108 



FOREST AND STREAM 



YAWL "ENID," S. F. Y, C. 



YAWL " STARTLED FAWN," S. F. Y. 0, 



ns low as possible. The driver is very much larger in pro- 

 poriion than that of the English yawl, and forms a proper 

 balance to the jib. The proportions of these sails require an 

 accuracy of adjustment with relation to each other which 

 makes every difference as to the steering of your boat under 

 the varying spread and position of canvas. 



In brief, the English yawl is a modified cutter, and in the 

 same manner the Americanized yawl may be called a modified 

 American sloop. 



Now, as to advantages.- With jib and driver alone your 

 boat is under command, there being sufficient area of canvas 

 to form working sails. This, of course, is as handy as pos- 

 sible in getting under way or coming to, as will be apparent 

 to every yachtsman, the bulk of canvas being off the boat. 

 As we all very well know, one never reefs until the last mo- 

 ment, and is apt to hold on to it too long on account of the 

 bother. Nobody ever reefs a sloop if he can help it, of 

 course, and the longer the boat the bigger the job. In case 

 we settle away to reef the mainsail in the yawl, we keep 

 right on our course with driver and jib, and all the work on 

 the mainsail is done inboard. Practically, however, we reef 

 very little, for, lowering the mainsail, we can run along easily. 

 In reefing, however, any one will recognize what difference 

 there would be passing an earing inboard or outboard in a 

 lumpy sea and fresh breeze. At no time do we lose control 

 of our vessel, as in laying by under a jib in reefing a sloop. 

 It is very convenient to coax a boat through a squall with 

 driver and jib by flowing the main sheet and getting the 

 bulk of the canvas off her by letting it shake. With 

 a squall abeam, for instance, flow ) r our main sheet, but keep 

 on your course under short sail, the wind passing harmlessly 

 between your masts. If the wind comes too heavily, lower 

 away your mainsail on to the lazy lines and keep on under 

 driver and jib. No need of luffing and waiting for it to 

 pass. Or, if you choose, at any time you can take in your 

 driver alone and sail under mainsail and jib, which would 

 put you in shape like a reefed sloop. Your sails must be 

 properly balanced to enable you to do all this. Your yacht 

 will then work well under any of theBe circumstances. 



The driver acts as a very efficient lever, being so far out- 

 board, and as it is entirely under control, can be used to great 

 advantage in doing short work, as among wharves or vessels. 

 A very slight pull on your driver to windward will swing you 

 wonderfully quick, which will come in very handy in cruisiug 

 about in a light breeze, or if you happen to get a stern-board 

 en. If you wish to back out of a slip — which it is often con- 

 venient lor you to do— by bringing your driver square across 

 and throwing your helm over, if you are used to your boat, 

 you can do it in a manner to surprise any lookers-on. 



The driver is very handy in other ways as well. If you 

 wish to stop and wait in a moderate breeze without lower- 

 ing your sails you can come up on your jib and main sheets, 

 haul your driver flat aft and let her sweat. She will then lie 

 head to wind and will pay off enough to let her head sails fill, 

 the driver being so much outboard aft throwing her head up 

 the instant it begins to pay off. At the same time there is not 

 much sail for the wind to take effect on. If alone, you can 

 take your skiff or small boat and go and get a lost hat, boal- 

 hook or an oar, or pick up a duck ; you may shoot without 

 thinking of lowering your sails or your boat coming to grief 

 during your temporary absence. If you beat up into a 'nar- 

 row slip or creek and want to turn square in your wake, haul 

 your driver quickly to windward to swing her head and dead- 

 en way, flow your mainsheet, check on your jib as soon 

 as she pays, ease off your driver, and your jib will turn 

 her almost in her track before she gathers much way. 

 Remember, I am speaking of a small yacht, 30ft. long, one 

 that a man can handle by himself. 



In running in a seaway with wind on quarter or dead aft, 

 you have no long boom to dip in at every roll, and make you 

 think everything is coming out of her, as you sometimes have 

 on a sloop. You can swing out like a schooner if yo\ I 

 and need never fear jibing. If your sails come over they 

 will come over in two pieces, your driver (the lighter; first, 

 and then the mainsail, seldom both at once. It is a pleasure 

 to run under mainsail alone before a strong breeze as the sail 

 is in the body of the boat, rendering the steering easy. One 

 OOt used to the rig will be s urprised at the driver, as I am at 

 mine sometimes, though I have used it so long. There the 

 little beggar bungs behind you and out of sight, working like 

 a Trojan and requiring no "care. You don't see it unless you 

 look over your shoulder, but it keeps pulling away all the 

 time. 



All of our yawls are sharp with the helm. The 

 evenly balanced and so long on the foot and low down that 

 you don't have a great press of after sail. The bulk of it is in 

 the centre of your boat. You never have to work yourself 

 black and blue over a tiller to keep her off in a freah breeze. 

 A yuwl will Steer just as easy with wind on the quarter as 

 abeam, which a sloop will not. You can regulate your helm 



to a certain extent with your driver sheet, the slightest little 

 alteration affecting the steering. In this way you do not have 

 to carry your rudder broad across your stern iu a quartering 

 breeze. The yawl Sappho, 40ft. long, recently broke her 

 rudder on a shell bank in the southern part of the bay, and 

 her owner beat her up some 17 miles by carefully tending 

 driver and iib sheets without the use of a rudder. When 

 squaring away for Oakland Creek, however, he lowered his 

 driver and steered with two sweeps. 



To sum up, I do not believe that any rig yet devised is ahead 

 of a yawl for small yachts which the owner handles and takes 

 care of himself. One can have a lightly built high cabin as on 

 a sloop without having the greatest bulk of his sail in one 

 piece. You can have your sail divided into three pieces, as 

 on a schooner, without having any mast in your cabin to be 

 in the way or strain it. All three sails can be handled by one 

 man. You can get under way and come to without assistance 

 as I very frequently do. In fine, the rig for handiness cannot 

 be beaten. • 



A few words may be added as to the history and growth of 

 this rig in San Francisco Bay. Captain Harrison, now Vice- 

 Commodore of the S. F. Y. C, brought one here on a ship's 

 deck from England, in 1849, but was not allowed to use her 

 by the Custom House authorities. He then built one here in 

 1855 or 1856. Although used as a yacht, she was only a little 

 open boat with an English yawl rig, so her existence has no 

 bearing on the question ot Americanized yawls. The next 

 was a 17ft. decked boat called the Petrel, built by Will 

 Brooks some ten years ago, and rigged with leg-of-mutton 

 mainsail and driver. The same gentleman afterward built a 

 little cabin yacht 22ft. long, called the Sweetheart, and ngged 

 her with two leg-of-mutton sails. She passed from his hands, 

 was re-rigged and re-sparred as a sloop, and finished her days 

 on the bar outside the Golden Oate, drowning her two owners 

 at the time. 



Alter a couple of years absence in the mining region, find- 

 ing myself without a boat on my return, I started in ami had 

 built a little 30ft. yacht. An old sailing chum, Capt. Edwin 

 Moody, who had had a little keel boat yawl rigged in Boston 

 over 80 years ago, advised me to rig my new boat as a yawl. 

 He drew me a spar plan which I adopted, both mainsafl and 

 driver being Bermudian. After using her until I found I did 

 not have sail enough with that form of mainsail I put on a 

 gaff. This little boat, the Enid, was the first one of the pres- 

 ent Americanized yawls, and was built some four years ago. 

 She is 30ft. long, 10ft. beam, 4ft. depth of hold, and 2ft. lOin. 

 draught. She is very full forward, has a long floor, moder- 

 ate deadrise, full round bridge, an overhanging round stern, 

 and is built with oak frame, keel, etc., planked with Oregon 

 pine ; galvanized fastening. The spar plan I send herewith 

 will show size of spars and sails. Her cost out here was an 

 even thousand dollars, ready for use. I carry an English slid- 

 ing topmast 12ft. long, with club topsail; also a flying jib and 

 jib-topsail, seldom used, however, except in wintei'~h'uutiug 

 cruises, or when my sailing partner, J. F. Lewis, is aboard, he 

 having a great fondness for light sails, the has a centre- 

 board, of course, as have nearly all our yachts ; the bights on 

 the bay shore all being shoaled from the tailings from the hy- 

 draulic mines brought down by the rivers. I have no reef 

 points in either mainsail, jib or driver. My mainsail, although 

 ia one piece, is virtually composed of two sails. The one next 

 the mast haB the cloths running as on a leg-of-mutton sail, 

 a belt rope extending from thwartof gaff to alter end of boom. 

 Above this the cloths run as on agaff sail, parallel to the deck, 

 the whole making a gaff mainsail. To shorten sail I slack up on 

 the peak halliard? I : a on a line at the outer end of 



the gaff when the upper half comes down and hangs to lee- 

 ward and leaves a leg-of-mutton sail. 1 seldom have occasion 

 to use this, however, generally taking in the whole sail whon 

 it becomes necessary. My wife and I have been off on a two- 

 weeks' cruise alone up river in this little boat during the: sum- 

 mer months, and i nut i m her m a heavy southeaster. 

 We never bad any trouble at all in getting under way, and 

 whenever I had to be forward my wife would take the helm 

 under instructions, she generally attending to the commissary 

 department only at other times and I looking out for the boat. 

 We go in foT genuine Corinthian cruising here ; m fact, we 

 all do, every man here sailing his own yacht, some with men, 

 of course, but the smaller craft without, The only yacht in 

 the bay with a sailing master is the recently built $30,000 

 schooner Casco, belonging to Dr. Samuel Merritt, of Oakland— 

 a keel boat 94 feet long. 



About a year after my boat was built, Vice-Commodore C. 

 H. Harrison launched a $10,000 yawl rigged centre-board 

 yacht, called it Protie, 49 I a all, 16ft. 3in. beam 



and 5ft. drs i -aiately became the ladies' boat of 



the fleet, being comfortable, dry and safe. Her owner is an 

 Englishman and could hardly help adhering to certain English 

 principles, among them the short bowsprit, short-footed jib 

 headed driver. He had tot a lug driver, which 



was replaced by a gaff ; but most of us think it no more effec- 

 tive now than is a schooner's narrow foresail. To cany out 

 his ideas to make his boat sail as she should, he has had sev- 

 eral mainsails. He has finally decided on lengthening his 

 bowsprit and Americanizing his jib, and will probably in time 

 change that driver to the accepted shape. This gentleman has 

 been one of the most staunch advocates of his favorite rig, and 

 has done more than any one else in bringing it forward. The 

 only thing I have against him is that he will persist iu calling 

 a driver a jigger, a term which we have discarded for the 

 more euphonious one. He has overcome his prejudices enough 

 to adopt a centre-board, and considers his yawl Americanized; 

 but we will not acknowledge this till he has a Bermudian 

 driver and lengthens that jib. 



After this yacht had been built a year, the sloop Sappho, 

 owned by C. Chittenden, was re-rigged as a yawl, and her 

 owner would never change back. The Sappho is 40 feet long, 

 15ft. 3in. beam and 3ft. 3in. draft. She followed the Frolic's 

 fashion of gaff driver, but her owner tells me she will have a 

 Bermudian one in the spring. Next Mr. F. A. Hyde re- 

 rigged the little sloop Haven as a yawl, leg-of-mutton driver 

 and all. He then bought the sloop Startled Fawn and turned 

 her into a yawl after a couple of months use. She is 45ft 6in. 

 over all, 37ft. Gin keel, 14ft. Sin. beam, 3ft. 7in. depth of 

 hold and 4ft draft. She is a very handy, handsome boat, sails 

 better than she did as a sloop, and is of a useful size. 1 send 

 you a spar plan made by Captain Moody, who also drew those 

 of the Enid and MiM, formerly the Haven, now belonging to 

 the Commodore of the San Francisco Yacht Club. Our Com- 

 modore, Yice-Commodore and Secretary are all yawl owners, 

 by the way. 



You want to know about speed, of course. My boat is 

 not fast. There is a concession that a yacht owner seldom 

 makes. In the first few races she came in behind her class, 

 so everybody said yawls were a fraud. Consideration was 

 not taken that she was the smallest boat in her class and in the 

 club. I was classed with schooners and sloops. The second 

 year the little schooner Virgin, 32 feet long, beat me unmerci- 

 fully and took the flag of the class. The next year, with my 

 new gaff mainsail, the Enid beat the Virgin so badly that the 

 latter turned tail before reaching the windward stake boat. 

 The sloop Ariel beat me that time. Our course, by the way, 

 is 32 miles measured by line. The Frolic, when she tried it, 

 turned out slow. She made no showing at all in her class, her 

 competitors being all sloops, when she should have been in 

 with the schooners. There was too much English about her 

 for speed ; but, as she is being gradually changed, she is im- 

 proving. 



Then the Fawn comes out a regular Americanized yawl. 

 As a sloop Capt. Hyde confessed the Frolic had beaten him, 

 which was laid to the Fawn's being smallest. The first time 

 tbey met in a race the Fawn, in her handsome new yawl rig 

 with Bermudian driver, beat the Frolic fair and square with- 

 out time allowance, although the Fawn is 37ft. water-line, 

 while the Frolic is 43ft. More than this, in this race i he New 

 Y r ork sloop Clara competed and was beaten by both the yawls 

 Frolic and Fawn. The latter, which as a sloop had had a 

 trick of laying down and wallowing in a breeze, stood up to 

 her canvas beautifully and went to windward against a 35- 

 mile breeze, in first class style, carrying all sail. 1 was on the 

 judges' steamer when the yachts passed through the North point 

 squalls, and we stopped expecting to pick up the crews of the 

 sloops Clara and Magic, they were making such heavy weather 

 of it. They were knocked down fifty times, cock-pits full of 

 water and men in them to their waists. The yawls and Lei ruu- 

 dian sloops went through this without the slightest trouble. 



Since the Fawn has beaten her sloop record we hear of no 

 more talk about the yawls "being comfortable but stow." 

 The fastest sloop on the bay— the Emerald, a 47ft. boat— is 

 to come out as a yawl in the spring, and the Ariel, another 

 sloop, will also he rigged that way. There will then ouly be 

 one little sloop iu the club fleet, so our sloop class for regattas 

 is ended. Four years' experience has converted a good many 

 yachtsmen, among them your correspondent " Podgcrs," who 

 was at first, one of the most persistent opponents of the rig. 

 Ha writes you that he has had experience in every kind of 

 boat, from skiffs to hundred-tonners, and that sloops are 

 awful and schooners next best to yawls. He bought the 

 Fawn before Mr. Hyde owned her and Capt. Moody drew a 

 spar plan of her as a yawl, but be got new sails for her as a 

 sloop. Now, however, he sees the error of bis ways and has 

 came out in print as an advocate of yawls. He even owns one 

 himself, and we consider his conversion complete. We yawl 

 men have had a friendly laugh at him, of course. 



I hope some gentlemen in your part of the world, who like 

 Corinthian cruising, will try the yawl. It will not c 

 to take out the sloop's spars and sails and rig as I have de- 

 scribed. If they are not satisfied they can put on their old 

 gear ; but I do not think they will ever change back alter once 

 trying it fairly. Mind you, I speak of cruising yachts. 11 



