B8 



FOREST AN£> STREAM. 



[Nov. 21, 1889. 



four minutes ahead in the beginning may get twelve minutes ad- 

 vantage at the finish. A boat start ing four minutes late in a light 

 wind may cover the same distance in a strong breeze in one min- 

 ute. It is needless to say it can only be guess work how the wind 

 will be at the finish of a race. Good seamanship gets its reward 

 all through a race and at the finish: lean see no reason why it 

 should not get. the same reward at the start. The exact dimen- 

 sions I would use and the disposition of the sail for a 48-foot rat- 

 ing boat I could onlv determine after I had a design well under 

 way. I would not like to state here what I would do, for 1 might 

 change them before the design was completed. 



P. S.-My experience this year has been that large rigs pay from 

 a racing point of view. The difficulty has been that we have tried 

 to make too rapid strides. Wo have tried to kill the goose and get 

 all the eggs. Becau.se we have not put five years' advance in one, 

 a great many sav the goose was no good after all. That we have 

 obtained the' highest speed possible in the large rigs I very much 

 doubt. I would with perfect confidence undertake to produce a 

 boat with the same sail area that would be 10 minutes faster than 

 the best performance of the Liris this year. I can see no reason 

 why we should expect to have very narrow boats. 



New "York, Nov. 7. 



The point raised by Mr. Burgess and Mr. Fife is quite an impor- 

 tant one, as under a heavier tax of any form on sail there will be 

 a tendency to cheat the rule if possible, and it is difficult to fore- 

 see what form such evasion may take. The changes proposed by 

 the New York and Seawanhaka committees are intended to pre- 

 vent any such evasion if possible, but some further restrictions 

 may prove to be necessary in time. The Y. R. A. rule would not be 

 practicable in America, as the conditions of measurement are so 

 different. A very good point is made by Mr. Gardner in f avor- 

 ing a one gun start. The concluding paragraph of his letter is 

 especially interesting, and bears out.the views we expressed very 

 lately. ' 



YACHT BUILDING IN GREAT BRITAIN UNDER 

 THE NEW RULE. 



WHETHER or no the result of the proposed classification if 

 carried will be to encourage a very narrow type of yacht, 

 as some would have us believe, the change is a very important 

 one, and must exert a powerful influence on the racing fleet 

 within three or four years after its adoption. While it is impos- 

 sible to say with absolute certainty what the result of any new 

 rule will be, there is generally sufficient evidence available on 

 which to base very fair conclusions; and as a guide in the present 

 case American yachtsmen have before them the results of three 

 seasons' experience in Great Britain in practically the same 

 methods which are now under discussion with a view to their 

 adoption here. The rule of measurement now in use in Great 

 Britain was recommended for adoption by a committee of the 

 Yacht Racing Association on Nov. 17, 18%, after a most thorough 

 inquiry into the operation of the esisting tonnage rule, its evils 

 and the best means of remedying them. As the result of this in- 

 quiry, in which the evidence of Messrs. Watson, Fife, Clayton, 

 Richardson, Webb, Payne, Kemp and other designers was taken, 

 all attempts to patch up the existing rule were abandoned, and 

 an entirely new method was substituted. By this new rule the 

 length on waterline and the sail area are multiplied toget her, the 

 product being divided hy a constant, 6,000, and the result being a 

 rather anomalous unit caUed "'rating": approximating closely 

 enough to the old tonnage to permit the same time scale to be 

 used; thus the old 3-ton class is made 5 rating; the 5 ton is made 10 

 rating; the 10 ton, 20 rating; the 20 ton, 40 rating: the 40 ton, HO rat- 

 ing, etc. The sail is measured differently from the American 

 method, as will be noted later, but the formula itself is prac- 

 tically equivalent to that of the Seawanhaka rule, though one 

 gives a result in "rating" (which may be called a cubical measure- 

 ment); and the other gives a result in "corrected length," alinear 

 measurement. How closely the two methods approximate was 

 shown in the case of the Volunteer and Thistle, where the differ- 

 ence was but a few seconds. 



Regarding the actual measurement of the sail, by the American 

 method the spars alone are measured in such a way as to form a 

 triangle which includes no topsail but the ordinary working sail, 

 making no allowance for clubtopsail; while in the Y. R. A. 

 method the measurements are taken, not from the vessel, but 

 from the spar and sail plan by the sail maker, the head sails be- 

 ing considered as a triangle, while the mainsail and topsails, to- 

 gether with the foresail in a schooner and the mizen in a yawl, 

 are measured to find the actual area of each; the certificate of 

 rating being based on the topsail, either sprit or club, which the 

 owner elects to carry while the certificate holds good; many 

 yachts being rated only for a sprit or yardtopsail and using con- 

 sequently no "jackyard" or clubtopsail. The question of the 

 merits and detects of the two methods, alluded to elsewhere in 

 the letters of Messrs. Burgess and Fife, is quite an important one 

 in itself; but it has no direct bearing on the one which is now 

 under discussion, of the proper use of sail as a factor in the rule. 

 The Y. li. A. method would be impracticable in this country 

 owing to the number of sail makers, some of whom could not he 

 depended on to give the correct measurements; in Great Britain 

 this is practically done by one large firm. 



The two more serious objections which have been urged agaiust 

 the proposed classification are that it would directly encourage 

 very narrow yachts here; and also that it would at once put the 

 existing boats, say of the 40ft. class, at a disadvantage compared 

 with the corresponding class of 20 raters, should any care to cross 

 the Atlantic. We propose now to look into the actual working 

 of the rule in Great Britain in order to ascertain the type of boat 

 which it has developed there after a tolerably fair trial for 

 three seasons. The condition of racing and building when 

 the rule went into effect is familiar to all American yachts- 

 men: racing has come to a standstill owing to the expense of 

 beating the existing winners by more extreme craft, aud 

 the undesirable type of vessel produced in all, especially the 

 smaller classes. The racing fleet was reduced to Irex and a 

 few smaller craft, all of extreme narrow beam, and the U class, 

 intended to give a chance to the older racers, simply resulted in 

 killing the A class without being a success in itself. The only 

 opening left to designers was in the direction of length, with a 

 limit practically set to the speed in the larger yachts bv the draft 

 which could be used in practice. At the same time the prejudices 

 of most designers and yachtsmen were on the side of great' lengt h 

 and corresponding narrow beam rather than of the American 

 type of wide craft, and as great fear was expressed then bv many 

 that the new rule would produce extremely wide yachts as is now 

 felt on this side that the rule will prod uce narrow ones. The 

 following table coutaius the yachts built under the new rule 

 within the years '87, '88 and '89, together with several representa- 

 tives of the old narrow boats which are still in the racing. The 

 list is of course not complete in the sizes under 30ft., but it in- 

 cludes all large yachts and all the faster boats in the smaller 

 classes. We have not included several yachts built for cruising 

 and that do not race, such as Merry Maid, Woodcock, and the 

 schooner Asterope. As the sail measurements by Seawanhaka 

 rule are not obtainable we have based all calculation on the Y. 

 R. A. figures, which must be borne in mind in comparing the 

 table with that published several weeks since, of American yachts. 

 The Y. R. A. measurement is larger than the Seawanhaka, the 

 difference in the case of Thistle, in which the official figures for 

 both are given, being 11 per cent. In Valkyrie as nearly as can 

 be measured from photographs, the American measurement 

 would be about 200ft, less than the Y. R. A. with sprit topsail; in 

 Vreda and Dragon it would probably be about 100ft. less, and in 

 some cases in the smaller sizes the two measurements would be 

 about the same. By the Y. R. A. area the corrected length is 

 thus greater than it would be if the boats were measured in this 

 country for a race here, and the ratio of sail to length is also 

 larger than it should be in comparison with the figures previously 

 given for American yachts, and on which the accompanying dia- 

 gram is based; so that all through the British vessels are given a 

 little larger sail s-pread than they really carry by our rules. 



The largest yacht yet built under the new rule is the yawl Lethe 

 the first on the list, a cruiser similar to Wendur, aud a little lar- 

 ger; the only noticeable point about her being that she is wider, 

 t ti<- ratio of length to beam being 4.84 in place of 5.21 in Wendur . 

 Thistle was built specially to race in American waters and under 

 i 1h- New York rule, her ratio of length to beam being 4.27, so she 

 is hardly a fair basis for comparison; but looking at the other new 

 yachts in the larger Classes we rind that the proportion is nearly 

 as great, being 4 43 in Yarana and 4.36 in Valkyrie and Deerhound 

 In the medium-sized yachts the proportions run from 3U to 4*6 

 beams, and in the smaller sizes the greater number are from 3 to 

 4 beams. 



The standard proportions of the old tonnage yachts is triven in 

 the following table. 



Tons. 



Galatea 80 



Irex 90 



Genesta. < 90 



Erycina 90 



Marguerite.. 



L_ 



B Tons, 



5.79 Tara 40 



6.57 Clara 30 



5.4 Uiidia 10 



5.30 Delvyn 5 



.49 Currytush. 



JL 



M 



5.75 

 5. 80 

 5.8b 

 6.22 

 6.07 



BRITISH RACING YACHTS, ' 



Lethe 



Thistle .. 



Irex 



Valkyrie 



60- Rating (Has*: 



Yarana 



Petronilla 



ho- Rating Class: 



Mohawk 



Deerhound 



SO-Rating Claw: 



Mimosa 



Vreda 



Dragon 



* Windward 



Melissa 



Queen Mali 



10-Ratlng Clas/t: 



Dis 



Decima 



Yvonne 



t Doris 



Jenny Wren 



Di-ina 



Darthula 



Curtsey 



Lollypop 



Oread 



Fair Geraldine 



Flutterlv 



2t4-Matina Clasz: 



Humming Bird 



Cosette 



Thief 



Queen Mab 



Lady Nan 



Scaramouch 



Astore 



L 



feet. 



61.1 

 58.* 



47 



a 



45. 



is 



43 

 41 



36 

 85 

 34 

 33 

 33 

 33 

 33 

 30 



29 



29 



B 



feet. 



19.40 



20.25 



14.99 

 16.00 



14.90 

 17.00 



14.50 

 13.50 



10.80 

 10.01 

 10.25 

 9.15 



7.04 

 7.25 



9.10 

 10.20 

 8.90 

 5.58 

 5.45 

 9 50 

 7.60 

 10.50 

 9.20 

 7 30 

 7.50 

 8.20 



7.66 

 5.80 

 5.20 

 5.20 

 8.40 

 7.50 

 6.30 



B 



4.84 



4.27 



5.57 

 4.35 



4.43 

 3.68 



4.22 

 4.36 



4.38 

 4.57 

 4.44 

 4.95 

 6.00 

 5.72 



3.95 

 3.50 

 3.83 

 G.02 

 6.02 

 3.49 

 4.66 

 2.89 

 3.20 

 3.97 

 3.99 

 3.11 



3.39 

 4.22 

 4.67 

 4.06 

 3.73 

 3.01 

 2.70 



S. 

 Y.R.A.: 



sq.ft. 



I 8967 

 l S957 

 6978 

 6588 



5266 

 5337 



3890 

 4065 



2534 

 2fi23 

 2(536 

 2628 

 2668 

 2538 



1657 

 1680 

 1725 

 1680 

 1704 

 1801 

 1803 

 1430 

 1324 

 1241 

 1000 

 938 



619 

 652 



Y.R.A. 



97.0 

 76.5 



58 0 

 55.7 



39.8 



20.0 

 20.0 

 20.0 

 19.9 

 18.8 

 18.0 



10.0 

 10.0 

 9.8 

 9.5 

 9.6 

 10.0 

 9.9 

 7.2 

 6.5 

 6.0 

 5.0 

 4.0 



2.5 

 2.5 

 2.5 

 2.5 

 2.5 

 2.5 



94.69 

 99,80 

 83.50 

 81,15 



72.57 

 73. 05 



62.38 

 63.77 



50. 84 

 51.30 

 51.34 

 51.28 

 51.65 

 51.37 



40.70 

 40.99 

 41 .53 

 40.99 

 41.28 

 42.44 

 42.4p 

 37.81 

 36.38 

 35.27 

 31.62 

 30.02 



24.66 

 24.66 

 24.88 

 25.53 

 25.61 

 23.02 



90.07 

 98.J3 

 83.52 

 75.40 



69.33 

 67.87 



61.80 

 61.31 



48.93 

 48.47 

 48.43 

 48.33 

 46.93 

 46.44 



38.35 

 38.33 

 37.82 

 37.43 

 37. fit 

 87.80 

 37.73 

 34.10 

 32.92 

 32.14 

 30 , 80 

 38.06 



24.56- 

 24.50 

 24.55 

 24.25 

 24.10 

 20.01 



1.09 

 1.15 

 1.00 



Lie 



1.10 

 1.16 



1.02 

 1.08 



1.06 

 1.12 

 1.13 

 1.13 

 1.22 

 1.24 



1.13 

 1.15 

 1,22 

 1.21 

 1.22 

 1.28 

 1.29 

 1.24 

 1.23 

 1.21 

 1.05 

 1.20 



1.00 

 1.01 

 1.03 

 1.11 

 1.13 



lull 



Watson 



j- Watson 



Richardson 



Watson 



Watson 



Richardson 



Clayton. , 



Watson 



Clayton 



Watson 



Fife 



Fife 



McGildowney 



Watson 



Fay. 



Payne 



Fife 



Watson 



Froude 



Kemp 



lnglis 



Clayton 



Payne 



Fife 



Clayton 



Payne 



Payne 



Watson 



Watson 



Watson 



Payne 



Bayly 



Fife 



Date,. 



1887 

 1889 



1888 

 1888 



1889 

 1888 

 1889 

 1889 

 1886 

 1885 



1888 

 1889 

 1889 

 1885 

 1885 

 1889 

 1889 

 1885 

 1888 

 1889 

 1888 

 1888 



1889 

 1889 

 1889 

 1889 

 1888 

 1889 

 18.89 



* Windward wa« designed late in 1887, but not built until 1889. It is repoi ted that she has had a centerboard inserted this fall. 

 + Doris was widened last spring, and is now some 6in. wider than the beam here given. 



Queen Mab and Thief are of the same design. Cosette am! Scaramouch are centerboard boats. Humming Bird is rigged with 

 a large lug mainsail and jib. Her dimensions are only approximate, as is the length of Oread; all the other figures are taken from 

 Lloyd's Yacht Register and the official Y. R. A. measurements. 



From this it will be seen that in all sizes, from 85ft. to 85, the 



ratio of length to beam was nearly six to one. A comparison ot 

 the two tables will show the great change that has taken place 

 within three years, a widening of the whole fleet from the largest 

 down. Thistle is 5ft. 3in. wider than Galatea on the same length; 

 Yarana is 3ft. wider than Tara, both of the same length; Deer- 

 hound, 58ft.. has the same beam as Marguerite, of 74ft.; Dragon, 

 for 3ft. of length over the old 10-tonners, has also 3ft. of beam; 

 Yvonne is but. a foot longer than Shona, but 3ft. wider, while 

 Oread is also 3ft. wider than Mascotte and the other old threes of 

 nearly her length. The value of beam has been appreciated from 

 the first opportunity to use it by all the British designers, and 

 there is not an instance of a very narrow boat being built since 

 the rule was changed. The record seems to show beyond question 

 that the rule has actually produced a fleet of comparatively wide 

 yachts; the next question then is as to their performance. 



While comparatively few narrow yachts were left to race when 

 the change was made, there wore still some, such as Irex, Melissa, 

 Queen Mab, Lenore, Foxhound, Jenny Wren, May, Neptune, and 

 others of less note, that have kept up the fight until now. In the 

 classes over 20-ratmg it is very difficult to place the winners accu- 

 rately, owing to the great disparity in sizes, Irex, of 97-rating, 

 often being matched against Mohawk, Deerhound and even Vreda; 

 but the general results are sufficiently clear. The new boats are 

 about as fast, size for size, as Irex, the latter having an advantage 

 from perfect form and good handling which some of the newer 

 have not had. Yarana and Deerhound are both considered suc- 

 cessful boats, though Valkyrie, to Americans at least, is still in 

 doubt. Neither of the two widest boats, Petronilla or Mohawk, 

 have been successful, though it does not appear that this is due to 

 an excess of beam entirely, if at all; the respective designershave 

 not fallen in with the new rules as well as Messrs. Fife and Wat- 

 son have. Mr. Richardson, in his evidence before the Y. R. A. 

 committee before the rule was changed, declared his belief that 

 it would produce wide boats, and acting on this belief took more 

 beam than any one else in his first attempt. That she was not a 

 success is certain, but, like other of the Richardson boats, she 

 may have needed the best of ownership and a season's tuning up 

 before winning; and the failure cannot be laid solely to her beam, 

 though she probably exceeds the proportion which will be found 

 most desiraule in British waters. Mohawk's failure is commonly 

 laid to lack of draft, as she draws but little over 9ft., but she is 

 nearly 3ft. longer, lit. wider and has 200ft. less sail than her suc- 

 cessful rival; so the fault may be partly in the proportions. 

 Opinions differ as to the cost, utility and seagoing ability of the 

 old and new type: but the latter may at least he considered equal 

 to the former in all of these, as well as in speed, with the prob- 

 ability that with more boats in each class and closer racing, a 

 greater improvement will be made. After three seasons Irex has 

 given up the racing, and her owner will build a comparatively 

 wide boat to replace her. As she was the fastest of her class in 

 the narrow boats, this alone shows the value of moderate bjam 

 under the rule. 



Coming down to the smaller classes, there is found, as in this 

 country, a much more satisfactory collection of facts to guide us. 

 In the 20-rating class there has been some very good racing in the 

 past two years, with conclusive results. To sum these up briefly, 

 neither of the two old boats, Melissa nor Queen Mab, have any 

 chance with Vreda, as was proved in the latter's first season; and 

 further, Vreda has in turn been decisively beaten by Dragon this 

 year, so that the latter now stands at the top of the class. Not 

 only are the old 10-tonners unable to sail with the new boats, but 

 the old 20, Lenore, once considered almost as good as Clara, has 

 been beaten by t hem. 



It is impossible to give even an abstract of the large number of 

 races sailed in this and the smaller classes in '88 and '89, but all 

 go to show that Dragon can beat Vreda, that the latter can beat 

 Windward, that none of the old boats have any business beside 

 the new and wider ones, and finally that Mimosa thus far is not 

 in it with Dragon and Vreda. This latter boat it will be noticed 

 is both longer and wider, consequently bigger, than the other 

 two, while at the same time she is allowed toss sail; and the in- 

 ference is that her designer attempted to cat his cake and have 

 it too; first building a larger hull than his competitors, only to 

 find that he could not drive it with the sail allowed him for the 

 length he had selected. As similar cases are bound to come up 

 under the new rule here, designers may take warning, in order 

 that if they do fail they may not blame the rule, but their attempt, 

 to evade it by building a larger boat than it will legitimately 

 admit of. Of the three new and successful boats Dragon is the 

 widest, having nearly the beam of Minerva and Kathleen. Wind- 

 ward was designed by Mr. Fife immediately after his return from 

 America in '87, when he was pondering over the centerboard, 

 though she was not built until this year. She is narrower by a 

 foot than Dragon, and not so fast. It is reported that since the 

 racing season she has been fitted with a centerboard. Melissa has 

 given up racing and her owner will have a new20-rater for next 

 season. 



In the 10-rating class a very interesting lot of old and new boats 

 is found; the old ones, Doris and Jenny Wren, being well known 

 (the lines of the latter appeared in the Forest and Stream of 

 Feb. 24, 1887). Doris was altered this year by stripping her plank- 

 ing from the dock to the bilge and hipping the timbers, making 

 her some 6in. wider, an evidence in itself of the tendency of the 

 new rule. Florence, another old 5-tonner, is to be treated the 

 same this winter with a clipper bow added. Of the new boats the 

 great success has been Decima, the widest, while the least suc- 

 cessful has been Darthula, the narrowest. Yvonne, a Fife boat of 

 less than four beams, has been quite successful, but has been 

 beaten by the wider Decima. In the racing in ihe north, Doris 

 held her own at the start against the new Yvonne and Darthula, 

 but soon Yvonne improved sufficiently to beat her. Meanwhile 

 Decima was doing much as she pleased about Southiimpton, and 

 the question as to the winner when they should meet became an in- 

 teresting one. When Yvonne and the others went south the matter 

 was soon decided, as Decima best them all beyond any cavil; taking 

 34 prizes to 39 starts, 28 firsts, 5 seconds and 1 third. Three of the 

 seconds were won when larger yachts, Foxglove, Deerhound or 



Vreda, took first; while t wo of the losses were due to carrying away 

 spars, one to a protest and one to no second prize being given, the 

 first being lost by only 38s. and four starters. In the last of the 

 five she beat all her class, but was beaten by Dragon and Vreda. 

 1 he 7 boats m the 10-rating class represent, all proportions from 

 extreme to moderate beam, and the work of a number of skilled 

 designers, making a comparison both interesting and valuable. 

 The boat ot %% beams wins safely and easily from all the others, 

 while the other prizes in the class go to the moderate boats, and 

 the extremely narrow ones are clearly out of the racing. The 

 a-rating class has furnished similiar examples in the contests of 

 Oread with the old threes, while the.2^-rating class has developed 

 a very nice lot of small craft, keel and centerboard, of v arying 

 proportions, the. winner being under 3X> beams. 



The only conclusion to be drawn from the facts is that the result 

 of the rule in Great Britain has been to produce much wider boats, 

 and that these boats have beaten fairly the old narrow cutters. 

 Some examples are found where beam alone has not won, as in 

 Petronilla and Mimosa, but against them must bo set the many 

 successful boats of 3.X to 4t£, beams. It is probable that the win- 

 ning boats of the future will not depart very widely from the 

 dimensions of Valkyrie, Deerhound, Dragon and Decima; and if 

 these proportions, result from the rule under such conditions as 

 have always existed abroad, and starting from the standpoint of 

 extreme narrow beam, there need be no fear that the sameTTile 

 here will develop anything uearly as narrow as Valkyrie or Vreda. 



In this country the whole education of the yachtsman, from 

 t he time he first takes the tiller of a toy catboat, tenches him to 

 reverence and respect beam as the chief, if not the only, desirable 

 quality m a yacht, and this belief is fostered as he grows until it 

 becomes the standard by which everything is judged, ft would 

 be possible, by putting a very heavy tax on sail, to compel a man 

 either to build a very narrow boat or to give up racing: but with 

 any opportunity at all to take beam, the American yachtsman 

 will do so. That the rule has not compelled the use" of narrow 

 boats abroad is proved above, and if moderate beam can be taken 

 there, with stronger winds, it will be taken here in nearly every 

 instance. No doubt the vast beam of the old and new boats will 

 bo reduced, with great advantage, but as far as the home fleet to 

 be developed and encouraged by the rule is concerned, there is 

 no reason to fear that it will not have more beam than has heen 

 taken abroad, and as much as is compatible with a good all-round 

 racer, in which convenience and deck room are considered, even' 

 though they may not be made of paramount, importance. A 

 classification by corrected length will undoubtedly reduce beam 

 and draft to a certain extent, but will be most, felt in the re- 

 duction of the area of the midship section which has been car- 

 ried to such an extreme of late. The advantages of a, good work- 

 ing platform, that have made themselves felt in England in such 

 a short time, have always been realized in this country, and while 

 the tendency of the rule itself is toward moderate rather than 

 extreme wide or narrow beam, the tendency of all the conditions 

 which govern American yachting will act with the rule to pi e- 

 serve a fair amount of beam, at least a foot or two more on a 40ft. 

 yacht than would be taken in England. 



As to the home fleet that would be built up under the new rule 

 we have no douot that it would include a most wholesome type or 

 types of vessels, at least as good as anything known in the past; 

 let us now look at the probable effect of a British invasion headed 

 by the dreaded Dragon and Vreda, on the present and also the 

 prospective home fleet. In the ninth column ot the larger table 

 will be found the ratio of the square root of the sail area to the 

 length, corresponding to the fifth column of Table A in our issue 

 of Oct. 24, except, as before stated, that the Y. R. A. figures are 

 now used, giving a higher value than in the former table. The 

 diagram is an enlargement of that previously published, with the 

 addition of the British yachts. One curious circumstance ap- 

 pears on the table; with the exception of Irex, a fast boat with 

 very small sails, all of the narrow, deep boats of heavy displace- 

 ment require more sail than the new and more moderate type; for 

 instance, Vreda and Dragon compared with Melissa and Queen 

 Mab; Decima compared with Doris and Jenny Wren. As the 

 smaller rigged boats are t he faster it is but reasonable to assume 

 that they are of better form and model. The average ratio of 

 sail in the new British boats from 45ft. waterline down is 113 per 

 cent., equivalent to about 110 per cent, by American measure- 

 ment. Referring now to the diagram it will be seen that the 

 yachts which win races in American waters are grouped about 

 the line representing 140 per cent, iu the smaller classes, and 12(1 

 per cent, in the 70ft. class. The fastest in each class, Titania and 

 Katrina, Mischief, Fanita, Vixen, Liris, Tomahawk, Gorilla, 

 Tom Boy, Kathleen and Saracen, are all near the maximum limit 

 of their classes. Two exceptions are found lower down. Minerva 

 and Pappoose at 131 per cent., but even this denotes a sail plan 

 that would have been considered enormous a few years since. 



In all the fleet— and it is a representative one— there is but one 

 instance of a yacht that is undoubtedly fast with very small sails, 

 and that is Clara. Bedouin has been a very successful boat, but 

 she has failed to hold the newer craft, and besides has a larger 

 sail plan for her length than Clara. Shadow appears as a boat of 

 moderate rig, but she would have no chance wi th a new boat, built 

 to beat her. It requires no deep consideration for any one famil- 

 iar with all the fleet to say that in order to win races a yacht must 

 be canvassed up at least to the 135 per cent, line in the classes 

 below 45ft., and to 115 per cent, in the 70ft. class. No one to-day 

 would be in the least afraid of the boats on the 110 per cent, line— 

 Shona, Uiidia, Stranger or lleen— even if their canvas were con- 

 siderably increased, nor would Madge have won here if kept down 

 to her original rig, near this limit. In order to race in the pro- 

 posed 4.8ft. class, Dragon or Vreda could have about 2,550ft. of sail 

 by Seawanhaka rule, making just 48ft., or practically what they 

 have now. If we may judge by Maggie, I'lidia, Madge and Baya- 

 dere, the latter of the same dimensions aud by the same designer 

 as Vreda, they would not have the least show with the best of the 

 present forties on even time. 



Mr. Burgess, in his letter to the Lake Y. R. A. cites a 20-rater as 

 the winning boat under the proposed rule, and Mr. Fife expresses 



