190 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aug. 31, 1805. 



reported that arrangements have been made to dock her after each 

 race, so as to insure that the bottom is in perfect condition. 



With such special precautions as these, there is no reason why a 

 painted wooden bottom cannot be had which will be equal to or even 

 better than copper; the advantage of the metal coming in when a 

 yacht has to race for a couple of weeks or more without docking. In 

 this respect the American boat will have a certain decided advantage 

 over the challenger, the thick plates of Tobin bronze or manganese 

 bronze being much more even than thin copper sheathing in small 

 plates. 



While the dockyard men were at work on the outside of the hull, 

 carpenters were busy on deck removing the rail and bulwarks from 

 a point forward of the mast back to the archboard and then replacing 

 the rail on low chocks, leaving only a footrail without bulwarks. The 

 interior fittings, light as they are, were also taken out, as the crew is 

 berthed in hammocks on the City of Bridgeport. During the races the 

 yacht will be entirely bare inside, the same as the American boats. 

 The crew found plenty to occupy them about the decks, and in reeving 

 off gear, scraping and varnishing spars, and similar work; but they 

 stuck bravely to their task, and by Saturday night all was completed 

 save the bending of the second mainsail which Mr. Ratsey brought 

 over in the Paris, arriving on Saturday afternoon. 



The usual stock reports of serious straining, seams started and riv- 

 ets sheared, were set in circulation as soon as the yacht arrived, but 

 the docking failed to show anything in corroboration of these ca- 

 nards; the hull showed even less straining than in the case of Valkyrie 

 II., in which the oakum was loosened in the seams near the extreme 

 end of the counter. The seams of the new boat showed little strain, 

 the putty being in good condition, a few of the bolts through the 

 planking had lost their nuts, and were replaced. There was no evi- 

 dence, in either seams or bolts, that the yacht had|strained or worked. 



The form ot the hull has been clearly shown by the various photo- 

 graphs published some time since, and there is comparatively little 

 left to be said by way of description. 



In view of the dangerous dimensions of the challenger, that patriotic 



and at the extreme after end; a plane that gave steadiness in running 

 and in a quartering wind, but that was a fatal handicap to that quick- 

 ness of maneuvering which is a prime requisite in modern match 



In the new Valkyrie everything is different. With but 4ft. more 

 length of waterline, the draft, as disclosed for the first time by the 

 docking, and in the face of many "exclusive" stories, is at least 20ft., 

 possibly an inch or two more; the sternpost is placed forward, well 

 under the boat, and the straight bottom of the keel is less than 35ft. 

 long in place of 50. The rudder is quite wide and carries its width 

 down toward the heel; it is deeply immersed in solid water, far below 

 the surface; the lateral plane is, roughly speaking, 90ft. long on the 

 upper edge, 25ft. long on the lower edge and 30ft. deep— a very different 

 thing from that of Vigilant, 86ft. on upper edge, 50ft. on lower and 

 13ft. deep. There can be little doubt that Valkyrie III. will be a quick- 

 working boat, probably quite as lively in stays as her predecessor. 



It is not impossible that Defender may be capable of swinging 

 around in a few seconds less, but in practice, as long as a boat will 

 tack surely and quickly and is not notably slow, like Vigilant, it makes 

 no difference whether she takes 15 seconds or 20; nothing is gained by 

 turning so quickly that the sheets cannot be handled fast enough. 

 The probabilities are that both boats in the Cup races will be capable 

 of quick turning and will be tested at it to the utmost in the starting. 



Tne difference between Vigilant and Valkyrie II. off the wind, espe- 

 cially as shown in the last race of 1893, was too great to be passed 

 unnoticed, and it looks as though Mr. Watson had "copied" Vigilant 

 by a rigid comparison of the lateral planes, including the rudders and 

 the centerboard of the two boats, discarding some of the prominent 

 features of his old form and adopting with careful discrimination the 

 best features of his rival. If he has really done this, he is just so 

 much ahead of the designer of Defender, who has passed by Gloriana 

 and Wasp and adopted a different and apparently faulty form, that of 

 Valbyrie n. 



The lead of Valkyrie is a very large mass, of triangular form and 

 some 8ft. high at the fore end, the top raking down to a couple of feet 



■■■ ■ 



VALKYRIE III. IN DRY DOCK, ERIE BASIN. 



policy which claims Queen Mab and Minerva as sloops is being fol- 

 lowed by some writers in the attempt to show that Valkyrie III. is but a 

 copy of Vigilant, but such a statement is very wide of the truth. The 

 charge of copying naturally carries with it the inference that the 

 copyist has appropriated blindly and ignorantly the good and bad 

 features of the pattern, with no appreciation of their value. That the 

 new boat is more like Vigilant than like Marjorie, Thistle or even 

 Valkyrie II. is very true, so far as it goes; but no one who is familiar 

 with Valkyrie III. and Vigilant can honestly claim that the two are 

 alike save in a very general way. What is true Is that this time Mr. 

 Watson has considered solely the conditions of the Cup races and has 

 designed his boat to meet them; and in doing this he has studied the 

 successful boat of 1893 very thoroughly, accepting some features and 

 rejecting others that are quite as characteristic and prominent. 



The resemblance of Valkyrie III. to Vigilant rests on three points— 

 the possession ot the same extreme beam, the form of the midship 

 section, and the keel contour. As far as the beam is concerned, 26ft. 

 in each boat, in the one case it is employed on a waterline of 90ft and 

 in the other of but 86ft , making quite a difference in the proportion. 

 The midship sections of the two boats, apart from a very great differ- 

 ence due to the extra draft of Valkyrie, resemble each other when 

 compared with older and very different boats, but when compared 

 directly together each shows the individual characteristics of its 

 designer. After watching the performance of Vigilant when heeled, 

 rolling her weather side high out of water, it is hardly to be expected 

 that Mr. Watson would adopt the same midship section, nor has he 

 done so; there is less of the barrel bottom, and more of the straight 

 deadrise and strongly marked bilge of Valkyrie II. The section, so far 

 as it can be cut by eye from the solid form of the hull when surround- 

 ed by staging and half bare of paint, is a more carefully drawn and 

 better one than that of Vigilant. 



The beam and midship section of Vigilant are emphasized by their 

 union with the extreme fullness of waterline, both forward and aft 

 which characterized Mr. Herreshoff's work in 1892-3, as in Wasp, 

 Vigilant and the small fin keels— a fullness that has been abandoned 

 this season. The extreme round of the midship section was carried 

 forward to the hawsepipe and aft to the transom through this full 

 waterline, making a long, full bilge extending from end to end. 



In Valkyrie the beam and midship section are associated with a 

 much finer waterline, the round of the middle frame disappearing 

 quickly both forward and aft, the bow frames being of a marked V 

 Bhape, while the counter and quarters may be termed fine, even with 

 no comparison to the very full ones of Vigilant. While the yacht is 

 not what some predicted, all middle and no ends, she is nevertheless 

 fine and easy at both extremities, and with nothing to cause the tre- 

 mendous waves which are said to have terrified the spectators on the 

 shores of the Clyde. To our eye, however, she is not the fur and 

 sweet boat that Valkyrie. II. was, nor is Bhe equal to Britannia; the ex- 

 treme dimensions, not alone the beam, but the shallowness of the bull, 

 prohibit the handsome lines of the more moderate craft. 



Taking now the sheer plan, above water there is no resemblam «. to 

 Vigilant, the counter radically different both in the deck outline and 

 in the transverse sections, being more like chat of Queen Mab and 

 other well-known Watson boats. The sheer is very different from 

 that of Vigilant, and the boat makes a better appearance afloat Be- 

 low water there is a certain resemblance in the keel contour but 

 under conditions which contradict all charges of mere copying 



The peculiar outline of keel which was one of the marked charac- 

 teristics of Valkyrie II., and which has been adopted as closely as pos- 

 sible in Defender, is entirely absent in the new Valkyrie, The ex- 

 treme angle of the sternpost has given place to much less rake, about 

 the same as that of Vigilant; the rounded bottom of the keel in the 

 second Valkyrie is replaced by a straight piece slightly raked upward 

 as in Vigilant, in the third Valkyrie; for the rest, this straight keel is 

 carried by a quick curve into the stempieca Bharply raked at the 

 waterline. 



These points of resemblance, however, are accompanied by such 

 strongly marked differences as to make the result anything but a 

 copy. In vigilant the extreme draft was but 13ft., the straight keel 

 was about 50ft. long on the bottom, and the sternpost was directlv at 

 the after end of the waterline, while beneath the fore end of the 

 straight keel was the deep triangle of the centerboard. The result 

 WB8 a long but shallow lateral plane, with the rudder at the surface 



at the heel. It is not bulbed, but is very thi^k through, and as it is 

 probably nearly equal in weight to that of Defender, it must be still 

 more effective through its lower center of gravity due to the greater 

 draft and straight line of the bottom. 



After seeing the yacht we have little doubt of her power under all 

 normal conditions of Cup racing, or even in a blow under proper can- 

 vas; if Defender can stand up, as she undeniably does, with much less 

 beam and bilge, and also less draft, Valkyrie, should be able to carry 

 easily her extra canvas and big spars. 



The work above deck, which, by the way, is another "steal," purely 

 American (?), is worth longer and more careful study than is possi- 

 ble on a first view. The first impression (after watching Defender in 

 a number of races) is that the rig of Valkyrie is very heavy; the 

 second impression, after a more careful view, is that it is about right, 

 as fine a piece of rigging as has yet been seen on this side, with all 

 regard to the many improvements of rig introduced by Mr. Herres- 

 hoff in the past four years. 



The mast is long and large, a fine stick of Oregon pine, said to be 

 26in. in diameter at the largest part. The tendency for several years, 

 on the part of Mr. Watson, as well as many others, has been to cross 

 the cutter rig with the mongrel "Cape cat" with a jib, or to cut down 

 the headsails, as in Queen Mab and Valkyrie II., for the sake of a 

 large mainsail. In the new boat Mr. Watson has gone backward- 

 several feet— the mast is noticeably further aft than in Defender and 

 other modern boats. According to the latest ideas, this is the wrong 

 thing to do for windward work; but again there comes in the supe- 

 rior speed of Vigilant over Valkyrie II. off the wind. The spars of a 

 real 90 footer are immense sticks, the boats are boldly cut away for- 

 ward, and whatever advantage may be gained by a large mainsail and 

 small headsails on the wind, some consideration is due to the fact 

 that when free an immense weight of mast, boom and gaff is thrown 

 very far forward. Added to this is the question of size of spinaker- 

 it looks as though the races' of Vigilant with Valkyrie II. in 1893 and 

 with Britannia in 1894 had left Mr. Watson well satisfied with the 

 windward work of his boats, and that his efforts this year had been 

 largely directed to improving them off the wind. 



The boom we have already described; though a wooden one is in 

 readiness, the steel one will probably be used. A steel mast is also on 

 its way over, but the pine one will probably be kept in the boat. The 

 gaff is very long, a fine hollow stick, and the topmast is a big spar 

 The rig is very carefully planned, with some entirely new details, 

 hough the leading of the shrouds to the masthead has been copied 

 from the Herreshoff boats, and the forward strut and stay first put 

 on Colonia by Capt. Haff is also used. 



One striking feature is the use of single parts of flexible wire wher- 

 ever possible, the throat halliards have a single block on the gaff and 

 two Bingle blocks aloft, one on each side of the masthead. The hal- 

 liard is of flexible wire, rove through the three blocks, with one end 

 to haul down and hook on deck, while the other is set up with a jig.' 

 The other halliards are rigged in a similar manner, and wherever 

 possible single blocks are used In place of double or triple. The blocks 

 have shells of thin sheet steel perforated with many small holes to 

 reduce the weight. There are three travelers, the after one on the 

 extreme taffrail. 



The construction of the stern is peculiar; there is a strong inner 

 framework of steel plate, ending in a steel plate transom, as in a 

 metal vessel. The hood ends of the planking are carried out to the 

 transom plate and cut off square to the outer surface of the planking 

 and not on a line with the face of the plate. The plate thus appears 

 to be ler* used or set in, being some 2in. inside of the extreme ends of 

 the plap' ,ng. The after traveler is carried on this steel frame of the 

 transon 



One novelty is the double quarter-lift, two parts on each side, lead- 

 ing to two points on the boom, but running to the same block at the 

 masthead. The mast carries the ordinary wooden masthoops. and the 

 upper rib of the steel boom carries a light steel angle on which slide 

 the toggles for the sail lacing. The wooden spreaders are very thor- 

 oughly braced in a different manner from the American boats and 

 many small details of the gear are new. The rig has a substantial and 

 wholesome look that has met the approval of yachtsmen generally 

 and, though many comments are passed on its apparent weight as 

 compared with that of Defender, its manifest advantages are fully 

 appreciated. 



On Sunday, while Capt. Cranfleld stayed by the yacht, the men were 

 rewarded for their hard week's work by a trip on the City of Bridge- 

 port up the Hudson Paver. Mr. T. W. Ratsey, the sailmaker, with his 

 assistants, arrived in New York by the Paris on Saturday, and at once 

 joined the yacht, being domiciled with Mr. Glennie on the Bridgeport. 

 On Monday morning the yacht was floated from the basin and went 

 down the bay. 



Beverly Y. C. 



The 226th race, third open, was sailed off Quissett, Aug. 17, for 

 prizes presented by gentlemen of Falmouth, and drew a good «ntry. 

 Wind was S.E. by S., moderate at start, good wholesail breeze at fin- 

 ish. Special class sailed a triangle of — miles, one leg dead to windward; 

 second and knockabouts had little beating, a long and short leg. It was 

 impossible to get good windward course. Other classes went round a 

 mark that should have been 2L£, but was 1% miles dead to windward 

 and return: third and fourth classes sailing course twice. Allowances 

 are based on the real length of course. 



In special class Salmon and Ashumet sailed a good race; Zenobia, 

 just home from a cruise, was hardly in it, while in first class Mistral 

 beat Little Peter, the favorite, by 34s. 



Kalama got her day in second class, while the old Surprise did well. ' 

 Melro won in third, with Crosby's new boat a good second. Sippican 

 made third best time, but awaits measurement and the ascertainment 

 of the number of men carried. 



In fourth cats Howard won as usual, but Dawdle was close up, and 

 in the fifth class sloops the two prizes lie between Raccoon and Laurel, 

 depending on former's length. 



Grilse led in fourth sloops, but Sylph won on allowance. Silence 

 started in a race at last, but is too lightly built to hold together, and 

 came back twisted out of shape and full of water. 



Vif took first in fifth cats, with Frolic and Scup second and third. 

 The spritsails sailed on actual time. 



Knockabout prize is withheld till Hurricane is measured. 



SPIECIAL CLASS. 



. , Length. Elapsed. Corrected, 



Ashumet. C. H. Jones, B. Y. C 34.03 2 SO 58 



Salmon, W. E. C. Eustis, B. Y. C 38.06 2 38 18 



Zenobia, J. E. Rothwell, B. Y. C 2 41 59 



FIRST CLASS SLOOPS. 



Little Peter, W. G. Cotton, B. Y. C 28.10 2 10 25 1 59 00 



Mistral, R. J. Edwards, B. Y. C 27.07 2 11 29 1 58 32 



Falcon, J. S. Russell, B. Y. C 27.00 2 18 41 2 05 37 



Sistae, J. R. Rhodes, N. B. Y. C 28.06 2 21 58 2 10 12 



SECOND CLASS CATS. 



Kalama, C. Brewer, B. Y. C 26.09 2 19 03 2 03 53 



Bernice, J. G. Young, Jr., B. Y. C 25.08 2 21 31 2 05 52 



Surprise, J. M. Codman, B. Y. 24.01 2 22 42 2 04 35 



Anonyrra, F. L. Dabney, B. Y. C 24.10 2 24 31 2 08 11 



Addie, C. E. Eldridge, Falmouth 2 28 35 



Orchid, G. A. Osborg, Falmouth 22.08 2 33 30 2 13 6i 



THIRD CLASS CATS. 



Melro, D. L. Whittemore, B. Y. C 20.03 1 19 51 1 07 20 



No Name, D. Crosby, Osterville 20.05 1 20 48 1 08 27 



Sippican, Eben Holmes, Marion 1 21 42 



Gilt Edge, D. L. Whittemore, B. Y. C 21.10 1 24 53 1 13 54 



Colymbus, A. Winsor, B. Y. C 21.06 1 26 57 1 14 39 



Doris, J. Parkinson, B. Y. C 21.01 1 28 25 1 16 44 



No Name, R. Vreeder, Quissett 17.10 1 42 30 1 27 19 



Algonquin, — Knoblaucfl, Quissett 19.07 1 42 35 1 29 23 ' 



Francesca, J. G. Sherrett, Falmouth Withdrew. 



KNOCKABOUTS. 



Bob, Edear Harding, B. Y. C 23.01 2 43 23 2 23 27 



Hurricane, R. P. Owens, Mon. Beach 2 46 34 



Kitten, J. Malcolm Forbes, B. Y. C 18.02 2 48 00 2 19 25 



FOURTH CLASS SLOOPS. 



Grilse, W E. C. Eustis, B. Y. C 19.01 1 22 44 1 08 59 



Sylph, N. Huckins, Jr., B. Y. C 17.04 1 23 37 1 07 49 



Silence, J. Crane, Jr., B. Y. 1 34 18 



FOURTH CLASS CATS. 



Howard. H. O. Miller. B. Y. 18.01 1 28 24 1 13 31 



Cinch, H. Parker, B. Y C 18.01 1 29 28 1 14 35 



Dawdle, R. S. Hardy, B. Y. C 17.08 1 29 52 1 14 17 



FIFTH CLASS SLOOPS. 



Laurel. F. and H. Burgess. B. Y. C 14.00 48 41 38 23 



Raccoon, J. L. Stackpole, Jr., B. Y. C 49 01 



P D Q, R W. Emmons, B. Y. C 52 13 



Transit, Shearer, Quissett 53 06 



FIFTn CLASS CATS 



Frolic, Butler, Falmouth 16.10 52 38 44 25 



Vif, R Winsor, B Y. C 14.04 52 49 42 48 



Scup, Dalgrin 57 57 



No Name, Sargent 1 01 59 



Mary E, Coombs 13.10 10341 



Iola, Stackpole Withdrew. 



SPRtTSAILS. 



No. 61, Edgar Harding 50 08 



No. 66, Hibbard 57 45 . 



Trilby, Purden 58 16 



No. 65, Edgar Harding 58 39 



Florence, W. R. Evans 59 06 



No. 80. Foster 1 00 06 



No. 56, A. Bragg 1 01 02 



Winners of prizes: Special class, Ashumet first; first class sloops, 

 Mistral first. Little Peter ReeOnd; .second class cats, Kalama first, Sur- 

 prise second, Bernice third; third class cats, Melro first. No Name 

 second; fourth class sloops, Sylph first; fourth class eats, Howard 

 first: fifth class cats, Vif first, Frolic second, Scup third; spritsails, 

 E. Harding first, Hibbard second, Trilby third. 



Judges: W. Lloyd Jeffries, A. H. Hardv, N. H. Emmons. 



Seawanhaka C. Y. C. Cup. 



The first trial race for the Seawanhaka C. Y. C. international chal- 

 lenge cup was sailed on Monday, Aug. 23, in a moderate breeze and 

 smooth water, being won by Ethel wynn, with Olita second, out of a 

 fleet of seven starters. The morning was very calm, the fleet turning 

 out and making fast in a long string to the big spar buoy off Center 

 Island. About 2 P. M., a light southerly breeze came in, and the start- 

 ing gun was fired at 2:20. The course was a triangle of two mile 

 sides, sailed twice or twelve miles, the third leg being to windward, so 

 that the other two were sailed with booms well off the quarter, there 

 being no spinaker work. The starters were the centerboard boats 

 Olita, designed by N. G. Herreshoff; Ethelwynn, designed by W. P. 

 Stephens; Indienne, Question, designed by L. K. Huntington; F. and 

 R., designed and built by F. & R. Wyckoff, and the fin-keels, Trust 

 Me, designed by Herreshoff, and Trilby, designed by Chas. Al instead. 



Trilby made a good start, though fouled by Ethelwynn under the 

 stern of the flagship. Ethelwynn took the lead in the first quarter of 

 a mile, but was in turn passed by Olita, the latter showing great speed 

 in reaching. These two soon led the fleet and had the race to them- 

 selves. Olita made a minute in the first two-mile reach and over two 

 minutes on Ethelwynn in the second. On the beat to the line, Ethel- 

 wynn made up two minutes, doing better work on the wind than Olita, 

 though the latter overstood a little. Question left the leaders and 

 steered to the westward, coming to the turn a good third. 



On the second round, with a fairly good breeze, ulita made over 

 3m. on Ethelwynn in the four miles of reaching. When she turned 

 the second mark she took the same course as in the first round, a long 

 port tack to the eastward, apparently the best course. Ethelwynn 

 tacked at the mark and stood in a long starboard tack to the Lloyd's 

 Neck shore, apparently getting the strong ebb from Oyster Bay in the 

 weather bow. Though not evident to the spectators, the wind was 

 stronger inshore, and when the two boats came together, Ethelwynn 

 crossed Olita's bows very easily and came in first. This result was in 

 part due to luck, but Ethelwynn showed up the better of the two on 

 the wind. The official times were: 



Start. First round. Second round. Elapsed. 



Ethelwynn 2 20 15 1 46 40 1 29 55 3 16 15 



Olita 2 20 30 1 44 57 1 33 12 3 18 09 



Question 2 20 40 1 43 20 1 37 07 3 25 07 



Trilby 2 20 13 1 50 27 1 35 57 3 26 37 



Trust Me , . .2 20 37 1 56 43 1 43 45 3 40 33 



F. and R 2 20 33 1 57 52 1 54 12 3 5'3 14 



Indienne 2 21 24 2 04 56 Withdrew. 



The races will be continued on Tuesday and Wednesday. 



A correspondent of the Meld criticises as follows the action of Mr. 

 Brand in visiting America when he had already accepted a challenge 

 to race at home: 

 "Editor of the Meld: 



"A few weeks ago some remarks were made in your columns which 

 rather unjustly inferred that Mr. W. Willard Howard deliberately 

 kept his canoe Yankee in America, and, by making his challenge 

 months before, caused English canoemen -to build to meet him, 

 although he had no intention of racing whatever. Now, it has been 

 fully explained, both in your and other yachting papers, why Yankee 

 did not appear at Greenhithe for the B. C. C. challenge cup, so what 

 say ye to the action of one of your own countrymen, and he no other 

 than one who is thought to be your American representative? This 

 gentleman accepted a challenge for a lady (Miss Bennett, winner of 

 last year's B. C A. ladies' race) to meet Mrs. Howard this summer on 

 the Solent. No small amount of notice was taken of this race in em- 

 bryo, both by the American and English press, and, being regarded as 

 settled, the contest evoked great interest. Mr. Howard had a J«;-rater 

 specially built to meet Spruce IV., which was Miss Bennett's'craft. 

 Now, the acceptor of the challenge, finding that some pleasure trip 



