436 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
4] 
a 
(Duo, 25, 1884. 
Fanny, Gracie, Hildegarde, Wenonah and Tleenin one class, with 
Vixen, Athlon and Oriva in the other. 
Had the race besn two days earlier, few would have cared to start, 
but Monday was a perfect June day, except so far as yachting is con- 
cerned, for there was hardly any wind atd P. M., when the fleet passed 
the forts, Oriva, Wenonah, Grayling and Vixen going over almost 
together. 
_As the story of therace has been told before in PormsT AnD STREAM. 
there is no need to eee it here, hut the results have been construed 
into a sloop victory, the claims to which will bear looking into, Fanny 
won the race; secured the first prize (Vixen taking first in her class), 
and deserves the credit, such as it is, for the vietory, but without any 
desire to rob her of her laurels, we claim thatthe contest proved 
absolutely nothing, and has no value except as an extra point on the 
record of prizes. 
The race began ina very light wind and ended in almost a Hat 
calm, and during the entire time (47 hours) theré was nothing like a 
fair breeze for the fleet. Some had the wind for a time, taking the 
lead while others were becalmed, and then the situations would be 
reversed. 
Cutters, sloops and schooners, big and little, were mixed up with- 
out regard to size or merit. The distance, about 240 miles, was sailed 
inan average time of 46 hours, or abouts5!4 miles per hour, and no 
windward work in the entire race; arate tbat would be slower than 
the limit of 8 honrs over the New York Y. OC. course, necessary to 
makearace. No deductions can he made from individual perform- 
ances under such circumstances, and if therecord of times be taken, 
the result is no more satisfactory. These times for the entire fleet 
were: 
H. M. 5 H. M. Ss. 
BAM vette ot 43 a9 08 <Athlon........... 46 30 25 
Grayling,..._... 43 39 44 Wortuna......... 46 35 i} 
Gracie...........:44 12 45 Montauk........ 46 bia 40 
Hildegarde...... 45 56 OW) Oriya eevee ne 08 30 
CS bat) (ea aa AG 06 67 Bstelle........... 47 47 40 
Teen ect 46 16 23 Wenonah........ 4 53 59 
The absurdity of any conclusions is at onee apparent, when it is 
remembered that these times are not on allowance (@o quibbling can 
be made over rules favoring the cutters, ete.', but they are the actual 
sailing times, If they be taken as proving that Wanny and Gracie are 
faster than Neen and Wenonah, they at the same time prove just as 
conclusively that Vixen and Athlon are faster than Montauk and For- 
tuna, and as we Enow that is not so, the other conclusion is forced on 
us, that such a drift shows nothing, and that those whoseek to bolster 
up the 5loops’ record by such a burlesque of a yucht race, must be 
very hard up for material. 
This race ended up the spring work, with the net result that we 
knew lithle more than before, and with the popular mind the question 
was Still unsettled. Mischief had beaten Panny once, Fanny had won 
the N. Y. Y. C, race including the Bennett Cup, in which Mischief 
was disabled. besides the plorious Long Island race just mentioned, 
and one second prize; and Grarie had taken one first, a walk over. 
Athlon and Vixen had as yet done little,and Hildezarde had won 
nothing. Of the eutters, Oriva had captured two firsts by dint of hard 
sailing in heavy weather, while Deen and Wenonah had scored noth- 
ing. On the strength of this, the sloop men were triumphant; cruel 
and unkind things were said about eutters in general and Ileen in 
particular, but the cutter men were content to wait for further de- 
yelopments, remembering the past record of Wenonah in 88, Oriva's 
splendid duel with Gracie on Juné i4, aud the indications Ileen had 
shown of what was in herif only it could be got out, and also that. 
there was anotuer State to hear from. 
OF the three large cutters only two had yet been seen afloat, for 
Bedouin was kept out of all the early races on account of a death in 
her owner's family, aud on the principle that the absent are always 
wrong. it was proved, at least to their own satisfaction, by some 
Wiseacres, that had she been In, she would have been beaten around 
Long Island, and also in the N.Y. Y. GC, race. Such claims require 
no votice in yiew of Bedouin’s grand record of eight first prizes out of 
nine starts, and of the interesting fact that by the end of the season 
all her old adversaries were well coutent to Jeave the field to her, and 
none cared to enter against her: i 
Her first race in ‘84 was sailed in Boston waters, in the summer 
regatta of the Eastern Y. C. at Marblehead, on June 287. Besides the 
schooners Fortuna, Harbinger, Tempest. Rebeccs, Sylph, Clio and 
Adrienne were entered Bedouin, Wenonah, Ileen, Huron, Hesper and 
old Addie, a rather curious assortment of types—Tleen extreme eut- 
ter, Bedouin and Wenonah moderate cutters, Huron wide cutter, 
Hesper deep centerboard, and Addie, better known once as Addie 
Voorhis, built by Kirby in 67, a centerboard boat with but 4ft. draft 
to 59ft, water line; so all kinds were represented, Of the smaller 
boats were Maggie, Shadow, Clytie, Lapwing and Hera. Down the 
wind for six miles Portuna led, but on the beat of seven miles Bedouin 
overhauled her and finally weathered her off Half Way Rock, and 
from there to the finish she had ifall her own way, beating the big 
schooner 15min. on even time and 25min. corrected, while Wenonah 
mads a good third to Fortuna. 
The water was perfectly smooth all day, the wind light but steady, 
with little or no fiuking, and the course was down the wind six miles, 
to windward seven miles, and with wind nearly abeam for the re- 
maining seven miles. Leen did fairly well, but was beaten by Huron, 
the order of the types at the finish being moderate cutter, wide cut- 
ter, extreme cutter. compromise, with the old sloop withdrawn, Un- 
fortunately none of the New York sloops ventured around Cape Cod 
for this race, and & rare opportunity for trial was lost, as the Marble- 
head course, a triangular one, is far ahead of the New York for a test 
race, and the weather ws a sloop day rather than cutter. 
Wor the next month there was little doing but SeuRtaes and 16 was 
not until July 20 that the mid-summer races began with the race of 
the Eastern Y. ©., at New Bedford. A fleet of fourteen, eight schoon- 
ers and six singlestickers started, jhe latter being Bedouin, Maggie, 
Hesper, Huron, Windward, Rover. The course was 27 miles triangn- 
lar, with smooth water anda calm at the start, with a whole sail 
breeze in the afternoon. Bedouin, starting fourth, was soon to wind- 
ward of the entire fleet. leading the way all day, and finishing easily 
in 4:43;18 elapsed time, 13 minutes ahead of Halcyon, the firstschooner. 
Maggie was second, and the two sloops nowhere in particular. Next 
day, in the scrub sail to Dp por tt Bedouin led all the sloops, and two 
days later, on the race from Newport to New London, she led the en- 
tire fleet in, taking the prize offered by Commodore Hovey. 
Of course, the grand gathering of the season was at Newport, and 
all the fleet of New York and Hastern hoats were there except Hilde: 
arde and Oriva, the latter arriving in time todo good work with 
Gisen in the final race. The programme arranged was a generous 
one, and prizes were plenty, Tuesday, Aug. 8, Goelet cups, 45-mile 
triangular course, with N. ¥Y. Y. 0, allowance, schooner prize $1,000, 
sloops and cutters $500, Cups were also presented by the Commo- 
dore for a race from Newport to Martha's Vineyard, and others for a 
race home on the followmg day; and four cups, two for schooners 
and two for singlestickers, were offered hy the Commodore for arace 
from Brenton’s Reef to Sandy Hook Lightship and return. The 
weather, however, was a complete disappointment to the yachtsmen, 
as three days of rain, fog and calms prevented all racing, and caused 
a change in the programme, The first race sailed was on Aug. 8, for 
the Goelet Gups, bringing out fourteen schooners, and nine sloops and 
cutters, the largest fleet of the season, In the latter class were Gracie, 
Mischief, Whileaway, Athlon. Wclipse, Isis, lean, Bedouin, and We- 
nonah, The wind was very light all day, with some roll to the sea, 
Bedouin again outran the fleet, finishing in 10:16:40, wilh Tleen second 
in 10:23:57, Wenonah third in 10754:49, and Athlon 11:40:54, all cor- 
rected times. Grayling won in the schooner class, long behind the 
sloops, and besides YVarnua no others were timed, as it was then 
midnight. - ; : 
The sloops had entered the spring races bravely, Bedouin being ab- 
sent, and they had an excuse in the distance for not meeti her at 
Marblehead; but now that all the yachting worla of New York and 
the Hast were met, it seemed only probable that all should have a try 
at their formidable tival. Of the four large sloops, however, Hilde- 
garde kept out of the way entirely, preferring cruising to racing; 
Fanny, though on hand in full trini, declined to enter; Gracie made 
oné attempt and gave up for the season, and only Mischief was found 
to enter the lists for the sloups. Athlon, though so small, keeping her 
company and showing an amount of pluck in keeping up the fight 
against odds all the season that should have inspired her larger sis- 
ters to stand by her, i. 
Although it was long after midnight before the racers were at an- 
chor, they were ready early the next morning for a race to Oak Bluffs 
for the cups offered by the Commodore. Fifteen started, ten being 
schooners. There was a good breeze all day and some sea on, The 
prizes were awarded on elapsed time, without allowance. Bedouin 
again beat the fleet, her time being 6:80:50, or 2min. 4sec, less 
than Montauk, : 
An attempt was made to cover this defeat and secure the credit 
for Montauk by a glowing anmouncement of her arrival first, she 
being in 50sec. ahead of Bedotiin, and her taking the cup in the 
schooner class gaye some color to the claim; butthe fact that Bedouin 
started 2min. 54sec, later than the schooner was entirely ignored. 
The race was a fair one from stari to finish; wou on its'merits, with- 
out flukes, and the credit for it helongs:entirely to the big cutter. Of 
the other four in her class, Mischief's time was 7:09:04; Ileen's, 
7A%:32; Wenonah, 7:40:56, and Athlon’s, fortunately for her, 8:14:53. 
The fact that in a fairly sailed race Bedouin beat Mischief nearly 
40 minutes, while the latter beat Wenonah 30: minutes, has proyed 2 
uzzler to those who have sought to draw conclusions from the 
ures, butit must be remembered that both Bedouin and Mischief 
are mauned and sailed ax very few American yachts are, their owners 
both being racing men, and that they haye sailed this year up to or 
ahead of their previous record, while Wenonah, for some unéxplained 
reason, has beén far behind her record of 1883. 
The terms of the race home on Monday, also for more of the Com- 
modore’s cups, were that time should bé allowed on the basis of the 
previous Tace, thus SS Ee the winners of Saturday, being 
really a consolation prize for the losers. Under such aruling, Athlon 
in drawing 4 blank on Saturday, at the same time made sure of Mon- 
day's prize, as she received a proportionate allowance. As usual 
Bedouin was first, holding that place until within a few miles of the 
finish, when she ran into a calm, and laid there until those astern 
came up, All drifted together, so close, according to au eye witness, 
that at one time a man could have leaped from one to another of five 
yachts, and when the breeze finally came up, Bedouin was Jast of all 
to get it. Athlon won the cup, her corrected time being 5:04:11, 
Vixen 5:13:53. Mischief 5:19:16, Wenonah 5:26:10, Tleen §:28:48, and 
Bedouin 5:56:48, Win dward not timed. This was Bedouin’s only de- 
feat in nine races this season, and while her record can stand of itself, 
without any ifs, buts, or claims of flukes, it is butfair to note that her 
position in this race is entirely af variance with eight other races, 
and is evidently due to some outside cause. 
Instead of the Sandy Hook race, oné over a, 60-mile triangular course, 
starting from Brenton's Reef, was substituted, the prizes being cups 
valued at $500, one for each class of schooners, one for each class of 
sloops and cutters without allowance, and one for the first yacht in 
with time allowance. The wind was light all day, and the fleet ot 
thirteen were scattered. Montauk came in first in 9;14:43 elapsed 
time, Bedouin second, in 9.22.87, and Mischief in 9.31,57,the latter beat- 
ing Bedouin one second on time allowance, thus taking the cup for best 
corrected time. The times of the others were Ileen 9.88.50, Oriya 
10.23.11, Vixen 10,47,00, Athlon 10.54,00, Regina, and Hesper not timed. 
Oriva again beat Vixen, both flat and with allowance, besides beating 
Athlon still worse. This race ended the series, the proposed race 
from Newport to Marblehead being abamdoned and the fleet parted 
company. 
On September 8, a match for sloops and cutters was sailed off Mar- 
blehead for prizes of $300 fer first class and $200 for second class over 
& course of 28 miles. The list of entriesis rather interesting, asnearly 
all types were represented, Ileen, extreme cutter: Oriva and Maggie, 
medium cutters; Huron and Isis, wide cutters; Valkyr, compromise; 
Shadow, deep centerboard sloop. The day was clear with little wind, 
and some calms thrown in. Ileen won easily, with Oriva, Maggie, 
Huron, Valkyr, Shadow and Isis in order, the last being 45 minutes 
astern of the first. Somehow the order seems to bein favor of lead 
though in a light wind. 
From this outno more racing was done until the fall races of the 
Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C. in October. These races of late years 
have been only second in interest to the spring contests, and usua 
bring out the best sloops and cutters about New York. Wenonah ha 
laid up, as well as Oriva, and Ileen had gone out fof commission in 
consequence of the loss of her mast, and only Bedouin was left to 
take care of the interests of her class; so it might have been supposed 
that the sloops would give battle, as only one cutter was opposed to 
them, The members of the Regatta Committee and the officers of 
the club endeayored personally to secure the entries of the sloops, 
but in vain. Hildegarde was out of commission; of the others, Gracie 
towed eastward through the Gate two days before therace, bound on 
@ ‘‘cruise,”’ Mischief had left for Chesapeake Bay, and Fanny, in com- 
mission and read . for sea, declined to enter. The honors of the 
sloops were again left in the hands of Athlon, who alone was ready to 
do battle in their behalf. In order to fill out the entries, although 
there was nothing in his class, Hx-Commodore Lee decided to enter 
Oriva, after she had been laid up at the S.C. Y. C. Basin, The 
first race was set for Wednesday. On Hriday the Oriva’s skipper was 
ordered to get ler ready, although she-was stripped and all gear 
stuwed away; on Saturday she was towed up to the serew dock at 
New York and ber bottom cleaned; Monday she was towed back to 
the basin, gear was rove off and sails bent, and on Wednesday she 
was ready with her Corinthian crew. After the final race on Satur- 
day she was again laid up, and by Tuesday was stripped again for 
the winter, 
Wednesday, Oct. 15, was an ideal day for a race, clear, just a touch 
of frost in the early morning air, a long swell outside the Hook, that 
in no way impeded the boats, and wind enough to make a race, 
though never too heivy for topsails. Only three of the Jarger boats 
started, Bedouin, Athlon and Oriva. Down the wind for 20 miles the 
cutters outran the sloop, Bedouin turning the buoy 534 minutes ahead 
of Oriva, and 914 minutes ahead of Athlon, which distances she in- 
creased on the beat home, making the course in 6:27:24, with Oriva 
in 6:27:25, corrected time, and Athlon 6:46:12) The boats sailed in 
company all day and benefited equally by the changes of the wind, 
the sea was smooth, and breeze of about topsail strength; and the 
cutter of 50ft. beat the sloop 5ift. by over 15 minutes, even time. 
Oriva haying no competitor in the second class, had entered the first 
at an allowance of 55ft., which handigatnd her some 46 seconds, but 
as ib was, she finished within one second of Bedouin on allowed time. 
The d was asloop one, as faras wind and water went, and they 
ae a favorable opportunity to prove their claims by their refusal to 
enter, 
Saturday was fun of a different order, a race which ranks with the 
two in June, with a gale from northwest and a heavy sea, especially 
inside the Hook, Bedouin, Oriva, Athlon, and Penguin werethe only 
entries in the larger classes, Down the wind to the Lightship, 
Bedouin, of course led, Athlon turning four minutes astern of her, 
and Oriva three minutes later, The fact that Athlon was within her 
time allowance on the run down has been twisted into a sort of argu- 
ment that she was faster than Bedouin, and woul) have beaten the 
latter except for an accident; but a look at the records of the two 
boats for this Beason shows the utter absurdity of any such claim. 
Both of the sloops were beaten, not only by Bedonin, but by Oriva, 
before they were disabled, and Athlon’s performance three days be- 
fore in light weather, shows her place in the trio. At the finish, when 
Bedouin ended her single leg from Buoy 10 to Buoy 15, Oriva was the 
only one behind her, the others being disabled and running into the 
Horseshoe; thus the end of the season saw a refusal of all but two 
sloops to take up the gage thrown down by Bedouin and Oriva, and 
these two, though deserving a better fate, woefully beaten. 
The record for the season shows the following prizes: 
starts. 1st, 2d. 
Bedouing iso gtaen ed ieee goto ert oie Se 9 8 = 
SENT Pe ake eae tae te any Poenomee asd shee: 3 a 1 
OLIVA 4 Si4 see Bade oes eae s fare Sees ea It 4 = 
REVAL GE Sit an de eee cone Sir ea eine eerste 3 2 = 
Mischierg oe Pek tet a Rear s fi 2 — 
ACH Oe ee eee ce BAe oo ieiae cia vere 14 z — 
Magpie ee ee ent eeatis Te ieee sos 5 2 _ 
Aron ete tee 4345 Ses sce 5 1 — 
GIBCO eee abe Bente dell iieiistere erie niet as ° 1 - 
AVE GY bes VR oon reneged? ce deblaet leet seb ek inc: Sak 5 1 — 
TPS Oe Bis Annem BERS eager et od 6 1 — 
Winona; Wind... cee hr hiekelmee iace 6 _ 1 
TLR ee RABE Seer & eRe ts Se! Ce 8 1 — 
Thus the score stands for the 6 cutters, 40 starts,16 first and ij 
second prize; 7 sloops, 40 starts, 12 first and 1 second prize. Apropos 
of which is the fact that early this season a bet of a hat was made 
betweén & sloop man and a cutter man on the number of races to 
be won, and the cutter man iow wears the hat, . 
Bedouin's record deseryes special mention, standing out, as it does, 
beyond all the others in number and amount. of prizes. 
June 27). ove. Marblehead) uate). be eee senile eee nk $175 
duly 28; H, ¥.-'C., New Bedford....... 002.22. te ee ey 150 
July 30, B. ¥. C., Newport to New London........-.-.-.-1....-.-. 100 
Ang. §,N. ¥. ¥. C,, Newport, Goelet Cup. ../... 0... eee ., 600 
Aug. 9, N, ¥. G,, Newport to Martha’s Vinyard, Bennett Cup. ... 500 
Aap. dso e Ce erebitiin seine ete heons “Earp en aed 3 a 
Aug. 12, N, Y. Y. C., Brenton's Reef, Baunett Cup.... ... .--.-.. 500 
Oct. 15, 8. C. ¥. G., twenty miles and return..-.....c.:22-- esse ease 160 
Oct, 18, 8. GC. ¥. C., Club Course.......-. me ye Bee ee ase .» 150 
$2,225 
These figures do not tell all the story, as in nearly every race she 
headed the fleet, big and little, sloops, cutters and schooners, over 
the entire course, winning without allowance of time from the larger 
boats. Beyond this she has sailed the entire séason without accident 
ofany kind to hull, spars or gear, except a bobstay parted in the 
last race at Newport, Itis also worthy of note in this connection 
that while the sloops entered freely enongh-in her absence, Fanny 
declined any trial with her, Gracie retired after one Realings and 
wanted no more, and Mischief, after a brave fight at Newport, had 
no desire to renew the contest in the fall,so that Bedouin may fairly 
claim the championship of American waters,in the year of erace, 
1€84, or five years after ths keel of the first modern cutter was laid at 
Greenpoint. ' 
If the order on the list depended on the pluck and perseverance of 
the owner, instead of the prizes won, Athlon should take the first 
lace for the way in which she has persistently foane a losing fight 
for the sloop, with little help from the others. To her belongs alone 
the credit of meeting Bedouin this fall, in spite of the difference m 
size, and it seems 4 pity that the yachting spirit and enthusiasm of 
her owner is not displayed at the tiller of a racing cutter rather than 
at the wheel of a sloon. 
While Athlon’s performances may improve with further trial, it, 
is pretty evident that thattgnis pers the compromise which is to 
beat sloop and cutter, has eluded her modeler as well as many others, 
Speaking of compromises brings to mind Thetis, naturally overlooked 
in this hasty review, as she has done nothing all this season, and 
the feast, 
little has been seen or heard of her, and all that is known thus £ar is 
that she has not yet proved a suceess, Isis likewise has done lilile as 
4 racer, Or as a proof of the value of beam ina cutrer. The brunt of 
the battle on the part of the cutters has fallen on Bedouin and Oriya, 
and the Jatter no less than her larger sister, has done her share in « 
way that is creditable both to her owner and herself. The record of 
these two boats throughout the season from June to October com- 
pletely gir of the old objection that cutters are not sinted to our 
weather, edouin has won one race in June, two in July, three in 
August and two in October, in weather varying from a gale to a drift, 
and Oriva’s races coyer June, August and October. Wenonah has 
this year done little to sustain her portion of the battle, or to back 
up last year’s splendid record, but neither she nor Ileen has bean 
ea in the thorough manner that has broucht yictory to the other 
wo. 
Those who are competent to decide, still maintain Ileen’s ability if 
properly handled to beat the wider Bedonin, and she has at times 
throughout thé season given a promise which justified their belief, 
but to realize it she must be raced in a different manner from this 
season, The probability of a challenge for the America’s Cup makes 
the record of the sloops for the pastjyear a matter of the first im- 
portance, but there is little im it either brilliant or encouraging. 
Gracie has certainly Jost her old form, and il is doubtful whether 
she ever regains ib. Misehief has kept up the fight until the latter part 
but it unable to cope with Bedouin, she will haye little show against . 
the probable challenger. Fanny's performance consists of the Long 
Island drift, 4 race won in heuvy weather from all her class except 
Bedouin (ia which she took two prizes) and a second prize won in the 
Atlantic race, but throughout the season she has declined a contest 
with the big cutter. While Bedouin’s position ab the head of our sin- 
@le-stick fleet would entitle her to enter the lists against any comer, 
of course such a surrender of the main point at issue as the defense 
of the Cup by an English eutter would amount to, is notto be thought 
of, and the champion must be sought amoung the three sloops named 
above, the unknown Thetis or a new one yet to be built, in eisher of 
which cases there will be much to be done to insure even a réasonable 
chance of the retention of the trophy on this side of the water. 
FATTEN UP THE VICTIMS, 
Liditor Forest and Stream: 
Oh, how I did chuckle when Tread ina recent Herald an ‘“inter- 
view” with a “prominent yachtsman” interested in that lone. long 
romised wonderful sloop, which has always been “‘soing to be 
uilt,””and has not yet got further than preliminary threats on paper. 
And the sublime complaceney of the interviewed man as ha 
graciously youchsafed the Delphic utterance: *‘We are in no hurry 
to build the sloop. Wedo not think the Englishmen will venture to 
challenge. The i geneee of one of their lead mines erossing the 
ocean is a mooted question, in spite of what their advocates may say. 
Syke ae gotspare buoyancy enough to withstand an ocean swell,” 
etc., etc, 
Oh, that such bosh should find its way into print at this late day as 
the judgment of an American yachtsman, and a‘*prominent” one ab 
that! Have not gob spare buoyancy enough for an ocean syell, 
indeed! Did you ever hear a more worthless estimate made, so com- 
pletely at variance with facts well attested? Now, that not one, but 
several, challenges for ‘‘the Cup” are in hand, only a few days after 
the sage person interviewed went on record. we know how far he 
has missed the mark and a true gauge of his enemy’s courage and 
intentions. And he knows as little about a cutter, and the ocean 
swells as well. I venture to state he has no conception of the sea, or 
he would appreciate that yachts which outlive the worst of weather 
in the Channel Chops and Irish Sea, will tackle the longer and easier 
rollof the majestic Atlantic like a child’s job im comparison. He 
would know that the driest and ablest of vessels afloat is the narrow 
Jullanar of six beams to her loadline, just half abeam narrower than 
the challenging Genesta and her kindred. Had this “promment 
misrepresentative’ of American yachtsman the faintest experience 
in cutters, he scarce would have put himself dowu a prejudiced 
yachting Knowknothing, 
Thave sailed m cutters of about five beams to loadline, and struck 
into pretty coarse weather while crnising, I found such eutters to be 
wonderfully dry and full of life like a corked hottle, lifung to each 
sea quicker and more readily than any sloop afloat, And they doso 
forsimple enough reasons, which ought to be grasped even by such 
slow thinkers as the interviewed “prominent” yachtsman, The nar- 
row cutters haye very fine runs and no overhanging quarters. Hence 
their after end is easily depressed and the bow rises to the slightest 
of pressure. A beamy sloop in spiteof her beam will not do as well, 
because of jher clumsy round stern and squalty haunches which 
tend to drive her nose under when sliding down into the hollow and 
meeting an onrushing mountain of salt water. As for spare buoyancy, 
eyen the extreme cutter has more than enough. She has, asa@fule, - 
double the fresaboard of a sloop and makes up in topsidés the yolume 
she lacks in her scant width, But has the “prominent” in question 
heard and seen nothing of Bedouin and Oriya this season and 
Yolande and Mona and others in the Seawanhaka weather which 
wiped the sloops out of the race? Is he aware that Bedouin, Oriva, 
and hundreds of “lead mines” catch it in nasty weather often enough 
and work through all, when shodler, beamier yachts are of no avail? 
Let him read Capt. Bayly’s letter in your issue last week, in which 
the narrow $14-ton Spankadillo is extolled as an abler and drier boat 
for hard work than his former Buccaneer of 12 tons, with a body much 
like that of our deeper sloops. Ileen, as narrow as the narrowest, is 
notably a dry and powerful ship, and so close-winded and weatherly 
that she earned the unfeizned admiration of our pilots, who found 
themselves dropping astern and to leeward in their schooners, famed 
all the world over for just those qualities which Heen was found to 
possess to a much greater degree. Madge made our sloops look 
foolish in the jump crossing Sandy Hook bar. Vixen, nor Fanita, nor 
any other sloop in our waters can make it race with Oriva im stiff 
weather, and lanny and Gracie are helpless, leewardly hulks in com- 
parison with Bedouin. ; 
To such a pass haye things come that, with the cutters ab the line, 
the sloops decline to appear. The owner of the Yixen has given ib up 
as a bad job and proposes to haye a new boat with which he hopes to 
be more successful in fighting Oriva, if courage enough can be 
mustered to fiy in the face uf fate which has decreed tha new Thetis 
of Boston a failure, and the new Athlon a stern chaser all season, 
Verve, on the Jakes, wins by hours in her class, beats the sloops in 
the class above, and puls to sea in weather which other yachts in the 
fleet, five and ten times her tonnage, do not care to try. With 17 
wins from the sloops satan 7 races lost, the New York cutters have 
yarquished the old style machine until the season wound up in the 
utter rout and disappearance of the sloop from the line, driven to 
earth as completely as Miranda has sent all schooners into oblivion 
on the other side of the water. But pile facts upontacts as high as a 
steeple and yourzirreconcilable would never be convinced, simply be- 
cause he does not want to besand won't. Lopine the time is now nigh 
when the like of the “prominent” yachtsman interviewed by the 
Herald will sing low, very low, and hide their heads, while the rest of 
the world keeps moving along on a new tack, oblivious that these 
false oracles ever existed and pretended to speak for American 
yachtsmen in general with a benighted verdancy which libels us all as 
an ignorant pack given to brag instead of reflection. 
The intelligent American knows three things well: That the nar 
rowest cutters yet built have been demonstrated infact the gablest 
and finest of sea boats. That they are the fastest of craft afloatin a 
sea or in light airs. That they are buoyant and lively to a degree not 
equaled by any other style of vessel, The ignorant American, the 
green yokel who has never been beyond his front garden gate, is the 
one who loftily pooh-poohs the coming of the cufter, who detects @ 
want of buoyancy in the Hnglish yacht and a lack of backbone in the 
English tar to take her to sea, and while closing his eyes to our im- 
pending disaster, howls patriotism in answer to his self-sufficient 
conceit and vanity. His doom is fortunately soon at hand, With 
Genesta, Galatea and the Warren vessel on the berth for these climes, 
the Herald's “‘prominent”’ yachtsman will have to come to the fore 
and shoulder the slugging suchas he has invited by fooling away 
time bowing to false gods, and inveigling others to continue their 
fealty to such ignoble specimens of marine architecture as our shoal 
centerboard sloops, i ; i 
So, gentlemen of the ancien regime, yesterday ‘“‘you were in no 
hurry to build that new sloop!” And to day you are quaking in your 
boots, and I fear you may back out in earnest, as good seuse returns 
and counsels the saying of your shekels froma losing game, Bul by 
all means heave ahead wilh that sloop, build a score of the things. 
To you Thetis, Athlon, Vixen, Wanita, Fanny, Gracie and Mischief, 
beaten, driven from the line, conveys no lesson. So let it be; learn 
then through a bad investment. Collect your kindling wood and ten- 
enny nails, tall wise with old Chip’s acrossthe Hast River, aud sling 
the apparatus together in time. Muster your bold clam diggers from 
the Great South Bay, and with Beenie at the wheel, let us see you 
stand by your colors to the last and go down with theslooptorise and 
pester the new generation no more with the tiresome brag and shat- 
tered dogmas to which you haye adhered with a faith childlike and 
bland throughout all adversity, and with a divinely coniplacent con- 
tempt for- fe lessons experimental carried out right under your 
noses. Victims the cutters must have, so victims lst Us fatten up tor 
Build the new sloops, gentlemen; do not falter, For, have you nob 
everything on your side? Is nob the cutter ‘-all wrong”? Is she not 
‘impossible’? Does she nob ‘Ing lead’? Heel over so frig tfully 
ag to ‘just let the wind blow right over her”? And will she not ‘just 
| slide right off toleeward"? And is she not “too heayy” te sail ‘in 
