July 8, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



477 



MAYFLOWER. 



EASTERN Y. C. 1 6TH REGATTA, JUNE 29. 

 rpHE race of last week at Boston brought to an end one of the 

 X most interesting series of races that has taken place in the his 

 toryof our yachting; races that derive a special importance from 

 the fact that they mark plainly the great changes that have taken 

 place in American yachting, and still further, from the indications 

 which they give of its future. While the weather m the three eailier 

 races at New York was not favorable to a thorough estimate of the 

 qualities of the boats, that of June 29 left nothing to be desired in 

 that respect; while each of the four served to emphasize some im 

 portant points that claim the attention of all. 



The first of these concerns most the past history of yachting, the 

 yachts of yesterday, now noticeable chiefly from their absence. In 

 the 4 races a total of 59 yachts competed, making 98 starts in all: 42 

 yachts with 71 entries being single siick vessels. Excluding the 4 

 new yachts as a special class, and considering only the classes which 

 have existed for years here, we find 38 yachts with 57 starts in the 

 4 races. Of these only 23 were of the old centerboard type, 4 of them 

 having lead keels; 4 were of the new centerboard lead keel type, 5 

 were keel sloops of mixed models, and 6 were thorough cutters. The 

 entries of these boats were: Old sloops 33, 6 first prizes; new type 8, 

 2 firsts; mixed keels 5, no prizes; cutters 11, 8 firsts. The figures in 

 tabular form are as follows- 



Old Sloops. New Type. Mixed Keels. Cutters. Total. 



Number of yachts 28 4 5 6 38 



Entries S3 8 5 31 57 



Prizes, lsts and 2ds 9 3 — 8 20 



Prizes, lsts 6 2 — 8 16 



The list of sloops is increased by some small boats entered in one 

 or two races. 



The above table tells its own lesson without any comment; the 

 races were the representative ones of the section which has always 

 been the leading one in American yachting. The boats which once 

 comprised the entire fleet have now actually passed away, they fig- 

 ure but poorly in the entries and worse in the -Bins, and the prizes go 

 to expatriated British yachts or their fellows of American build, 

 while to the latter also is largely due the interest in the races, the 

 onus of the work Calling on a few of them. 



The conclusions which follow these facts, however, must be modi- 

 fled by a second and most important feature of the races, the advent 

 of a new class in our regular club regattas. In every race the per- 

 formances of these new boats have dwarfed entirely all other features : 

 the large schooners have been completely overlooked; and some 

 wonderful work in the smaller classes has attraeted do comment nor 

 attention, all the interest concentrating in Puritan, Priseilla, May- 

 flower and Atlantic. Of course this interest is largely due to (he sue 

 cess of the class representative last fall in the Cup race; a success 

 which has awakened a national pride, not only among yachtsmen 

 but among people of all classes, and in the most remote inland sec- 

 tions; while it has also excited to a degree pi eviously unknown, the 

 friendly rivalry between our two great yachting centers, New York 

 and Boston. 



These yachts have proved very fast indeed, a quality which, above 

 all others, must commend them to racing yachtsmen, while in beauty 

 aud imposing appearance they ask no odds from the largest of the 

 schooners. What is to be their future is an unknown and important 

 problem that at this moment caDnot be answered. It seemea la-t 

 year as though when the special purpose for which they were built 

 existed no longer, they would be converted into schooners, owing to 

 the increased handiness aDd lessened cost of running. Since then 

 however, two new ones have been built, the old ones have found 

 single owners instead of the syndicates i hat originally built them, aid 

 their advantages have beoome apparent. The mere possession of one 

 is in itself a distinction, the room is such as to make life aboard very 

 much more comfortable than in the old 70ft. class ; as racers they are 

 very fast and far ahead of the schooners, and it seems probable that 

 the new first class will become a permanent institution. They are 

 the leading feature of the yachting of to-day, and already have ex- 

 ercised a visible influence on design and construction in this country 

 Much as we are concerned with the present, a far more important 

 subject of study for all friends of our great national sport is the 

 future of American yachting and especially the coming new national 

 type. It is beyond dispute that the boats of even five or six years 

 since, to say nothing of the older ones, have had their day. They 

 have virtually disappeared, and with them the false and mischievous 

 theories ou which they were constructed ; and now the que stion is, What 

 shal succeed themy A year ago it seemed probable that the extreme 

 English cutter would come into general favor here to a greater 

 degree than any other type. Bad Genesta won— and we know that 

 she was beaten by a very small margin in the race which really 

 decided tor the time the possession of the Cup- we Dot only would 

 have built narrow cutters, but with that characteristic tendency to 

 go to greater extremes than any one else has done, we should have 

 built cutters longer, narrower and deeper than any of the real arti- 

 cles. That such boats, whatever excellence they might have pos- 

 sessed in point of speed and safety, would suit the general want is 

 hardly probable. The conditions here differ too much from those 

 which have produced the extreme cutter abroad, and tried by these 

 conditions the type would probably in time have given place to 

 something better suited to local requirements. ■ 

 Puritan won by a minute and a half, cutter stock fell and no cut- 



ters have since been built here. The new boats of the season have, 

 as was to be expected, followed very closely the victorious boat, the 

 two most noticeable examples being Cinderella in New York and the 

 new Vandal in Boston. Let us see what this new type really i°. First 

 and foremost it has the centerboard, a thoroughly American feature; 

 but this board works through a distinctly marked keel, projecting 

 some distance below the hull proper, and this keel is of lead. Of 

 tuese features, form and material, the latter is peculiar to English 

 oracticr-, and the former has always been the exception here and the 

 rule in England. Again, these boats possess the beam that is a char- 

 acteristic of American as distinguished from English practice, 

 though this beam is less than it was a few years since and promises 

 to decrease still more. This, it is true, is a great difference, a May- 

 flower of 23ft. and a Galatea of 15ft. on the same length; but to offset 

 this the j ig of these new boats is taken bodily from the pure cutter 

 tpye except as to the two minor details, a laced mainsail and a 

 fixed bowsprit. Two of the four boats have indeed followed to a 

 certain extent the proportions of the sloop rig only to change for the 

 cutter, in one case with a very marked improvement, the other not 

 having yet been tried. In depth, draft and displacement the new 

 type has nothing in common with the ancient flatirons, but leans 

 strongly toward the same narrow cutter, approaching nearer all the 

 time. 



This, then, is the boat hailed in some quarters as a representative 

 of American ideas; a boat derived mainly from a thorough study of 

 Eoglisb, not American practice and theory, untrammeled by the rule 

 which has put British designers under such a handicap. No doubt 

 the type has much to recommend it, no doubt but that it is well 

 adapted to our wants, but the battle was not fought out to a close 



last September, and there is plenty of fight still left in the narrow 

 cutter before she is driven from our waters. Genesta was beaten, 

 Galatea may be, but to-day, when the first craze after a novelty has 

 well worn off, the cutters are holding the leading places in our races 

 and taking the prizes from all but the big four. This year thev 

 already claim half the wins. Bedouin promises to rival her string of 

 1S84. 8 firsts to 9 starts, while Clara has proved simply a mat vel to 

 all who have watched her racing. Narrowest of the narrow, deeper 

 than any, she has sailed eight races this season and won eight, 

 firsts, leaving all her class far behind: at the finish and cutting in 

 ahead of m ost of the class above. In view of the success of even* 

 this one boat of the type, its possibilities for speed must be admitted 

 and speed will always be at a premium here. These two types, then 

 the narrow keel cutter built under the Y. R. A. rule, and the wide 

 centerboard cutter built outside of such a rule, are pitted against 

 each other, the only part left to the American sloop being to blunder 

 about the courses and get in the way of the real competitors; what 

 will be the result of the contest? 



Just here may be noted a curious point that has never been com- 

 mented on. In the past a man largely shaped his yachting by the 

 boats at his command. Except in the large schooner class where 

 keels were sometimes found there was no boat to be had here but a 

 shoaJ, wide centerboard yacht of light displacement and badly can- 

 vassed and ballasted. Provided with this boat he soon found the 

 limit within which it was not too dangerous, and carefully kept within 

 that boundary, except in a very few instances. How is it to-day? 

 The modern yachtsman has a range of vessels offered to him that 

 are suited to all purposes, the shoal sharpie for Florida, the medium 

 boat for our ordinary harbors, the newer and deeper type for racing 

 and a wider range of cruising 1 , and the cutter of moderate beam, like 

 Bedouin or narrower, like the Clara, for bolder flights seaward The 

 difference is easily seen, of old the yachting was made to fit one type 

 of yacht; to-day a dozen varieties of vessels offer a choice of any 

 kind of yachting, while the yachtsman has been trained to exercise 

 thought and judgment in the selection of a boat for his special ends 

 One result must follow this, that no single type will be adopted to 

 the exclusion of all others, but that several will flourish side by side 

 varying from each other as much as the Great South Bay and the 

 sounds and passages of Florida do from the broad Atlantic' Of these 

 types ti e leading ones for many a day will in all probability be either 

 like Purit an or a keel cutter of greater beam than is permissible under 

 the English rule. 



Intimately connected with the future of yachting is a subject that 

 has been brought up more prominently than ever before in the late 

 races; that of a racing classification. Let it be understood, first and 

 foremost, that an agitation of this subject is not throwing another 

 stone into the now comparatively quiet waters of the time allowance 

 question. No such disturbance is intended and none will ensue 

 American yacht clubs may follow the charmingly inane methods 

 of time allowance and measurement that have long been dear 

 to too many of them, and at the same time may join in an effort 

 to establish a sensible system of division into classes according to 

 waterlme length, the allowance between various yachts in each elass 

 not being in the least affected. Never before has the subject been 

 brought so prominently into notice as in these races, and especially 

 in that of last week. J 



The classification in each of our clubs has grown up in a desultory 

 way. entirely independent of any scientific or reasonable basis 

 Certain siz-s of yachts have become popular in each club and the 

 classes have followed the accidental grouping. In time, as yachts 

 were added, they were built for one of these classes, and as long as 

 no interclub contests arose there was no trouble. Following the im- 

 pulse given to yachting of late years, open races have become much 

 more c jmmon, and the boats of one club may be found in the races 

 of hair a dozen others in a season. Now, no two are likely to have 

 the same system of classification, as is well instanced in the four 

 large clubs in question. The New York has heretofore divided ii s 

 single stick yachts as follows; 55ft. and over; under 55ft and not 

 under 45ft ; under 45ft. The Seawanhaka has followed these classes 

 adding two: 35ft. and less than 45: under 35ft. The Atlantic has 60ft' 

 and over; 50ft. and under 60ft.; 42ft. and under 50ft. : 35ft. and under 

 43ft.; 30ft. and under 35ft.; 26ft. and under 30ft.; under 26ft. In the 

 SS sU?r 1 S Y- C - lC is 5fft - or over; 40£c - anrJ under 55ft. ; 30ft. and under 

 40«. Now a new class has claimed a place, and to meet it the New 

 Yo- k Y. C. has established a class of 70ft. and over, just brineinsr in a 



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'"^ ouuiojaim, luc iu. l, ^. uavt) gone Up lO 1011 



Y. C. simply offered an exira prize for a special class. 



The fauf s of such a lack of system are readily teen where yachts 

 may be built to class in one club land then wish to race in another 

 while the shortcomings of the individual methods were well shown in 

 the L. Y.C., where Ulidia, a lOtonner of 42ft , was matched with Clara, 

 a 20 ton ner of 53ft. At no previous time has the subject attained to 

 such importance, which must increase from year to year; and at do 

 time in the future can a change be made so readily and with so little 

 friction as now. Our yachts are of all sizes, while just at present the 

 fleet of actual race) s is very small. Year by year as new yachts are 

 built in each club the difficulty of changing becomes greater The 

 subject is far too important a one to do justice to here, but we leave it 

 to the consideration of yachtsmen, promising to take it up at an early 

 date in a more thorough manner. 



Passing from a general consideration of the subject to the last race 

 of the series one point of difference between this race and its prede- 

 cessors is very plain as far as the large yachts are concerned In the 

 three races at New York the times showed little, the results were not 

 conclusive and a careful analysis of the race was necessary to anv 

 fair estimate of the yachts. At Boston all was different, a slashing- 

 breeze sent them flying over a course that was perfectly fair to all 

 and no study of details is necessary to reach a definite conclusion 



To Puritan must unhesitatingly be awarded the first place' on 

 account of her splendid work; Mayflower did very well at times and 

 ful y bore out our opinion that she will ultimately prove the fastest 

 of the four. Priseilla sailed very fast, steaming over the first two 



< 1 J 



MAP OF E. Y. C. COURSE. 



