
** BONITA,”’ SEATTLE, THREE TIMES A WINNER OF THE TOWNSEND TROPHY 

pened to be together at Bellingham, 
Wash. It was on the occasion of a 
race, one of a number held by the yachts- 
men of different Northwest cities during 
the years between 1885 and that time. 
A few boats had been constructed with 
some pretense to speed and beauty just 
about that period, and they awakened quite 
an interest. The parties who chanced to be 
at Bellingham on the occasion referred to 
are the fathers of the Northwest Inter- 
national Yacht Racing Association, now 
the most important factor in international 
sport on the whole Pacific Coast. From 
that meeting the association has grown 
to considerable proportions. Flying its 
flag, seven yacht clubs now conform to its 
rules, four of them belonging to Washington 
cities and three of them to cities of British 
Columbia. In the seven clubs there cannot 
be less than two hundred boats, a con- 
servative estimate, ranging from the 
schooner and the yawl of many tons burden 
to the knockabout and the cat, famous for 
smart contests in Eastern waters. These 
boats were mainly built from the designs 
of celebrated Eastern naval architects, and 
-are not behind the Eastern product in 
material and workmanship. Neither are 
the men who sail them of inferior ability 
to those who sail winning craft in the big 
events of the Eastern yachting season. 
