Nov. 21, 1889. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



DIAGRAM SHOWING RATIO OF SAIL TO LENGTH IN THE RACING FLEET. 

 The vertical lines indicate the present limits of classes by waterline length; the inclined lines indicate the limits of classes by corrected length. The relative positio 

 of each yacht in its class, near the upper or lower limit, is shown by its proximity to lines indicating the class limits. 



ably run from 40 to 44 or 45ft., and in the other classes the vari- 

 ation in length will be from 4 to 6ft.; so that, when once tolerably 

 familiar with the new classes, a man can quickly place any yacht. 

 Of course, in theory a yacht of any length can enter any class; 

 thus one of 58ft. length might be built for the 48ft. class or for the 

 54ft. class or the 60ft. class; but in the first instance she could 

 have but 1,849ft. of sail, being little more than a huge canoe; in 

 the second she could have 3,025f t., and would be a 7-beani cutter, 

 and in the third she would be allowed 4,356ft., and would be a 

 larger boat than Athlon or Cinderella. It would even be possible 

 in theory to go further and build a scow of 53ft. to carry some 

 7,000ft. of sail; but with all these possibilities on the given length 

 no one boat could go in all these classes by varying her canvas, 

 and, practically, the man who selected a 53ft. waterline would be 

 compelled to go in the 60ft. corrected length class and no other. 

 It may very safely be assumed, in considering the possible changes 

 from class to class, that only under exceptional circumstances 

 Will a man go down in a class, as the influence of the time scale 

 favors the larger boats, and makes it desirable to give rather than 

 to receive time. 



As to yachts changing at will from class to class, the same 

 .condition of affairs exists now, though unnoticed because no one 

 wishes to avail himself of the privilege. It would be perfectly 

 practical for Sea Pox or Merlin to ship a little ballast and go in 

 the class with Fortuna; Bedouin and Titania, as we have before 

 mentioned, technically belong in the class by themselves, and 

 might refuse to race with the other seventies; half a dozen of the 

 new forties are over the limit of their class in many races, and 

 might go in the class above if they wished, while some thirties 

 push the limit so hard that by neglecting to strip to the last bit of 

 china or bedding, they would be in the 35ft. class. This state of 

 affairs has existed without causing any trouble or exciting com- 

 ment, the main point being that men do not want to go up and be 

 at the tail end of a higher class instead of the head of a lower one. 

 Under a classification by corrected length there may be somewhat 

 greater facilities for a change among the odd sizes of existing 

 yachts, and at first a man may be in doubt as to which class he 

 can do best in, but there will be few cases of this kind. Liris 

 could go into the class above and make a clean sweep, perhaps 

 winning more pots than in her legitimate class, but she never 

 would do it; and on the other hand, Clara, finding nothing 

 in her own class, might reduce her rig and try for prizes 

 in the class with such boats as Daphne and Alga, but it is 

 no more likely that she would do so than that she will put in 

 ballast and a heavier rig under present conditions and go 

 into the class above her to race with Hildegarde and Mischief. 

 In a case like Pappoose, an odd size near the bottom of a class, it 

 would only be good policy to reduce the rig a little and go into 

 the lower class, and no harm could result from such a change. 

 This has been done in the smaller classes in England, a boat some- 

 times shipping a larger rig and increasing her rating from 2J4 to 

 4, taking time in the 5-rating class, but this is only with odd-sized 

 craft not especially built to the limits of a class. With a new 

 boat built to the highest limit of a class, as is certain to be the 

 case, it will be impossible to carry the very large increase of sail 

 allowed to the length if she goes in the class above her own; and 

 equally impossible to drive her with the very small rig allowed 

 for her length in the class below her, so there is no opportunity 

 to change. In the case of the change from one class to another 

 which came up in the Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C. in 1884, and 

 which was the cause of the change from corrected to waterline 

 length, there were but four classes of sloops in place of the pres- 

 ent eight classes, with few boats in each class, or the fact of a 

 boat going from one class to another would not have been noticed. 



It is too much to expect that the change from one system to the 

 other can be made without trouble or inconvenience to any one; 

 but at the same time the practical difficulties in the way are very 

 slight, especially in comparison with the good points of the new 

 scheme, and will disappear after one or two seasons of building 

 and racing. 



MEASUREMENT ON LAKE ONTARIO. 



THE committee of the Lake Y. R. A. has lost no time since the 

 season closed in collecting information and in compiling 

 a very clear report, with the result that the changes recom- 

 mended were unanimously adopted at the annual meeting. The 

 following very interesting letters were received in answer to a 

 circular sent out by Mr. Jarvis, chairman of the committee, some 

 time since to the leading designers, American and British. The 

 circular read in part as follows: 



"At present our Association classifies bv L.W.L. length, time 

 allowance being given on the corrected length or rating. Our 



rule is that of Seawanhaka Y. C. 



KATHLEEN, A GOOD RECORD.— The 30-footer Kathleen of 

 New York, owned by William Whitlock, has made a good record 

 this year, winning nine first prizes out of fifteen starts. In three 

 other races Kathleen crossed the line first, but. lost twice on time 

 allowance, and once from being ruled out. The Kathleen has 

 won the Atlantic Y. C. pennant, as the Arab and Guide refused 

 to race with her for it.— Boston Globe. 



THE CRUISE OP THE ALERTE.— Mr. A. H. Tredwen, who ac- 

 companies Mr. Knight on his search for buried treasure in the 

 yawl Alerte, has wired home the safe arrival of the party at Rio 

 Janeiro on Nov. 5, haying left England on Aug. 28. 



rating. Our present classes are 20, 25, 30, 36, 50 and over 50ft. 

 L. W.L., and it is our inteution to substitute for these 20,30, 35, 40, 

 48, 60 and 70ft. corrected length with a length and sail area card, 

 of which I inclose you a copy: the first column showing the 

 L.W.L., the second the maximum amount of sail that can be 

 taken to bring a craft up to the class limit as shown in third 

 column. Now our idea, of course, in making the alteration is 

 to produce a moderate vessel, an economical and wholesome 

 craft, avoiding extremes in beam and draft. Therefore we re- 

 quest the benefit of your experience, and if not asking too much, 

 that you would state what amount of length, beam, draft, 

 sail area and displacement you would take in a design for the 

 48ft., i. e., the last class on our card for which we have worked 

 out sail area. In giving sail area figures, kindly quote by Sea- 

 wanhaka rule. I may mention that few of our fleet have' been 

 built for the classes, but rather the classes made to suit the 

 fleet, and that we have not the question of vested interests to 

 consider to the extent that the seaboard American and English 

 yacht clubs have. Therefore, if advisable, we wish to make the 

 change before we have these troubles to contend with." 

 The replies were as follows: 



MK. BURGESS. 



I am myself on a committee of the Eastern Y. C. on the subject 

 of classification, measurement, etc., but we have not yet come to 

 any decision. 



Judging from the success of Minerva, I should think that a 

 classification based on our rule (Seawanhaka) would form a pretty 

 narrow type of boat— too narrow to suit my ideas of a good boat. 

 For a 48-foot corrected length class, I think a boat 45 to 46ft. long 

 by 10ft. beam would probably be most successful; and it seems to 



me that the New York Y. C. rule 



^S+2 L 



would be safer for 



classification. 



There is one important consideration that I should want to see 

 settled before advocating any classification based partly on sail 

 area; i. e., the question of measuring the sail area. By any of the 

 present methods all sails are treated as of the same value for 

 speed and equally taxed. The result will be, when the sail area is 

 heavily taxed, as m the case of using it for classification, that the 

 important sail or sails will be increased at the expense of less 

 valuable sails, and this will produce a bad rig for seagoing pur- 

 poses. There may be a way to avoid this difficulty, but I have not 

 found it. One improvement will be to add to the base line any 

 excess of the spinaker pole beyond the point in the bowsprit taken 

 for the base line. This will be a premium on keeping the main 

 mast aft uear its proper place. 



If we recommend any change of classification I shall be happy 

 to let you know. I should think it a good plan if the L. Y. R. A. 

 fell in with whatever our large clubs do, as this will open a mar- 

 ket from which you can import yachts for the lakes. 



Boston, Oct. 4, 



MB. SMITH. 



In reply to your favor of Oct. 8 would say that I would make a 

 boat for 48ft. corrected length, S. C. Y. C. rule, about 44ft. L.W.L., 

 12ft. beam and 9ft. draft, sail 2,704ft., and about 28 tons displace- 

 ment. Of course these figures might be modified when the de- 

 sign would be worked out, and would vary with the construction; 

 if made very light the displacement would be less, and if built 

 cheaply would be more. You will bear in mind that dimensions 

 cannot be determined until the plan has been worked out. I fre- 

 quently make a plan and change the dimensions and make a new 

 one. 



New York, Oct. 10. 



MB. WILL FIFE. 



In the first place I do not consider that the Seawanhaka rule 

 for taking sail area gives anything like sufficiently accurate re- 

 sults, and it could be evaded to a very large extent, In fact it 



could be evaded to such an extent as to make the result depend 

 on cleverness m cheating the rule (which is to be deprecated), 

 rather than on merit in design. I therefore hold that sail area 

 should be taken in a similar manner to that in which it is 

 taken by the Yacht Racing Asssociation of Great Britain, and 

 classify by corrected length as in Seawanhaka rule. 



If the Y. R. A. rule were used for taking area, the dimensions 

 of a boat built to race as 48f l. corrected length would be about: 



Length 45ft. 



Beam 10ft. 



gratt 9ft. 



Displacement 26 tons 



Ballast 14 tons" 



Sail area by Y. R. A. rule 2,605ft. 



Corrected length L+ ^S A -4 Sf 



Fatblie, Oct. 12. 



MB. WATSON. 



_ I have always had the strongest feeling, ever since the estab- 

 lishment of the length and sail area rule, that yachts should be 

 classed on their corrected length, or what is the same thing, on 

 their rating. This, in my opinion, is a very strong check on ex- 

 cessive sail spreads, more even than taxing sail area more heavily. 



Your proposed rule ^^- f ^ equalling corrected length, gives 



exactly the same respective values of length and sail area, as our 

 present rule does, and in your club I think it should produce fine 

 wholesome vessels, such as it has done and is doing here. 



As to stating what length, beam, draft, sail area, and displace- 

 ment I would take for a 48ft. corrected length class, this means 

 practically designing the boat, I would not care to make any 

 statement just in a rough and ready wav, and would only care to 

 do so after going very carefully into it. This, I fear, I have not 

 the time to do. 



Glasgow, Oct. 14. 



MR. GARDNER. 



In the 48ft. class I should use different lengths according to the 

 circumstance. If for light winds and smooth water, 41ft. and 

 3,025ft. sail, for heavy winds and sea 45ft. and 2,601ft. sail; for an 

 all round boat to sail under varying conditions, 43ft. and 2,800ft. 

 sail. The latter boat would be the most successful in a season's 

 racing, unless the boat was owned and sailed only at such a place 

 as Newport, where you usually get a sea, whether the wind be 

 light or heavy. In such a case the longer boat would have the 

 advantage. A really superior design might win all the races 

 though she be anywhere between 41 and 45ft. length. In that 

 case it would be due to the merits of the design alone and not to 

 the crude quantities. There have been a great many attempts 

 made in England to produce a moderate beam boat to defeat the 

 30ft. Southampton boats. The Minerva is the first of her propor- 

 tions to do well. On the other hand, the Southampton boats have 

 been notoriously bad sea boats, plunging and stopping in the sea. 

 The Kathleen, although of about the same proportions as those 

 boats, never plunges and is, according to the testimony of those 

 who have seen her in a gale at sea, an unusually good sea boat 

 for any type, so you can see how difficult it is to draw inference 

 from the performance of a single or a few boats. The Minerva 

 has surprised a great many people here, in fact thoroughly scared 

 some of them. It is due to the fact that we have of late considered 

 ourselves invincible on the water. Mr. Fife has been, in spite of 

 the performance of the Clara, very much underestimated. I do 

 not consider Minerva's good performance due to the fact that 

 she has small sails and is a moderate boat, but to the very good 

 model and wonderfully good canvas and rigging. 1 think it 

 would be a good change to adopt a classification bv rating on the 

 lakes, although it would not be so essential there as here. I see 

 from your letter that your classes are nearly all small ones. In 

 the smaller classes the change is not so important. It is abso- 

 lutely necessary in the large classes to have a definite limit to 

 combined power-and -length in each class. Excessive power to 

 length in the large classes is a very dangerous thing. If one has 

 to give up length, which is valuable, to obtain a large sail area, 

 the tendency would be to prevent the large rig. 



Time allowance is, and always has been, a very unsatisfactory 

 thing. The value varies according to the strength of the wind. 

 It seems to me absurd to have a lot of boats built to the limit of a" 

 class and one giving time to another on account of sail, when the 

 time allowance is based on the increase in speed due to an in- 

 crease in size in every direction and not to sail at all. I think a 

 one gun start just as essential as a good rule. If boats start with 

 a strong wind and finish with a light one, the boat that starts 



