702 



YACHTING. 



Eighteen to 30 feet approximates the extreme 

 limit ot size for a single-bander. Smaller than 

 that she can hardly be, and do what is required 

 of her ; larger, and she passes the limit of safety 

 for management by one man. A 30-foot boat 

 of this class is often fitted with an after state- 



FIG. 4. YAWL "WINDWARD. 



room containing two berths, besides a main 

 cabin with berths for two more, and 6 or 6 

 feet of head-room. In a boat of this size one 

 man may well be carried before the mast, and 

 for him quarters are provided in the forecas- 

 tle, where there is room for an oil-stove, and 

 ample lockers. Much ingenuity has been dis- 

 played in the arrangement of stowage-room, as 

 shown in the plan of the 

 "Windward," but the de- 

 tails vary according to the 

 taste of designers and own- 

 ers. Such craft as these may 

 be appropriately rigged as 

 cutters, sloops, yawls, lug- 

 gers, or cat-boats; but the 

 yawl-rig has much to com- 

 mend it. This is an old rig, 

 well proved in European wa- 



its advantages are obvious at a glance. The 

 mainmast usually carries a boom and gaff, main 

 and top-sail ; and abaft the rudder, just so tbat 

 it is cleared by the main boom, is stepped a small 

 mizzen, the sheet of which is rove through a 

 block in the end of a fixed outrigger project- 

 ing over the stern. Sail 

 can be shortened with 

 the greatest ease, and 

 without tying a single 

 reef- point, by simply 

 lowering the mainsail, 

 and working under jib 

 and mizzen. Or, jib 

 and mizzen can be 

 furled, and the ship 

 will work equally well 

 under mainsail alone. 

 Reef-points are pro- 

 vided, however, so 

 that sail can be further 

 reduced in that way 

 if desired. 



Sharpies have, with- 

 in a few years, claimed 

 a place in yacht-squad- 

 rons, and are deserved- 

 ly popular in the shal- 

 low watersof the South, 

 especially along the 

 Florida coast, to which 

 so many Northerners 

 now resort during the 

 winter months. These 

 boats first came into 

 use among the oyster- 

 men of Long Island 

 Sound. ' Fair Haven 

 ^ sharpies" was one of 



, their earliest designa- 



tions. The first sharp- 

 ies were built of two longitudinal planks, form- 

 ing the sides, a stout transom or stern-piece, and 

 transverse plank nailed across for the bottom. 

 Of course this gave them a very light draught, 

 and fitted them admirably for use on the exten- 

 sive mud-flats along the sound. They were usu- 

 ally rigged with center-boards and leg-o'-mut- 

 ton sails, and were very fast on all points of a 



FIG. 



0. SECTIONAL VIEW OF " WINDWARD." 

 wind. Gradually they were enlarged and im- 

 proved, until now they are built with ample 

 cabins, spacious deck-room, and all the interior 

 appointments of first-class yachts. For hunt- 

 now, however, winning its way with the in- ing and fishing expeditions in shoal Southern 



waters they are unrivaled; and, while they 



ters, but hitherto not generally adopted here, 

 except on the Pacific coast, where the prevail- 

 ing winds are so powerful that its easy pro- 

 vision for shortening sail commends it. It is 



crease of single-banders on the Atlantic coast. 



