinnaker, let Rainbow get away first as usual. The only moment thereafter when Rainbow was in danger of losing her lead was when her parachute spinnaker split, halfway out on the 15-mi. run to leeward. She broke out a new one quickly, rounded General Cornelius Vanderbilt's yacht Winchester, used for the halfway mark in the absence of a buoy, five minutes ahead of Endeavour. She matched every effort the challenger made in a tacking duel on the beat home and crossed the line almost a mile ahead, needing only one more victory to decide the series.
Sixth Race. Before the start, Skipper Sopwith issued a statement indicating that he was by no means satisfied with the Race Committee's ruling on the first protest. Expressing "great disappointment" at the treatment he had received when the Committee failed to "take heed" of the "sailing tactics" of Skipper Vanderbilt, he intimated he would set sail from U. S. shores shortly after the series was over.
Sailing a triangular course, Endeavour jumped early into the lead, held it serenely down the 10-mile broad reach to the southward. In the beat to the windward, Rainbow with brilliant tacks that time & again outmaneuvered the Englishman, showed its stern to the challenger to round the second mark almost three minutes ahead. Despite a great flash of savage speed in the home stretch, Endeavour was unable to overcome the three minute handicap, trailed home by 55 sec. Because the protest flags were fluttering from both masts at the finish—why, no one immediately knew—what would have been the greatest race of the series merely climaxed a growing unpleasantness that added nothing toward international racing goodwill. That night the 1934 America's Cup races were still anybody's victory.