Nov. 16, 1895. 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



4SS 



the subject taken uo at the beginning of yachting in America— ahout 

 1845. The first yachts were keel boats, closely related, through Boy- 

 ish models, to th» smaller sizes of revenue cutters and commercial 

 yessels. About New York, the birthplace of American yachting, the 

 deeper portions of the waier-frout were already taken up, even at 

 that early day: there were no wealthy yacht clubs with luxurious 

 houses and costly basins and anchorage grounds; and the few individ- 

 ual yachtsmen were glad to find safe and inexpensive moorings on 

 the mud flats of Communioaw, Gowanus a»id Hoboken. A very brief 

 experience of the few available yacht anchorages showed how unsuit- 

 able they were for even the shoaler of the existing keel yachts; and 

 with the then famous North River packet and freight sloops before 

 them as models, yachtsmen very naturally drifted into the exclusive 

 use of the shoal centerboard type. At first this worked to the advan- 

 tage of the infant sport; the yachts were inexpensive in construction, 

 their proportions and models permitted the use of stone or slag for 

 ballast, they could be readily beaobed for cleaning, or hauled up for 

 the winter, without the use of railways, and suitable anchorage could 

 be had at no expense. In such early yachts as the Steers'oe sloop Julia, 

 in which the ceoterboard was used only as an adjunct to a vessel of 

 good proportions and model, the influence of the board was beneficial; 

 but before many years the whole desigu of the yacht was subordi- 

 nated to the centerboard. Without tracing in detail the many steps 

 of the change, it is only necessary to note the contrast between the 

 keel yacht of 1845 and the early centerboard yachts, on the one hand, 

 and, on the other, the extreme centerboard type which was in univer- 

 sal use in America in 1880. 



The centerboard lent itself as a willing accessory to the sacrifice of 

 that depth which is essential to a safe range of "stability; mere sail- 

 carrying power being derived from an excess of beam, which was but 

 an additional element of danger. In the search for speed under special 

 local conditions, mainly those of summer racing, the true principles 

 of naval architecture, so apparent in the work of George Steers and 

 others of the earlier designers, were utterly ignored, and a most 

 dangerous and vicious school of designing prevailed throughout 

 American yachting. 



Taking the centerboard sloop and schooner as they were up to 1880, 

 dangerously shoal and wide in model: often clumsily built of soft 

 wood with the poorest fastenings; faultily ballasted with stone and 

 iron inside; the hull inherently weak in form from the great beam and 

 lack of proportionate depth; the entire middle portion of keel and 

 floors cut away, with the familiar "hinge joint" where the mast, was 

 stepped, just forward of the trunk; and with the deck construction 

 made worse than useless as an element of strength through the ab- 

 sence of all beams in the middle portion of the vessel and the presence 

 of a great superstructure, the cabin trunk— the accepted laws of 

 naval design and construction fail to give any reason why such 

 craft capsized no of tener and kept afloat as long as they did; and we 

 can only fall back, for an explanation, on the doctrine of a special 

 providence. 



Whatever may be urged for the shoal centerboard type under cer- 

 tain conditions and In skilled hands, the universal adoption of one ex- 

 treme of this type for all purposes, and to the complete exclusion of 

 all other types, was as criminal as it was discreditable to the technical 

 knowledge of a nation which had before, as it has since, produced the 

 finest pleasure craft ever floated; and the loss of life, which even now 

 continues in a lesser degree, is something fearful to contemplate, The 

 historic capsize of the huge schoooner yacht Mohawk in 1876, drown- 

 ing owner, wife and friends, was but a trivial incident compared with 

 the innumerable drownings from smaller eraft of equally bad design. 

 That certain yachts of this same type have at times made excellent 

 records in hard-weather races, and even at sea (as instanced by the 

 shoal schooner Vesta in the midwinter ocean race of 18663, in no way 

 disproves the serious charges brought against it by its opponents, or 

 justifies its once universal use. 



Tbia is one side of the centerboard question, and a very serious and 

 practical one; but there is another which is much pleasanter to look 

 at. The immense areas of shoal water on the ocean and lake coast of 

 the United States and their tributary rivers have called for light draft 

 as the one prime requisite, and especially was this the case before the 

 days of the steamboat and the railroad. At that period the shoal 

 draft sloop or schooner was the sole means of communication, to 

 mention only one typical locality, between New York and the cities of 

 the Hudson River end Long Island Sound, as well as the numerous 

 small places frcmwbioi came bricks, lumber and all varieties of farm 

 produce. The whuio local coasting commerce, both passenger and 

 freight, was carried in vessels of 3 to 6ft. extreme draft, whatever 

 their other dimensions. On such limited draft any considerable 

 amount of appendage outside of the hull proper, for the purpose of 

 Increasing the lateral resistance, was impossible; and, with little or no 

 keel, the early vessels were dependent, for what windward power they 

 had, mainly on the clumsy Dutch leeboards. The real development of 

 this inland trade only began with the adoption of the centerboard 

 (first used on the Hudson River about 1830). 



From this time on until the river and Sound trade was monopolized 

 by the steamboats and railroads, some time in the sixties, tbe center- 

 board coaster was developed into a national institution; soon extend- 

 ing beyond the first narrow limits of hay and river navigation, and 

 finding a permanent and useful place in the coasting trade between 

 New York, Boston, Philadelphia and the ports north and south from 

 -Halifax to the West Indies and South America. In the hands of com- 

 petent and honest shipwrights the centerboard coasting schooner has 

 disproved all theories as to the non-utility of the type for sea-going 

 purposes; in a hull of moderate first cost and running expense it has 

 carried safely, swiftly and profitably its cargoes of coal, lumber, 

 sugar, firewood, barley, bricks or general freight, both on the lakes 

 and on the Atlantic; up and down the "Beach," across Nantucket 

 Shoals and around Hatteras in winter, light or loaded, taking in and 

 landing its cargoes in localities inaccessible to the keel vessel? In the 

 ocean coasting trade it has been, and still is, a powerful factor for 

 good, and in the local trade'it has been a godsend to the small farmer 

 or miller or lumberman, carrying his product cheaply and safely from 

 his own small creek or bay to a profitable market. In the face of such 

 practical results all theories as to the initial weaknes of the center- 

 board type or its inferiority as a sea-going vessel must stand aside; 

 numerous instances of bad design and construction may be found, it 

 is true, but they prove nothing against the type itself in capable 

 hands. Prominent among the centerboard working vessels are the 

 schooners used in the oyster trade between New York and Virginia, 

 one of the fastest and best of which, the William H. Van Name, is de- 

 scribed in the appendix. 



Returning now to yachting, the popular appreciation which has so 

 justly greeted the successful Defender marks the end of the battle 

 begun in 1880 between the centerboard and keel types. The wonder- 

 ful qualities of the great Herreshoff keel cutter— qualities which have 

 been displayed in her work throughout the whole season, and not 

 alone in the two unsatisfactory races with Valkyrie III. — have been 

 recognized by all American yachtsmen without a murmur over the 

 absence of the national trade-mark, the centerboard The supgriority 

 of the keel over the centerboard type in speed had already been dem- 

 onstrated in the success of such yachts as the 30-footers Kathleen, 

 Saracen and Fancy over Shark, Hawk and the older eenterboards of 

 the class; of the 40-footers Minerva and Gossoon over Verena, Nymph, 

 Ohlquita, Awa and Choctaw; of Wasp and Gloriana over some of the 

 fastest of the old centerboard sloops of much greater size. In all of 

 these classes, the recognized champions of the old type, Fanita, Rival, 

 Crocodile, Hildegard and many others, have succumbed to the modern 

 keel cutter, in spite of the efforts to improve them by lower ballast 

 and better sails; and, further than this, the keel has triumphed over 

 the deeper and more modern "compromise" centerboard, such as 

 Cinderella, Tigress, Gorilla, Choctaw, Nymph and Awa— yachts which 

 have shared with their keel sisters in all the reflnemonts of modern 

 designing, construction, ballasting and sail-making. The one excep- 

 tion which calls for special note here is the 46-footer Harpoon, 

 designed in 1891 by Mr. Burgess, her beam being 16ft. lin. and her 

 draft 7ft. 6in., with a lead keel of 18 tons. While her races with 

 the keel boats Wasp and Gloriana were by no means conclusive, she 

 has made an exceptionally good showing for a centerboard against a 

 keel boat in late years. 



The racing records from 1889 to 1893 give ample proof of the 

 superior speed of the keel boats over any type of centerboard yacht, 

 in all sizes up to 60ft. waterline; but in the largest class, under 90ft. 

 waterline, the issue was still in dispute up to 1894, Vigilaut's success 

 over Colonia and Valkyrie II in 1893 giving new hope to the adherents 

 of the centerboard. In strict justice, Vigilant has little bearing on 

 the question; the typical centerboard yacht, aB it figured for many 

 years in the controversy, was essentially a hull with no appendage 

 other than a scag or after dead wood, and with no outside ballast. 

 The substitution therefor, as the exemplar of tbe centerboard type, 

 of Vigilant, with about 6ft. of hull proper and 7ft. of appendage, a 

 keel weighing seventy tons, the actual draft of 13ft. without the board 

 being the same as the keel cutters Genesta and Thistle, was in itself a 

 complete surrender. Accepting Vigilant, however, as a legitimate 

 modernization of Gracie, Fanny and Grayling, the superiority of the 

 extreme keel type, both in racing speed and in general good qualities, 

 has now been fully demonstrated by Defender, and there can no 

 longer be made good the claim that the centerboard is even equal to 

 the keel in speed. 



If there be any who would still disown Vigilant and advance the 

 claims of a craft of the old centerboard type, it now rests with them 

 to prove the case against such existing evidence as Wasp and De- 

 fender, I have tried during the past season to conceive of some type 

 of centerboard yacht which would carry effectively a sail plan of over 

 12,000sq. ft. on a waterline of 89ft., and I cannot see that such a craft 

 is within the bounds of practicability. The nearest approach would 

 be an improved Vigilant; and such a craft, with a very deep keel and 

 a great weight of low ballast, would be but a begging of the whole 



question. Neither can T see that it is possible to design a low-powered 

 yacht of the same measurement to compete successfully with De- 

 fender The vaiue of the low weight is so great, with the modern aa![ 

 plan, that no amount of mere beam can compensate for it without ne- 

 cessitating a form that in so large a vacht. would be less speedy and, 

 in many ways, inferior to the beautifully moulded Defender. In yacht 

 racing, as it stands to-day in this country, with no limit to depth or 

 draft, either through natural conditions or the measurement rule, the 

 field of the ceoterboird yacbt is an exceedingly limited one. The 

 yachtsman who is willing to pay the price can win to a certainty 

 through the long lever, the low wei 'ht, the limited displacement and 

 wetted surface, and the easy form of the bulb-fin (whether in the 

 most extreme shape of a Niagara or the more moderate sections of 

 Defender and Britannia), having the advantage over every type of 

 centerboard yacht save in the very smallest classes. Once having 

 the An for a lever-arm to carry the ballast bulb, all necessity for the 

 centerboard as an aid to lateral resistance at once disappears 



The sole exception to this rule is in the very smallest classes recog- 

 nized by tbe yacht clubs— those under Soft, racing length. In the 

 diminutive class which has lately attracted so much attention through 

 the international races of the Seawanbaka Corinthian Y. C. betweeu 

 Spruce and Ethelwynn, the centerhoard. used in a peculiar form, has 

 still an advantage over the bulb-fin. Under the limits of the class, 

 about 15ft. waterline, sa'isq. ft. of sail and a crew of two, all necessary 

 power may be obtained through the weight of the m^n on the weather 

 deck, and there is a positive loss, in ordinary racing weather. In carry- 

 ing an extra weight of lead bulb of some4001bs., to be dragged through 

 the water. Uuder these conditions, it pays to employ, for purposes "of 

 lateral resistance, the peculiar form of centerboard introduced by 

 Mr. Linton Hope, an English designer, in 1894, and improperly known 

 as a "dagger" board; the oower being obtained, if such a comparison 

 is admissible, by I he weight of the crew acting on a horizontal lever, 

 the half beam of the yacht, instead of by the weight of the bulb acting 

 on a vertical lever, the fin. The effectiveness of this form of board, 

 deep, narrow, moving in solid and undisturbed water, and with all use- 

 less surface cut away, needs no demonstration. * * * 



Where the advantages of this type end and those of the bulb-fin be- 

 gin is an open question, but it would seem that in the 20ft. class, 

 where three men are allowed, the same principle maintains, and the 

 crew can best carry the allowed sail plan — some 400sq. ft. — by their 

 own weight. When it comes to the 35ft. class, however, with five men 

 and about 625sq. ft. of sail, it is probably a matter of local conditions 

 whether the Sorceress and Ethelwynn type with the light, deep board 

 will be as sucoesef ul as the bulb-fin type represented by El Chico and 

 Wenonah. In all larger classes low lead must prevail over live weight, 

 save in the comparatively few clubs where shifting ballast, if not un- 

 limited crews, are still recognized. 



If this statement of the case be correct, it might be assumed that 

 there is no further place for the centerboard in yachting, but such is 

 very far from true; in fact, the opportunities now offered to the designer 

 for the production of good types of centerboard yachts are far greater 

 than ever in the past. The fact is clearly recognized that the devel- 

 opment of the last five years in yachting has been bad in the extreme; 

 that the gain in speed, while positive and conclusive from the point of 

 view of match sailing and prize winning, is comparatively small in 

 actual minutes, and that the price paid for it is entirely too high. It 

 has been and still is possible to win prizes in any class by a lighter con- 

 struction and a greater draft of water in each new yacht; the re- 

 sult being a craft of extreme first cost and expensive maintenance, 

 difficult to navigate, limited to very deep water, costly to dock and to 

 berth in winter, and involving extraordinary expense for towing. The 

 racing life of such craft is limited to a couple of seasons, and after- 

 ward they have practically no sale value. The building of Defender 

 and Valkyrie III, , with a draft of 19 to 20ft. on a waterline of 89ft., 

 and of such fin-keels as Niagara, of lift, draft and 46ft. waterline, 

 has, indeed, proved that the keel can be made to beat the centerboard ; 

 but it has not proved that such extreme craft are other than detri- 

 mental to the best interests of yachting, or discouraging to the best 

 class of practical yacht owners. 



The conformation of the Atlantic coast and of American waters in 

 general presents certain conditions which must be complied with in 

 order that yachting in both of its branches, racing and cruising, may 

 receive the widest possible support and attain the highest develop- 

 ment. Both along the coast and throughout the interior are immense 

 areas of shoal water, under 8ft., and, in "many places, as on the Florida 

 coast, under 1ft., in depth. On these waters men wish to sail, for 

 pleasure or business, and, for this purpose only, an extreme form of 

 the centerboard type is practicable. For a draft of but a few 

 inches there is nothing superior to the sharpie, peculiarly a national 

 type, and capable of a wida range of use. It is of cheap construction, 

 and, if properly designed according to tbe exact conditions of its 

 intended use, may be made practically safe in skillful bands. Another 

 excellent type of -shoal yacht is that represented by the cruising yawl 

 Lounger, constructed by H. C. Wintringham, the light draft per- 

 mitting of use almost anywhere in Florida, while, at the same time, 

 the yacht, when loaded or ballasted deeper, has made the passage by 

 sea from New York to Florida and back. A remarkably good vessel 

 for a similar purpose was the schooner Whim, designed by Mr. A. 

 Gary Smith in 1835, with a draft of but 2ft. 8in. on a waterline of 

 55ft. With a good freeboard, the yacht was loaded to a deeper draft 

 for her manv cruises up and down the coast, but when lightened she 

 did excellent service on the shoal Florida rivers. 



A different type of shoal yacht is the Cape Cod catboat the Caper, 

 adapted primarily for use in shoal tide harbors and for taking the 

 ground, but doing most of its sailing in deep open water about the 

 Cape, either as a yacht, or as a most serviceable fishing boat. While its 

 big rig and hard steering bring it justly under the denomination of a 

 "brute" in the yachtsman's meaning of the word, it still has many posi- 

 tive good qualities as a rough-water boat of very limited draft, and is 

 the best combination of speed, safety and all-round good qualities for 

 racing and cruising that has yet been produced on a total draft of 24 

 to 30in, That it is capable of improvement can hardly be doubted; 

 but, as it stands to-day, the Cape eat of the standard model, unmarred 

 by the more recent racing improvements, is one of the very beBt types 

 of shoal centerboard boats. While absolute non-capsizability cannot 

 be obtained on a draft of 30in. or less for a waterline of 25 to 50ft., 

 there is ample practical proof that a reasonably safe and able boat, 

 and one of universal adaptability, may be had from these three 

 classes. 



Experience has proved that, in yachting, draft is very largely a mat- 

 ter of habit and education ; twenty years ago it was almost an axiom 

 with New York yachtsmen that no yacht up to 50 or 60ft. waterline 

 should draw more than 4ft., or, in extreme cases, 5ft., to be within the 

 limits of practicable use, about 6ft. being allowed for a yacht of 100ft. 

 waterline. Of late years many of these same yachtsmen have taken 

 to craft drawing 10 to lift, on a waterline of 40 to 50ft., and have used 

 them, not without inconvenience at times, but, on the whole, with 

 most satisfactory results. One factor, too important to be passed 

 without notice, is the convenient and serviceable naphtha launch 

 which has replaced the old yacht's gig for shore service; but the main 

 thing is that yachtsmen have learned to use and to appreciate deep 

 yachts. While my personal prejudices and predilections have always 

 been for tbe cutter, such a 40-footer as Minerva or Uvira, and similar 

 craft in the larger sizes, for general yachting about New York, Boston 

 and the coast, and while such yachts have many good qualities to off- 

 set the inconveniences of a draft of 9 to lOf t., I can recognize fully the 

 advantages of a draft of not over 6ft. (the working limit within many 

 of our harbors and bays), and the general utility of well-designed 

 yachts within this limit. * * * 



In a rather larger class an ideal yacht of this kind is found in the 

 schooner Quickstep, designed by Mr, Burgess in 1889, of 7ft. draft on 

 a waterline of 65ft.; her steel construction, in addition to the extra 

 room, removing the old objection, on the score of weakness, to the 

 shoal centerboard yacht with a trunk cabin. For convenience of use, 

 and for accommodation, this yacht leaves little to be desired; and her 

 speed has been a matter of favorable comment since her first season. 

 In yachts of from 70ft. waterline downward, in which the absolute 

 draft may be kept within 9 or 10ft., there will always remain many 

 advantages on the side of the wide keel cutter; but there will still be 

 a place, both in the secondary racing and in general yachting service, 

 for the well-designed, deep-bodied, centerboard yacht of not over 6 to 

 7ft. draft. 



The last three or four years have brought two changes in yachting 

 which can only be looked upon as detrimental— the. introduction of the 

 fin-keel and the extension of the limit of draft. The bulb-fin keel is 

 by no means an absolute novelty; its possibilities of speed are too 

 plain to have been passed over entirely by thoughtful yachtsmen, 

 especially in view of the fruitful experiments of the model yacht sail- 

 ors. That it was not adopted in large yachts prior to 1891 is due, not 

 to a failure to appreciate its advantages, but to a general reluctance 

 on the part of all yachtsmen to recognize such an obvious machine. 

 By minor changes, all in the same direction, and all with increased 

 speed, one designer after another broke the ice, until it only remained 

 for Mr. N. G. Herreshoff, In the experimental Dilemma, to take the 

 final step; had he not done so, another would. In the same way, up 

 to the end of 1892, yachtsmen, by a tacit agreement of long standing, 

 observed rigidly a certain extreme limit of draft dictated by the aver- 

 age minimum depths over the racing courses and in most harbors. 

 Within this limit, 13ft., are found the large cutters Genesta, Irex and 

 Thistle, with the still larger schooners Sappho, Yampa, Ramona, 

 Dauntless and Coronet. On the part of the American designers there 

 was small incentive, in view of the successful centerboard yachts 

 Volunteer, Mayflower, Grayling, Montauk, Sachem and Iroquois, to 

 exceed this limit; and the British designers, though confronted by 

 that alluring prize, the America's Cup, fully aware of the deficiencies 

 of their existing keel cutters, and with the possibilities before them 

 of a "90-ton Doris," of 18ft. draft, as a successful challenger, still kept 



within it. When the break came, in 1893, all went in together, Herres- 

 hoff with 15ft. In Colonia, and Watson with 17ft in Valkyrie II. and 

 Britannia; Fife in Oalluna, and Soper in S»tanita, taking about the 

 same. The ganae has stopped, for this sesson, at an extreme of 20ft. 

 draft on a waterline of 89ft ; but if it is to be resumed next year, no 

 one can say how mucb further it may go before a natural limit other 

 than the rejected ones of expense and convenience is reached. Even 

 now, in the course of a season of such work as they are capable of, 

 these great sailing machines are in tow for more miles than they are 

 under sail. 



The eld-time limit was in every way a desirable one; for all the pur- 

 poses of wholesome yachting, there is no reason why a total draft of 

 13ft. Bhoull bB exceeded, and, for most purposes, lift, would ba still 

 better. For sea work, even in the largest size of keel schooners, such 

 as Yamp^, 13ft. is enough for stability and lateral plane, and quite a8 

 much aa can bB carried with dua regird to hs.rbir nd inteing facil- 

 ities. For the ordinary run of coasting work, such as is done by the 

 majority of large yachts, a draft of 11 or, better yet. 10ft. is 

 quite as' much as is desirable. Up to a waterlina of 60 to 70ft., this 

 may be had in a keel craft, but ia the lar^r sizes the keol should give 

 way to the centerboard. C ontrast the two typas at the head of Amer- 

 ican yachting to-day, both of 90ffc. waterline, and say which is the bet- 

 ter—the centerboard schooner of deep and powerful bod / on a maxi- 

 mum draft of 10ft., such as Lasca, Volunteer, Emerald. Iroquois, Sea 

 Fox and Ariel; or the big single-stickers Defender, Colonia, Vigilant 

 and Navahoe. drawing from 14 to 20ft. It is in the larger classes, 

 whether schooner or cutter, in which the disadvantages of the center- 

 board type are smallest and the advantages greatest; the questions of 

 safety and non-capsizability disappear in the modern lead-ballasted 

 centerboard yacht of deep body; with steel construction there is a 

 wide margin of structural strength in spite of the division of the keel 

 and floors by the trunk; the absolute size of the interior permit* a 

 disposition of the trunk that involves little waste of space; the effect- 

 iveness of the yacht to windward as compared with an extreme keel 

 machine is impaired to only a slight degree; and the gain in conven- 

 ience by a draft of 10ft. instead of 20 is of inestimable value in practi- 

 cal yachting. 



Great as the gain is in ordinary longshore yachting and racing, it ia 

 perhaps still greater in the sea-going yacht. The proportions and dis- 

 position of weights of the modern deep centerboard type tend to make 

 it at all times an easy sea boat; and, when hove to in really bad 

 weather, the absence of a deep keel permits enough leeway to make 

 the yacht easy in a sea where the keel craft is constantly forging out 

 to windward, standing up against the Reas like a wall, and taking the 

 full force of every blow. The notable experience of the schooner 

 yacht Iroquois in the great March blizzard of 1888, when she was 

 caught off the Capes of the Delaware, shows what such a yacht is 

 capable of in the very worst weather. This same yacht, designed by 

 Mr. A. Cary Smith in 1886, the first of the type, is at the same time the 

 beat example that I know of. Designed originally for offshore cruis- 

 ing, she has proved a complete success for that purpose, as her many 

 winter cruises to Florida, Cuba and through the West Indies testify. 

 Iu addition, she has made an enviable record in racing against yachts 

 built for speed and that have never been off soundings; and, what is 

 no less instructive, she still holds a higher market value than many 

 more expensive and more ambitiously planned yachts. 



The question of draft is the vital one to-day in yachting. With 

 the designing of the two Valkyries, of Colonia and Defender, the 

 natural and sentimental limitations have disappeared, and there is a 

 reluctance on the part of yachtsmen to enact arbitrary and artificial 

 ones. The rule just adopted by the Yacht Racing Association of Great 

 Britain does place a certain limitation on excessive draft— just 

 how heavy it is as yet impossible to conjecture; but in this country 

 there is no present prospect of the adoption of any similar restriction, 

 or of any attempt at penalizing the bulb-fln in favor of the yacht of 

 fuller body, less draft and a greater average of good qualities. 

 While it is hardly possible that any good can come from further 

 experiments in the direction of extreme draft, at the same time 

 there ia a hesitation about setting an arbitrary limit. The most prac- 

 ticable solution of the difficulty would seem to be in the abandonment 

 of the 90ft. cutter in favor of a smaller size in which an absolute 

 draft of, say, 12ft. would be enough even for the unlimited keel 

 racer; and, in the larger classes, to encourage the development of the 

 deep centerboard type within a limit of about 10ft. extreme draft. 

 It is in this type, as represented by Volunteer, Lasca, and Emerald, 

 that the greatest possible benefit to American yachting in the larger 

 classes may be looked for. 



There are three points in connection with the centerboard which 

 can be noticed but briefly here: the use of the board as ballast, the use 

 of the board in very deep yachts, and the true relation of the center- 

 board to the America's Cup. In regard to the ballast board, the 

 question is still an open one, but my own conviction is that the sole 

 useful function of the centerhoard is as an adjunct to the lateral plane; 

 and that the attempt to use the board as ballast also is, at the beat, of 

 very doubtful utility and open to serious objection. * * * 



The most interesting experiment yet made with the ballast board 

 was that of the 46 footer Harpoon, already mentioned, made by 

 Messrs. Stewart & Binney, for the Adams brothers, in 1892. The 

 original board, of the ordinary wooden construction, was replaced by 

 one of steel plates filled between with lead, the total weight being 3.75 

 tons, certain alterations of tbe lead keel being made which resulted 

 in a decrease of the displacement by about 0.75 ton. That tbe yacht 

 was improved over her first year's form is quite cartain ; but, as other 

 changes were made, in the sail plan and elsewhere, it is impossible to 

 say how much was due to the weighted board. In the opinion of Mr. 

 0. F. Adams, she was faster off the wind, and to windward in light 

 airs; but, taking everything together, there is no satisfactory evidence 

 of a material gain through the ballast board. No trouble was expe- 

 rienced in using it; with a powerfully geared winch, two men could 

 house it in five or six minutes; as a matter of convenience, where the 

 depth of water permitted, it was often left about half way down from 

 day to day. Some difficulty was experienced in unshipping the board, 

 as was necessary in cleaning the steel surface. Incidentally, Mr. 

 Adams speaks very highly of Harpoon as a sea boat, describing her 

 aa superior to Gossoon and the other keel boats built for him and his 

 brother. A weighted centerboard of \y 2 tons was tried about the same 

 time in the Burgess 30-footer Hawk, of similar type to Harpoon, but 

 was finally abandoned; on one occasion, the breaking of the chain 

 pendant, allowed the board to fall, hanging only by *he pin, a mishap 

 that must have resulted seriously in other than smooth water. 



There are many instances of the trial of heavily weiehted center- 

 boards in smaller yachts. The opnn racing boat Dare Devil was fitted 

 with one by the late Commodore Dilworth in 1882, but with a result- 

 ing loss of speed; and the same experiment has been repeated in more 

 recent years with the same results— a notably small gain in stability, 

 and an actual loss of speed. In canoes and small racing craft, mostly 

 of narrow beam, very good results have been obtained by the use of 

 bronze or brass plates of moderate weight, 100 to 2001 bs., one advan- 

 tage being the superior surface of tbe metals as compared with wood; 

 but there are indications that the gain is changed to a loss when a 

 greater thickness is employed than is essential to a reasonable degree 

 of rigidity; and that any material amount of lead on the centerboard, 

 even in these small craft, is detrimental to speed. In the larger yachts 

 an instance is found in Queen Mab, the Watson 40-rater. of 59ft. water- 

 line, 16ft. beam and lift, draft of hull, originally fitted with a center- 

 board of D-lta metal of Wi tenB, the solid p>late being very accurately 

 fitted to slide in the metal trunk. After several seasons' trial this 

 plate was removed, the yacht going to windward satisfactorily with- 

 out it. and the Blot was filled with lead, the stability being in no way 

 impaired. 



This brings us to the question of the centerboard in very deep yachts, 

 an experiment that has been very fully tested in Great Britain within 

 a few years past; and with but one result. Since the restriction on the 

 use of the centerboard was removed, in 1887, there have been built a 

 number of cutters of varying dimensions and proportions, from Iverna 

 of 84ft. waterline down to Dis of 36ft., in which eenterboards of various 

 weights have been used; in every case, as in the fast 20-rater Dragon 

 last year, the board being finally discarded and the slot filled, with 

 lead. * * * 



The weight of evidence, though by no means conclusive on these 

 two points, would seem to indicate that the best results are to be ob- 

 tained in yachts of but moderate depth, and specially designed to 

 utilize as the main factor of lateral resistance a centerboard of little 

 or no intrinsic weight; and that the addition of a centerboard, light 

 or loaded, to a very deep hull of large lateral plane is of very ques- 

 tionable advantage. While it is to be regretted that more ample and 

 positive data on these points is not within reach at present, the 

 designer who goes into the subject more thoroughly than the limits 

 of this paper permit will, I believe, find evidence to justify these gen- 

 eral conclusions. 



The many discussions of the advisability of the complete abandon- 

 ment of the centerboard in international racing, which attended the 

 building of Defender last spring, suggested to me a line of Investiga- 

 tion which could hardly fail to be interesting, and in a measure profit- 

 able, but which I have not been able to take up. This is to assume 

 that Mr. BurgesB, in designing Puritan, Mayflower and Volunteer, had 

 been denied the UBe of the centerboard and compelled to rely upon the 

 keel type alone; in each case with the current yachting knowledge of 

 the day to guide him. The probabilities are that the American yacht 

 in each case would have been so superior in sail area, in power of hull 

 through addSfl beam, and especially in the area and effectiveness of 

 the lateral plane, that the Cup would still have been on this side. The 

 keel has held the Cup this year; Vigilant might well have been a keel 

 boat and yet won in 1892; Volunteer with no centerboard, but with 3ft. 

 more draft, 13ft. instead of 10, would still have defeated Thistle; in 

 other words, recognizing now the marked defects of the British 

 keel yachts Genesta, Galatea, Thistle and Valkyrie II., they were 



