378 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 31, 1888- 



very few, however, which are doing all that is possible or are 

 utilizing fully all their opportunities for development. 



What is the object of a yacht club, the first great end to which 

 all its energies should be directed? It is yacht racing; the one 

 requisite without which a club cannot flourish or even exist. To 

 be strictly accurate, the end and aim of yacht clubs is to promote 

 ?achtll}g in all its branches, to encourage cruising as well as rac- 

 ing, to improve designing, to instruct, and to encourage sociability 

 among its members; but in all this work racing is so important a 

 factor that it may be placed far ahead of all the others, Given a 

 racing fleet and plenty of spirited racing, and the cruising fleet 

 will take care of itself, the limit of membership will be kept full, 

 the club treasury will be well supplied, and every member will 

 take a pride in the club. Without plenty of good racing no club 

 can hope to succeed permanently; it may be kept up for a time by 

 a fine club house, a well-stocked bar and a big billiard room, hut 

 it never can be a yacht club whatever success it may meet with as 

 a social organization. Instances have been frequent where a club 

 has been established by a few men who owned and sailed racing 

 boats, their races have attracted others of similar tastes, the club 

 prospers, better quarters are obtained, the fleet increases and the 

 racing assumes larger proportions: then the club branches out, 

 money is spent freely in providing every convenience and luxury, 

 fi nd at I he same time the racing is neglected, the interest in it is 

 lost in other features, and what is the result? In a few years the 

 club is in a condition of stagnation; it, may he able to maintain 

 its establishment through other at fractions, but as a. yacht club 

 its day has gone, some younger and hardier rival comes on the 

 course' and gathers the. lam-els that the older once held undis- 

 puted. 



No club should neglect the comfort and convenience of its mem- 

 bers, there should be no cessation of effort until a good house is 

 erected, a protected anchorage secured, with a well-filled library, 

 reading room, dressing rooms and other conveniences; hut as soon 

 as any such improvements begin to interfere with the racing, to 

 divert in the least degree the attention of members from the water, 

 they become active elements of weakness. Yachting is essen- 

 tially a water sport, and though it must keep up a certain con- 

 nection with the shore the land features are merely incidental 

 and secondary. Club houses, social features, even the admirable 

 efforts for the instruction of yachtsmen by means of special 

 classes, lectures and similar means, are useful only in so far as 

 they are adjuncts to work afloat; yachting can exist without 

 them, but they alone cannot make up for the lack of a certain 

 proportion of water in the composition of a yacht club. If any are 

 inclined to doubt the importance of racing, let them look at the 

 history ef different clubs and see how the most prosperous pe- 

 riods of each are connected with a certain group of racing boats. 



Though yachtsmen generally will not deny the importance of 

 racing, there are different opinions as to the form in which the 

 sport should be conducted. With too many yachtsmen, especially 

 m the larger clubs, the sole effort is for large prizes and for a 

 few classes of the largest yachts, the schooners and one or two 

 claeses of single-sfriekers, the smaller and less noted yachts 

 being left to shift for themselves. An instance of this is found 

 in the attempt lately made to limit all the racing for the Ameri- 

 ca's Cup to one special size of boat of each rig, to tho exclusion 

 of almost the entire existing racing fleet. The result thus far is 

 of itself sufficient proof of the folly and blindness of such a 

 course; in the first season that the rule is in force this specially 

 protected class has practically disappeared from the racing, to 

 lie dormant until a foreign challenge shall perhaps call it forth. 

 The whole transaction shows plainly the fact we commented on 

 last week, that ordinary common sense and business methods 

 have no place in yachting. 



The America's Cup has proved the most powerful stimulus that 

 yachting on this side of the Atlantic has yet felt. It has been one 

 great agent in the creation of a better, safer and faster type of 

 yacht, but through the influence of certain circumstances its 

 effects have been mainly limited to a larger size of yacht than 

 experience has shown to be desirable here. The favorite size of 

 singlestick yacht for many years has been about 70ft, l.w.l.; the 

 best boats in the fleet at any given time have always been in this 

 class. In cost of running and in the accommodation which it 

 gives it has suited the ma jority of men who desire a large racing 

 yacht, and at the same time gives a class of yacht that can be 

 used about the coast in summer. On the other hand, three seasons 

 of fair trial have shown that the 00ft. class, though fine boats for 

 purely racing purposes, are not likely to become popular; in fact, 

 it has been hard to find purchasers even for the fastest. The 

 reason is, that while there are plenty of yachtsmen well able to 

 bear the expense, there are few wealthy men who are willing to 

 assume the labor and responsibility which the successful racing 

 of a yacht of this size requires; while if the boat is not successful 

 as a racer, she is comparatively worthless. 



All the experience of many years seems to show that the 70ft. class 

 is the best titled for the wants of American yachtsmen, while the 

 90ft. olasn cannot be made a prominent success. From a business 

 point of view then, it would be sound policy to throw all the 

 influence of the Cup competitions in favor of the most popular 

 class, rather than to waste it on a class that is uncalled for and 

 little likely to be permanent. With all the excitement and enthu- 

 siasm the success of Puritan and the others after her have created, 

 but five yachts have been built in three years, additions to 1 he class 

 have now ceased, its conversion to the schooner rig has already 

 begun, and this year there promises to be no racing for it worth 

 mentioning. As regards the 70ft. class, every rumor of a chal- 

 lenge in it has brought forward men eager to build; the report of 

 Thistle's small size resulted in two new additions last year, this 

 year one Is building for the ordinary season's work, and. if achal- 

 lenge were accepted any time in the winter from a foreign yacht 

 of the class, there would be no difficulty in securing a fleet of a 

 dozen good boats to enter in the trial races. Sentiment is a very 

 beautiful thing, no doubt the idea of confining all the races for 

 the Cup to a special class of grand and imposing proportions like 

 Volunteer, is a very fine one, but there are matters of hard com- 

 mon sense, questions of a practical nature, that should outweigh 

 all sentiment . 



It has been evident for a long time that steam is making serious 

 inroads on the sailing fleet, and that the number of large yachts 

 is in no way proportionate to the growth of yachting.infact quite 

 the reverse, Where are the men who owned the big schooners in 

 the days when schooner racing was at its height, when Sappho, 

 Vesta, Henrietta, Columbia, Palmer, Resolute, Flcetwing, Mo- 

 hawk, Magic, Idler, Dauntless, Tidal Wave, Halcyon and Dread- 

 naught were first famous? Many of them are alive to-day, with 

 means and health for yachting, but they have long since gone in 

 for steam. One by one they have abandoned the sailing craft, 

 and very few have come forward to take their places, as the very 

 records of the boats t hemselves for half a dozen years will show. 

 No doubt there are plenty of younger men with ample means who 

 are able to take their places, but it is a self-evident fact that they 

 do not, that they are apt to find amusement in an idle life ashore, 

 or on the turf, or in foreign travel, rather than on the water, or if 

 they do go afloat, it is with tho utmost luxury attainable in the 

 modern steam yacht, 



Why this is so does not concern us, but it is time that the plain 

 and most important fact was fully recognized by those who have 

 the power to direct yachting interests. They must recognize that 

 men of wealth and leisure do not go into yachting to-day as they 

 once did, that as a class they are far smaller in number than 

 twenty years since, and if they are to be brought in it must be by 

 offering greater attractions than at present exist. In the large 

 steam yacht,and even in the naphtha launch, are powerful enemies 

 to yacht racing, and they are growing stronger each year. The 

 little launch alone is responsible for spoiling many prospective 

 yachtsmen, who are tempted to spend the summer on some lake 

 where they can idle away the day in one of these little kettles, 

 within reach of the comforts and luxuries of a large hotel, rather 

 than to undertake the work imposed by the ownership of a large 

 racing yacht. As the racing becomes keener and more thoroughly 

 systematized it demands more work and more money on the part 

 of the owuers, and few comparatively are found who can and will 

 undertake the task. There need be no fear, under proper man- 

 agement, of a lack of good recruits for the racing rank, but they 

 will come mainly from the younger men of comparatively mod- 

 erate means, men whose business interests demand a certain 

 part of their time. For them the sizes from 53 to 70ft. are the 

 best adapted for both racing and the ordinary summer cruising, 

 and these are the sizes that should be specially fostered by regatta 

 committees, rather than the larger size. 



In most clubs the duties of the regatta committee are by no 

 means easy or pleasant, as in addition to the responsibility that 

 always accompanies the position, the certainty of offending some 

 in the effort to please all, there is generally the question of ex- 

 pense to be seriously considered. The amount allowed for prizes 

 is too often smaller than necessary, with the result that classes 

 must he made as few as possible, and often at the expense of good 

 racing. The effort in most cases is to give large prizes, and to do 

 this there must be few of them. The main point is to encourage 

 entries, and the method of a few large prizes is a very poor means 

 to this end. Even for the fastest yachts there is very little profit 

 in yacht racing as yet in America, no man would go intra racing 

 to-day with the expectation of making a fair return on the money 

 invested, but what all want is to beat other boats and to have 

 some visible evidence to show of their victory; not necessarily a 

 prize of great value, but some token that can be won only by 



speed and fair sailing. The main point then is for clubs to en- 

 hance the value of a win in their races by a strict adhesion to the 

 best racing rules, and by such regulations as shall secure that 

 each race shall be won as nearly as possible on its merits. With 

 this, whieli costs nothing but care and work, the fact that a yacht- 

 has won in the club's races will be. in itself an evidence, of superi- 

 ority, whether the money prizes be large or small, and there will 

 never be a lack of entries. If on the other hand the management 

 be slovenly and careless, no amount of money prizes will place a 

 win In the club's races at a premium. 



One requisite to successful racing is a classification large 

 enough to group all boats fairly without too great difference in 

 size, so that each boat in a. class may have, as nearly as may be, 

 an equal chance of winning, independent, of the inevitable irregu- 

 larities of even the best systems of time allowance. The nearer 

 the boats are in size the less they are affected by the allowance 

 tables, and for this reason a large number of classes is desirable. 

 This, however, means more prizes, consequently a larger appro- 

 priation or smaller amounts. While prizes of some value are always 

 desirable, it will in many cases be found productive of the great- 

 est amount of sport to give smaller prizes, but in more classes; 

 thus increasing the chances of boats in the second flight, the ones 

 least likely to enter. W r e do not advocate in any way the offer- 

 ing of prizes for slowness rather than speed, but. it has frequently 

 happened of la te that a boat superior in model and build to the 

 old ones, is at the same time built to the extreme limit of the 

 class and so larger as well as better than a lot of older craft. 

 Undr these conditions the latter are apt to leave the field entirely 

 to the new boat, with the result that there is no spirit in the 

 racing, merely a walk over. Now in such a ease some compro- 

 mise is desirable, even though it necessitates an additional class 

 for t he older and smaller boats. 



The question of second and third prizes comes in, too, in the 

 same connection; the objection being made by some that they are 

 really prizes for being beaten. Howev er plausible this may sound, 

 it is not (rue unless a second prize be given for two entries only. 

 A second prize should never be given unless four boate complete 

 the course, or at least start and sail over a reasonable part of it, 

 with a third prize for not less than seven starters, With such a 

 plan rigidly adhered to and understood, the fact that a boat won 

 second prize would mean that she had beaten at least two com- 

 petitors, or if a third prize was given as well, that the second boat 

 had beaten at least five others; the value of the second and third 

 prizes will be assured, and at the same time that of the first prize 

 would be enhanced. The value of prizes, both to those who win 

 them and to the club as a st imulus to racing, depends, then, less 

 on the a c t ual sum of money expended than on the manner in 

 which it is apportioned and the stringency with which the racing 

 rules are enforced, and regatta committees will do well at least 

 to consider this matter before apportioning the. prizes for the 

 year. 



Much, too, may be done to encourage those, classes which seem 

 best suited to the means and requirements of the majority of 

 members of the club, and to discourage such classes as, though 

 favored by certain circumstances, seem unlikely to add to the 

 racing interest of the club at large. The main end in view should 

 be sharp and frequent contests between the greatest possible 

 number of boats, with the racing spirit which such work is certain 

 to engender. The money question, both the raising and spending, 

 is one of the most serious that a club has to deal with; but in 

 regard to the first part, if a club once firmly established cannot 

 raise money enough every year for a good series of races, the 

 sooner it dissol ves and makes room for a successor, the better. 

 Racing must ever be the first consideration, and whatever 

 attractions a club may offer in other directions, if it cannot pro- 

 mote racing it had better change its name and cease to call itself 

 a yacht club. It may succeed as a social club, a billiard club or 

 a debating society, but as a yacht club it is only sailing under 

 false colors and doing more harm than good. 



The problem of expending the allotted sum, whatever it may be, 

 to the very best advantage is by no means easy, nor does it often 

 receive the care and consideration which it deserves when one 

 considers how important a part it plays in the prosperity of the 

 club. In some clubs large sums are expended year after year in 

 the same manner, without a thought as to the altered conditions, 

 or the changes in racing which follow them. In the allotting of 

 the various sums the vested interests deserve some consideration, 

 the men who really contribute the money, but at the same time 

 the races and prizes should he so arranged as to secure the best 

 possible entries from the existing fleet, and also to encourage and 

 direct the improvement that should take place every year. The 

 general direction of this work should rest with such an associa- 

 tion as we outlined last week, but at the same time each club 

 must study carefully its individual surroundings and interests. 



A careful inspection of the existing fleet, the racing rules, the 

 charact er of the club course, and the class of boat best suited to 

 the wants and means of the majority of the club, will soon disclos* 

 many points where improvement is impossible without affecting 

 injuriously any existing boats, and a little preliminary work of 

 this kind early in the season will bear good fruit before the winter. 

 There may be some old boats so few in numbers as not to justify 

 big prizes for the class, and there may be some others of a size or 

 type specially suited for a number of the members, which class 

 can be built up by a little special attention. We venture to say 

 that there are not a dozen clubs on the list to-day in which such 

 a scrutiny is made each year, if there are even half that many, 

 and yet the benefits to he derived from such a course must be 

 plain to all. The changes that ha ve of late taken place and are 

 still in progress in yacht racing make iu themselves a matter 

 worthy of the most careful study by the clubs, it is each year be- 

 coming more complicated, more expensive, and more exacting in 

 its demands on the time and attention of the successful racing 

 owner, in short it is now following out in this country the eourse 

 it has run for a long time in British waters, and Americans can- 

 not profit too soon by the lessons to be found there. 



Looking back to the infancy of racing iu America there will be 

 found a fleet of all sizes and of varying degrees of excellence in 

 model, build and equipment, a fleet built more for general use 

 than for match sailing. Races were frequent, but the yachts 

 were ill-matched, the disparity in size being often more than 

 compensated by superiority in model or handling, so that the 

 value of size was not at first fully estimated. In course of time 

 the various models worked down more or loss to a common type, 

 with perhaps less difference between the best and the poorest 

 than at first, and then the value of size became more apparent, 

 The question of time allowance assumed at once a greater impor- 

 tance, and many rules were tried in turn. While many races 

 were sailed, the yachts were also much used for pleasure sailing, 

 and the best were far inferior in rig and outfit to the ordinary 

 cruiser of the present day. While schooner racing was at its 

 height, some fifteen years ago, some yachts were kept up with 

 the greatest care, expense being of no moment, bul throughout, 

 the bulk of the fleet the. rigging, equipment, general outfit and 

 crews were at a very low standard up to the time of the hrst inva- 

 sion of the cutter. This was shown beyond dispute in all the 

 races that Madge sailed in New York waters, the various yachts 

 that met her being badlv rigged, badly manned and handled, and 

 failing utterly in some, of their races, while the cutter never sus- 

 tained the least injury. Since that time a great improvement 

 has been taking place, until in the late international races were 

 seen a fleet of yachts as well rigged, can vassed, equipped and 

 manned (to say nothing of the brilliant handling of several) as 

 ever sailed in any waters. This improvement has altered greatly 

 the methods and" the expense of racing, and has tended to make a 

 specialty of the racing-yacht. 



It was once a boast that the old fleet, the sloops and schooners 

 of the ante-cutter days, were not only the fastest racing yachts in 

 the world, but the best cruisers; that they were equally good for 

 either use. Bedouin, with her speed and grand accommodations, 

 compared with the limited quarters of the sloops of her class, put 

 a quietus to this idea, and men began to realise that the boasted 

 combination of ra, tog and cruising properties was but a myth. 

 Of late this has become still more apparent, and to-day the man 

 who builds a yacht for prize winning and at the same time expects 

 to cruise comiorably with his fain fly, is pretty certain to fail in 

 both ends. The wisest yachtsmen know that racing is becoming 

 more and more specialized each year, and that soon, if not now, 

 no yacht not specially designed and built for racing will have the 

 least show at the mugs. It is still the fashion to build "fast 

 cruisers," by which a man has two strings to his bow; if the boat 

 is really fast he. soon finds it out and keeps her for racing; if she is 

 slow "she was only built for cruising anyhow." 



The exact stage of developement at present attained is easily 

 fixed; to race with success a yacht must have a good model, the 

 best of ballasting, sails, rigging and outfit, and must be well 

 skippered, owned and maimed, but she need not be lightly built. 

 This fatter stage is one that Americans are just entering on, 

 steel has come in as a material for hulls, composite construction 

 has not yet been introduced in the sailing fleet, but must soon 

 come, and then the line between the racer and the cruiser will be 

 still more rigidly drawn. It must be noted that yacht racing in 

 America has not yet reached the stage that it has been at for a 

 long time in England, where the races are numerous enough, and 

 the entries of such number and quality as to create a special 

 racing class, maintained for that use alone, the racing owner 

 of ten keeping a big schooner or a steam yacht to live aboard in 

 comfort, whue his 60 or 90 tonner is kept stripped to the last stick 



of furniture through the entire season. It is neither probable 

 nor desirable that racing will soon reach this pitch in American 

 waters, the races are too few and the money value of the prizes 

 too small to lead to such a state of affairs. The regular events 

 of the season in which a large yacht can enter are about as fol- 

 lows: June, New York, Seawanhaka, Atlantic, Corinthian, East- 

 ern; July, Larchmont; August, Goelet cups and perhap 

 two more besides the daily runs on the cruise; September and 

 October, one race each of the Seawanhaka, Larchmont, and pos- 

 sibly Eastern. This makes a total of about a dozen races in the 

 year, which alone will not pay for the maintenance of a racing 

 crack for the entire season, to the exclusion of all cruising, the 

 prizes not averaging over S200. each, and no one boat likely as 

 a rule to win a majority of them. 



The needs of American owners are such that in the long interval 

 between the few races the yachts must he used more or less for 

 mere cruising about, the Sound, or perhaps to Mount Desert, with 

 family or friends on hoard. For this purpose the yacht must be 

 more than a bare racing machine, but at the same time it is a 

 very plain fact that the man who goes off in July for along cruise, 

 or even for idle sailing in the Sound, is not going to win the Goe- 

 let cup in August, from the man who never reefs his mainsail, but 

 who nurses it. as carefully as Volunteer's was nursed last year in 

 the races with Thistle. Given two equal boats in the June re- 

 gattas, the "family racer" is not going to win from the "racing 

 man's racer" in the fall. It was not so a few years since, it is not 

 so yet perhaps in all classes, but it will be so in a year or two 

 throughout the fleet. The brief course of the 00ft. class is a very 

 instructive one, in but three years it has been called into exist- 

 ence, reached a very high degree of perfection, and yet unless gal- 

 vanized further by means of new international racing, is has 

 already run its course and "died of its own toomuchness:" at least 

 such are the present indications. One boat confessedly has all 

 the prizes of the coming year already in her locker if she chooses 

 to enter for them, another has joined the schooner fleet, a third is 

 already outbuilt in size, and the other two may keep up a sem- 

 blance of racing this year, or the class may not fill at all. 



It is cruel to cast cold water on such an interesting event as the 

 coming revival of schooner racing, but it looks not unlikely that 

 its course will be even briefer than the big single-sticker, and 

 that at the end of the season there may be one racing yacht, like 

 Volunteer in the other class, and a lot of "family boats," despite 

 the length of their mainbooms. The. prospects then are thatvery 

 shortly, while the yachts, especially under a heavier tax on sail 

 area, arc likely to be far less extreme than the "tonnage rule" 

 racing machine abroad, they will still be rigged solely for racing, 

 the prizes going to those, owners who spend the most money and 

 hard work on their craft and get the least return in any other 

 form such as cruising; who give, up comfort and the ordinary 

 pleasure of the yachting season, such as they once enjoyed, to the 

 winning of mugs. What the exact outcome of this state of affairs 

 will be it is now impossible to say, perhaps the racing this year 

 may give some indication; at any rate it is certain that ha ving 

 once reached a certain stage of development the racing yacht, can 

 never go back to the old days of clumsy rigs, of baggy sails and 

 lubberly crews. The danger of over-development, so serious in 

 its results in England at the present time, is still imminent enough 

 here to make it worth the earnest study of every racing man, and 

 no doubt by suitable rules and conditions it can be. hindered and 

 prevented, but the task is no easy one. Racing is a sport that can 

 never stand still, it must continually improve and advance in 

 detail and complication, but there is one possible solution of the 

 trouble that presents itself. 



It is possible, by a wise system of rules, to foster the building of 

 certain types which may he as fast and yet less costly than others, 

 but at the same time, however good the boats, they are certain to 

 need frequent renewals of sails and gear, frequent docking and 

 painting, picked racing crews, and many other expensive details, 

 if they are to win prizes. This class of expenses, which is increas- 

 ing every year with the progress of racing, varies at the same 

 time with the size of the yacht, increasing directly iu a very rapid 

 ratio. The best way then to limit expense without impairing the 

 quality of the outfit, is to encourage racing in the smaller sizes. 

 If size and absolute speed alone are the standards, this, of course, 

 would not be possible; hut however much these features may 

 appeal to the idle spectator, the chief points to all racing men are 

 tli at the boats shall be evenly matched in size and quality and 

 the races closely contested. There is and always must he a, certain 

 eclat attached to the racing of the largest classes, but from a 

 standpoint of pure sport size alone is not worthy of consideration. 

 If all the live big ones were to race throughout the season (with 

 the result an assured victory for Volunteer) it would awaken little 

 enthusiasm, the racing would be flat and dull, and far less excis- 

 ing and instructive than a series of sharp races between Clara 

 and Cinderella, such as were sailed two years since, or the prom- 

 ised races between the new Burgess boats in the 40ft. class. 



The encouragement of the smaller boats docs not mean in any 

 way the extinction of the larger, but on the contrary their further 

 development in their proper sphere, as cruising vessels, with 

 races at times under such restrictions as may be compatible with 

 their general character. The full development of this scheme 

 has been seen in many cases in England, where "threes," "fives" 

 and "tens," are sailed by their owners in Corinthian races, the 

 same men owning each a large schooner or yawl, or a comfort- 

 able steam yacht, for long cruises and for a more or less perma- 

 nent residence afloat. The advantages of such a plan are many; 

 first of all good sport is assured in the racing of a large fleet of 

 boats closely matched in size and quality, the expense is lessened, 

 as the saving between the cost of racing and cruising iu a large 

 yacht will more than pay the racing expenses of the 30 or 40ft. 

 craft: no sacrifice of comfort to the needs of racing is necessary, 

 the big craft offers always a comfortable home after the day's 

 racing, with no cold meals, wet sails, and similar drawbacks; 

 while should a new venture fail to justify her owner's expecta- 

 tions as to speed, she may be sold readily and replaced at a small 

 expense. 



The man who puts twenty or thirty thousand dollars into a rac- 

 ing craft only to find that she is second instead of first, is apt to 

 be in a pretty bad predicament; he does not care to sacrifice anew 

 and costly boat at a cruiser's price, while he must build anew or 

 give up racing. If, on the other hand, his little crack has cost but 

 two or three thousand, he can soon dispose of her at a trifling loss 

 and try again in a new craft. With his big cruiser he can go 

 where he pleases between the races, un trammeled by anxiety as 

 to the chances of securing a dock at the proper time, and "not 

 afraid to sail in weather that may spoil his sails. A crew of two 

 on board his little racer will take her from port, to port, without 

 the outlay of a couple of hundred dollars for a tow in a hurry, her 

 spare gear going m the big boat. On race days the owner, with 

 his Corinthian friends or a crew picked from the big boat, go on 

 board at leisure and sail in a well filled class with plenty of excite- 

 ment and friendly rivalry, returning when it is over to a meal in 

 comfort on the big ship. No waste of one day in stripping and 

 another in refitting the big boat for a race, no extra hands and 

 pilot to pay for, none of the many attendant discomforts of life 

 aboard a large cruising yacht, With such a plan once in practi- 

 cal operation there would follow the increase in racing, both in 

 quantity and quality, through the building up of a special racing 

 class within the reach of a very large number, many owners of 

 large craft, both sail and steam, being won back again to the rac- 

 ing ranks. 



There is little doubt but that the advancement of small yacht 

 racing would he a benefit to the wealthier yachtsmen, hut at the 

 same time such a move would be of even greater importance to 

 the great majority of active yachtsmen, men of unlimited spirit 

 and enthusiasm but of moderate means. There are men in every 

 large yacht club to-day who have at heart the advancement of 

 its racing interests in some form, however lacking in any definite 

 aim their efforts may be. To all such we commend, as a profitable 

 and instructive study, a, close scrutiny of the membership list of 

 their club. The smallest of what may be called the large classes 

 of racing yachts is the 53ft. class, such as Clara and Cinderella, 

 and the expenses of a season's racing in the class will be certainly 

 $5,000, white in the small craft it will run from $1,000 downward. 

 Now let them make out a list, placing on one side all who can 

 afford to spend the greater sum in racing, and on the other all 

 whose means will come well within the smaller limit. We ven- 

 ture to say that in even the largest clubs the latter list will far 

 outbalance the former, and if a second search be made, and all 

 checked off who not only eon but will spend each amount on 

 racing, tho disparity will be far greater. Such an examination 

 would teach a very plain lesson, that the strength of a club must 

 lie in the many who are anxious to race and cruise in small craft 

 if they cannot own large, rather than in the few who are both 

 able and willing to spend money on large yachts. If also a canvass 

 of tastes could be made, it would be found that in all clubs the 

 racing spirit, the enthusiasm, the will to work and the esprit du 

 corps that is of itself of so much value to a club, are mainly on 

 the side of the younger men, who can at best afford a craft with 

 but one paid hand, and often but a little ship to be managed and 

 raced with the aid of friends only. At the same time there are 

 in most clubs men of wealth, leisure and spirit who give time 

 and money freely for the advancement of their club, men to 

 whom yachting is deeply indebted; but in all organizations the 

 strongest and healthiest growth is that due to a general effort on 

 the part of all members, rather than to the special exertions of a 

 few,. 



