630 SPORTING BOATS AND CANOES. 



sions of a boat should be about fifteen feet long and four feet\viJe. 

 Built lap-streak fashion, with streaks and knees of cedar, and 

 the laps fastened to the frame by being riveted with copper boat 

 nails. The seams of the laps between the knees should be riveted 

 together with smaller copper nails. A piece of white oak will 

 make a good keel, and should the boat be used where there is a 

 stony bottom, cover the bottom of the keel with a strip of sheet 

 copper or brass to keep it from getting worn and ragged. Have 

 the boat partially decked over forward, and make the dog a bed 

 under said deck. In that position he will be out of the way, and 

 his weight will help " trim " the boat. The less " belly " the boat 

 has the stiffer it will be. If you use your boat on flats where there 

 is not much water, make it broad on the bottom or not much 

 rounded, and with a shallow keel. Deck over the sides of the 

 boat for six inches, and put a cleat one inch high on the inside 

 edge of it, to keep out the water from the boat. Fasten gim racks 

 to the knees on each side of the boat. When finished, all knots 

 in the cedar should be bored out and the holes plugged with solid 

 wood. 



English Centre-board Gig. — These craft haveJjeen brought to 

 America from Southampton, England — clipper built, square and 

 rather full stem ; length fifteen feet, width four feet eight inches, 

 depth two feet, rising at stem and stem, so as to give about four 

 inches sheer ; decked three feet six inches on bow, and two feet six 

 inches at stem — decks connected by washboards on each side six 

 inches wide. Below the decks two bulkheads are fitted, so as to 

 make a water-tight compartment fore and aft. Exactly amidships 

 a centre-board three feet six inches long is placed, the case of 

 which, however, does not rise above the level of the thwarts so as 

 to interfere with the rower. Rigged for sailing with a sprit, main- 

 sail, and foresail or jib. Mainsail is used without a boom, except 

 when running, when it can be boomed out with a boat-hook. The 

 main sheet passes through a small block which travels on a hawse 

 at the stern, and the tack of the foresail is made fast either to the 

 stern or a small bumpkin eight inches long. Sprit made in two 

 pieces joined by a ferrule, so as to allow of its being shortened and 

 a reef taken in the mainsail ; the sails are altogether inboard. 

 Sails well and is an excellent sea-going craft. 



