JS25.3 Coh Beaufoy on Naval Improvement. 163 



of the nobility and gentry take in maritime concerns. The 

 Royal Yacht Club, by building vessels, and bestowing prizes on 

 the best sailers, enjoy the patriotic and praiseworthy conscious- 

 ness that money so expended encourages some of the most 

 useful classes of society, and creates a spirit of emulation among 

 the different branches of artificers connected with nautical 

 affairs. This institution, by introducing for trial new and expen^ 

 sive machinery, is capable of performing services which few 

 individuals could undertake; and it is submitted for the consi- 

 deration of the body whether considerable improvement in the 

 science of sailing might not result from the following experi- 

 ments. '— ' ■•'^'- ""'^^ ' '^-^' 



Lug sails are nsn^Uy thbtight preferable to others in turning 

 to windward, and such as are taunt and narrow are deemed 

 more effective than those that are low and square; but this 

 phrase of taunt and narrow is extremely indefinite. In the first 

 instance it is proposed that a vessel rigged as a lugger shall sail 

 with others, and most likely one amongst them will be found 

 either a company keeper, or whose rate is nearly on a par. In 

 the next place, let canvass be taken from the breadth of the 

 sails and added to the hoist, and a second comparison made; 

 thus subjecting the sails to repeated alterations and trials, until 

 the maximum of the length to the breadth be obtained. This 

 fact established, the next suggestion is to convert the lugger 

 into a cutter, observing the necessary precaution that the main- 

 sail, foresail, and jib, expose the same surface to the action of 

 the wind, as the sails of the lugger. The third trial consists in 

 changing the same vessel into a schooner, scrupulous regard 

 being paid that the quantity of sail is equal in the three cases, 

 and that no variation in the weight, quantity, or stowage of the 

 ballast be permitted either in the boat of comparison, or experi- 

 mental vessel. 



Rigid adherence to these points is essential to the success of 

 the experiments, inasmuch as it is the action of sails, and not 

 the best trim of the hull, which forms the object of the present 

 inquiry. A vessel of size is for several reasons desirable; one of 

 14 feet beam, and 57 on deck, might prove sufficiently large ; but 

 the beams of the deck should be so disposed as to require no 

 removal in the subsequent alterations of the masts for the various 

 modes of rigging. It is also recommended that the body be 

 clencher built ; vessels so constructed generally excel in saihng 

 such as are carvel made, and this superiority will obtain so long 

 as the resistance of water to curved lines shall be involved in 

 obscurity. 



It is somewhat paradoxical that constructors of boats for con- 

 traband trade should possess such decided advantage over the 

 builders employed by the revenue as to call forth an Act of 



M 2 



