234 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Apbil 17, 1884. 



once, -without having to spend an hour or so over reeving gear 

 arranging ballast, etc. But there are plenty of sailing canoes to 

 suit this man. and we have, illustrated many in the Field, one of 

 which was exhibited at the Sportsman's Exhibition. Thus bo faras 

 canoe sailing perse is concerned, it cannot be justly said that the 

 exigencies of racing stand in the way of the pursuit being generally 

 enjoyed or retaining its popularity. Such meets as that projected for 

 August next should show the advantages of a paddling canoe which 

 can be sailed, over a sailing canoe which can be paddled. 



A HINT TO CANOEISTS. 



WE would call the attention of canoeists to the report of the con- 

 dition of tne Toronto C. C, giving, as it does, such an interesting 

 statement of the prospects for the season, changes in the boats and 

 other details, such as canoeists care for just now. We should be glad 

 to have similar reports from other clubs, as such an interchange of 

 ■information wall be of value' to all. 



AMATEUR CANOE BUILDING. 

 Thirteenth Paper. 



SAILS AND B1GGING. 



TpHE success of a canoe as a sailing; craft depends largely 

 JL on the proportioning of the sails to the hoat and the 

 ■work to be done — on their proper fitting, and on the perfec- 

 tion of all the smaller details of the rigging. Almost every 

 known rig has been tried on canoes, all but a few having 

 been in time rejected, so that to-day but three types are at 

 all popular with canoeists— the leg of mutton, the lateen, 

 and the lug. 



Before deciding on the shape of the sails, the first question 

 is, How much sail to carry? a question only to be decided 

 by a comparison with the boats and their rigs. Attempts 

 have been made to formulate expressions by which the area 

 of sail may be calculated when the dimensions and weight 

 of the boat are known; but in a canoe the greatest elements 

 in carrying sail are the personal qualities of the canoeist, his 

 skill, activity, daring, prudence and good judgment; and 

 their value is easily appreciated when on the same canoe one 

 man can carry 100 square feet of sail, while another will 

 hardly be safe with fifty. This being the case it is impos- 

 sible to calculate what, "area a canoe will carry, but a com- 

 parison with similar boats will give the average cruising rig, 

 the canoeist making such an addition to it as he considers 

 will suit his individual wants. 



Another uncertain element in carrying sail is the charac- 

 ter of the water on which most of the work is done. If on 

 a river or lake, among hills, where squalls are sudden and 

 violent, the sails should be small, and the arrangements for 

 furling and reefing them as complete and reliable as possible; 

 if on open water, where the wind is strong but steady, a 

 large sail may be carried, fitted with, an ample reef for 

 rough weather. 



Whatever area be chosen, the almost universal practice 

 with canoeists is to carry two sails. The cat rig, though 

 simple, requires larger and heavier spars, a large boom and 

 a high center of effort, and is more difficult to handle, as far 

 as setting, furling and stowing sail, than the main and miz- 

 zen rig; and, on the other hand, a jib has been proved to be 

 of little use, as it is difficult to set in a boat where the crew 

 cannot go forward, a number of lines are needed, it requires 

 constant attention, is useless when running, and of little 

 benefit when doing its best. By having the bulk of the sail 

 forward, it can be easily reached, is always in sight, draws 

 well when running, and can be quickly spilled without 

 losing the power of luffing, while the mizzen aft requires 

 \qtj little attentiou, luffs the boat promptly and keeps way 

 on her, and even if neglected, can do little but bring her into 

 the wind. 



In a long, narrow boat like the canoe, the sail should be 

 spread well fore and aft, long and low, rather than narrow 

 and high, as the propelling power will be as great, and the 

 heeling or capsizing power much less, and this end is best 

 attained with the main and mizzen rig. 



In order to obtain a proper balance of the sails, it is ne- 

 cessary that their common center or the point at which, if a 

 force were applied, it would balance the pressure of the wind 

 on the sails, which point is called the center of effort, should 

 be nearly in the same vertical line with the center of lateral 

 resistance of the hull, which latter is the point at which, if 

 a string were attached, and the boat, with rudder amidships 

 and centerboards down, were drawn sideways, it would 

 advance at right angles to the string, neither bow or stern 

 being ahead. These points would be described in technical 

 language as the common center of gravity of the sails, and 

 the center of gravity of the immersed vertical longitudinal 

 section, including rudder and centerboard. 



The center of lateral resistance can be ascertained by 

 drawing accurately to scale, on a piece of cardboard, the 

 outline of that portion of the hull below the waterline, in- 

 cluding rudder, keel or board, taking it from the sheerplan, 

 then cutting out the piece and balancing it on a fine needle 

 stuck in a cork. The point on which it will balance is the 

 center of lateral resistanoe. 



To asoertain the center of effort, some calculation is ne- 

 cessary. A sail draft is first made showing the sails, masts, 

 hull and center of lateral resistance, the scale being usually 

 i or £in. to the foot for a canoe or small boat. 



First, to determine the area of the sail, if triangular, aline 

 is drawn from one angle perpendicular to the opposite side, 

 or to that side produced. Then the area will be equal to 

 one-half of the side multiplied by the distance from the side 

 to the angle; for instance, in the triangle B C D in the first 

 figure, which represents the calculations of a sail of 89 

 square feet, a line perpendicular to C D would not pass 

 through B; so C D is produced to g then 12ft. 3in.x7ft. 6in. 

 =91. 87 +2=45. 9ft., area of BOD. If the sail is not tri- 

 angular it may be divided into several triangles, each being 

 computed separately. The sail shown will first be divided 

 by the line D from throat to clew; the area of BCD 

 has been ascertained to be 45.9ft., and similarly the area of 

 A C D is 42.9, then the entire area will be 88.8ft A shorter 

 rule, and one that in most sails is sufficiently correct, is to 

 multiply the distance A B by C D, and to take half of the 

 product, but in a high, narrow sail, this would not answer, 

 as in this case, where 16ft. 4inxl2ft. 3in.=200+2= 100ft., 

 or an error of lift. 



The area being known, the center of gravity of each tri- 

 angle is next found by drawing a line from the middle of one 

 side to the opposite angle, and laying off ^ of this line, as in 

 the triangle, B C D, where half of C D is taken at a, a line, 

 a B, drawn, and ■§• of it taken, giving the point d, the center 

 of the triangle. The point c is found in a similar manner, 

 and we know that their common center of gravity must be 

 on the line c d. Now, dividing the sail by a line, A B, into 

 another set of triangles, ABC and A B D, we find their 

 centers at e and/, and drawing the line e f, its intersection 

 with c d will be the center of gravity, and consequently 

 «enter of effort, of the entire sail. 



To determine the common center of two or more sails, a 

 vertical line is drawn just ahead of the forward sail, and the 

 distance of the center of each sail from this line is measured 

 and multiplied by the area of the sail. In the drawing, 

 showing two balance lugs of 45 and 20ft., the cruising rig 

 for a 14x30 canoe, these figures would be 40x5ft. 2in.==232" 

 and 20x13ft. 7in.=273, or 505. Now, dividing this sum by 

 the total area of the sails, or 65ft., we have s 6 £ /=7.77, or 7ft. 

 9in., the distance of the center of effort from the vertical 



line. In this case, the center of effort of the sails and the 

 center of lateral resistance of the hull will fall in the same 

 vertical. 



To be safe, a boat should always carry sufficient weather 

 helm to luff easily, or in other words, when sailing on the 

 wind, the leverage of the after sail should be enough to re- 

 quire that the helm be carried slightly on the weather side 

 to prevent her coming up into the wind, then if it be loft 

 free she will luff instantly. To do this requires in theory 

 that the center of effort should be aft of the center of lateral 

 resistance, but in the calculations it is assumed that both 

 sails and hull are plane surfaces, while in reality they are 

 both curved and the wind pressure is distributed unequally 

 over the sails; while the pressure of the wave on the lee bow, 

 aided by a decrease of pressure under the lee quarter, tend 

 to shove the boat to windward, independently of her sails, so 

 that she will have a greater weather helm in any case than the 

 calculations show, varying with the fulness of her bows, 

 and the center of effort may often be placed some distance 

 ahead of the center of lateral resistance. 



It will be seen from this that such calculations are not 

 absolutely exact, but they are the best guides we have, and 



if the calculated centers, and actual working in practice of 

 different boats are recorded, a comparison will show what 

 allowance is necessary in the case of a similar boat. 



In planning a canoe's sails then, three things should be 

 kept in view ; to distribute the sail well fore and aft, keep- 

 ing a low center of effort ; to keep the latter about over the 

 center of lateral resistance, and to keep as short amain boom 

 as is consistent with the first point. 



In order that a boat should sail equally well with her 

 board up or down, the center of the board should come 

 under the center of lateral resistance, 'otherwise, if theboard 

 be forward and the boat balances with it lowered, on raising 

 it, the center of lateral resistance at once moves aft, and the 



center of effort being unchanged, the greater leverage is for- 

 ward, and the boat's head falls off. 



If it is necessary to place the board well forward, it may 

 be done by using a small mizzen, a reef being shaken out in 

 it when the board is raised. A mainsail is sometimes rigtred 

 and tried with a cheaply made mizzen of any shape until tbfi 

 proper balance is obtained, when a suitable mizzen is rig-jred 

 permanently. 



wif wE A *^ C . LUB f S .-~ A cl <* ™* organized on March 24, at Osh- 

 kosh. Wis., with six active members, all canoe owners, and two more 

 have since joined. We have received the signal of the lanche C 

 of Newark N. J The club now numbers twelve members and nine 

 canoes The club house is on the Passaic Biver at Woodside7 above 



fachiitiQ. 



May 18.- 

 May 24.- 

 May 24.- 

 May 30.- 

 May 30.- 

 May 30.- 

 May 30.- 

 May 30.- 

 May 30.- 

 May 31- 

 June O.- 

 June 10.- 

 June 11.- 

 June 12.- 

 June 14. 

 June 16.- 

 June 16.- 

 June 19.- 

 June 21.- 

 June 23.- 

 June 24.- 

 .Tune 28.- 

 June 30.- 

 June 30.- 

 July 4.- 

 July 4.- 

 July O.- 

 July 12.- 

 July 12.- 

 July 19.- 

 July 26.- 

 July 30.- 

 Aug. 2.- 

 Aug. 2.- 

 Aug. O.- 

 Aug. 9.- 

 Aug. 16.- 

 Aug. 16.- 

 Aug. 23.- 

 Aug. 23.- 

 Aug. 30.- 

 Sept. 6- 

 Seot. 6.- 

 Sept. 13.- 



FIXTURES. 



-Eclipse V. C, Opening Cruise. 



-Oswego Y. C, Opening Cruise. 



-Boston Y. C, Opening Cruise. 



-Knickerbocker V. C, Spring Matches. 



-Atlantic Y. C, Opening Cruise. 



-Newark Y. C, Spring Match. 



-South Boston Y. C, Spring Match. 



-City Point Mosquito Fleet. 13 and 15ft. boats. 



-New Haven Y. C, Opening Cruise. 



-Boston Y.C., First. Match, Connor and Commodore's cups. 



-Portland Y. C, Challenge Cup. 



-Atlantic Y. C., Annual Match. 



-Hudson Biver Y. C, Annual Match. 



-New York Y. C, Annual Matches. 



-Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C, Annual Matches. 



-East Biver Y. C, Annual Matches. 



-Newark Y. C, Open Match. 



-New J ersey Y. O, Annual Match. 



-Hull V. C. Pennant Match. 



Newark Y. O, Open Matches. 



-New Haven Y. C, Spring Match. 



-Boston Y. C, Ladies' Bay. 



-Manhattan Y. C, Annual Cruise. 



-Eclipse Y. O. Spring Match. 



Larchmont Y. C, Annual Open Matches. 



-Hull Y. O, Beview and Cruise, five days. 



-Beverly Y. C, Marblehead, First Championship. 



-Boston Y. C Second Club Match. 



-Hull Y. C, First Club Match. 



-Hull Y. C, Ladies' Day. 



-Beverly Y. C, Nahant, Second Championship. 



-Oswego V. C, Open Matches. 



-Kingston, Ont., Open Matches. 



-Hull Y. O, First Championship Match. 



-Bay of Quinte Y. C. Open Matches. 



-Boston Y. C, Open Matches, all clubs. 



-Hull Y. C, Annual Open Matches. 



-Beverly Y. C, Swampscott, Third Championship. 



-Beverly Y. O, Marblehead, Open Matches. 



-Boston Y. C. Third Club Match. 



-Hull Y. O, Second Championship Match. 



-Hull Y. O, Third Championship Match. 



-Beverly Y. C, Marblehead, Special Matches. 



-Boston Y. O, Second Ladies' Day. 



"BAD ADVICE." 



THE proverbial jackass braying in a lion's skin is always amusing. 

 A scribbler, who was convicted not long ago of malicious fabri- 

 cation in the daily World, has, through some oversight, come to the 

 surface in a paragraph of notice in the Toronto Mail, Guileless 

 senility from a notoriously incapable source would be passed by 

 without another thought, so faras I am personally concerned, but 

 friends have insisted that the individual should be ''put in his place," 

 to double back the arrows of his ignorance, lest they might lodge 

 casually in some spot. 



Granting that my letter, read before the Toronto Yachting conven- 

 tion, did directly advise and urge the installation of a length and sail 

 area rule, my advice would have been in accord with views positively 

 expressed by all recognized and tried authorities the world over. 



An expert committee of the Y. R. A. Council of Great Britain gave 

 simple length measurement full investigation this winter, and de- 

 clared that measurement totally unfit to fairly class wida'y differing 

 types. Mr. Dixon Kemp has often pronounced the same' judgment. 

 The French journal Le Yacht, and the German publication. wasseT' 

 sport, presided over by Von Seefkow, of high scientific research and 

 great experience, arrive at the same conclusion. The committees of 

 experts appointed last year by the New York Y. C, and the Seawan- 

 haka Corinthian Y. C, after mature deliberation, with the applica- 

 tion of length measurement in local clubs before their eyes, also con- 

 demned simple length upon the ground of prejudice to small, snugly 

 rigged boats on a given loadline. There is a unanimity against that 

 custom on the score of its inequity all the world over. On the other 

 hand, even such clubs and people who have sought to establish it 

 upon theoretic derivation have so far completely failed to agree, upon 

 any underlying theory. The Boston Y. C. and the Atlantic Y. O, 

 wh'ich pirated its wisdom from Boston, set forth their "belief that 

 the speed of boats will compare as two-thirds of the cube root of the 

 lengths, while other luminaries insist that it varies as 

 the square root. Even where such empyrical explana- 

 tions are laboriously set up as a shaky foundation, the 

 reasoning presupposes the comparison between boats of like 

 or nearly lise bulks in proportion to the lengths. But as in the 

 modern practice of yacht racing boats of diverging types and bulks 

 on a length are!being brought to the line, the assumption no longer 

 includes the field and equity no longer exists. Common experience 

 tells every man living that a 40ft. canoe or a 40ft. boat of small bulk 

 is not possessed of the same innate possibilities for speed as a 40ft. 

 yacht several times as big. Common sense rebels against racing 

 boats even which differ materially in bulk on like lengths. And com- 

 mon expediency forbids a rule which drives boats of small bulk out 

 of existence in "slavish deference to those which are laige i™«ri«»wir 



and expensive. Until it can be exac 

 without regard to bulk, can produce n 

 until it can be shown that a 60ft. telegr 

 possessed of the same potentiality of : 

 fairness points the necessity of granti: 



ated that like lengths, 

 speeds all round a course, 

 pole, whittled into shape, is 

 d as a 60ft. sloop, common 

 ompensation for difference 



in size on a length, unless public attention is to be foeussed into one 

 rut and confined to that small realm of experimentation which deals 

 only with the largest possible on the length to the exclusion of every- 

 thing else which may lie preferable on other scores and for other 

 purposes. 



That, in view of the foregoing, a flippant ignoramus, who gives 

 no evidence of a single earnest thought in the matter, a hand t< 

 mouth scribbler with no worthier aim than to till space at tl;. 

 of a verdant master, should have the effrontery to parade his spleen 

 in a supercilious "opinion" concerning my letter to gentlemen in 

 Toronto, and should seek to spring a clumsy "trick of the trade" 

 upon my audience by indecently prejudging the contents of my let- 

 ter, and slurringly reflecting upon lake yachtsmen, is comment 

 enough upon the reprehensible dishonesty of purpose animating that 



I draw satisfaction in the knowledge that during five years past his 

 "opinions" have never been quoted elsewhere, but have been received 

 universallv with the contempt of silence, until the Toronto Mail last 

 week fell into his trap, and gave him the advertising of a paragraph 

 under reservation. But it is nevertheless repugnant to find thatmy 

 work is to be weighed even in a single instance in the scale against 

 the disjointed jabber of an empty-pated pretender. That such per- 

 sons are appreciated at their real worth. I am gratified to learn from 

 the following editorial in the Belleville Intelligencer of April S: 



"We also read in the Mail of Monday: 



" 'Says the New York Spirit of the Time* with regard to the lately 

 formed Lake Yacht Pacing Association: 



'• ' "Acting on some, bad advice from this city, the new association 

 adopted the ruleof measurement used'.by the Seawanhaka Corinthian 

 Y. C, but as a trial of that will show its imperfections, that can easily 

 be amended next year. The lake clubs are to be congratulated on 

 having formed this association.' " 



" The "bad advice" referred to is the advice which was given by Mr. 

 Kunhardt, the yachting editor of Forest and Stream, an uncompro- 

 mising advocate of the cutter type of yacht— as against the sloop. 

 .VI r. Kunhardt 's views are so pronounced as to, perhaps, justly lay him 

 open to the charge of bias.' 



"Our contemporary is unjust to Mr. Kunhardt, who, while advocat- 

 ing the cutter as the fastest and safest type of yacht, has always 

 striven to secure fair tests as between the varying styles of craft. 

 With this end in view he urged the general adoption of bulk measure- 



