5, 1892.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



4S1 



the day was for the "cod's head and mackerel's tail" form of water- 

 line, folio wing which, about the time of the America, came a com- 

 plete revolution, by which the full bows and fine runs were reversed, 

 the new theory being carried to its extreme in the wave line form of 

 Mr. J. Scott Eussell. While never returning to the old idea of the 

 cod's head, the fashion in waterlines has changed greatly from time 

 to time, until in the work of Fife,Watson and others a positively con- 

 vex waterline is found. 



For some years past the influence of the waterlines with the 

 designers has grown less and less, the wave form theory has done 

 much to destroy it, and Sir Robert Montague's investigations of the 

 diagonal lines long since demonstrated their great value, but at 

 the same time nearly every designer has become wedded to a certain 

 form of waterline which recurs in all of his boats. Indispensable as 

 they are to the draftsman and designer, forming a foundation on 

 which a design may be readily constructed, the horizontal waterlines 

 really form no essential feature of a design, and are of little import- 

 ance compared with the diagonals and section lines 



From the comments on Gloriana's form and on Mr. Herreshoff 's 

 remarks concerning her lines, it appears that there are still some to 

 whom the diagonals are a complete novelty, and who assume that 

 the boat is always upright, and that the water runs around it in 

 horizontal layers corresponding to the waterlines marked by the 

 light and dark lifts in a model; but t tie value of the diagonal lines 

 has long been appreciated by the "rule o' thumb" men, as well as 

 by the designers. The America is a conspicuous instance, George 

 Steers depending for his shape in her as in all his yachts and pilot 

 boats mainly on the diagonals as laid down on the mould loft floor, 

 and on the same line? as shown by The ribbands when th« yacht was 

 in frame. The whale character of the model is shown better by the 

 diagonals and section lines than by any others, a fact that was em- 

 phasized some 20 years ago by Mr. J. W. Griffiths, in his treatise on 

 ship building, but which, up to the present time, has not been as 

 generally understood as it should be. As Mr. Griffiths points out, 

 the waterlines are valuable from their convenience, but they are im- 

 portant not from their own shape, but from the resulting shape of 

 the diagonals and section lines. If it were Eot for the mechanical 

 difficulties of the drafting, designers would be only too ready to 

 abandon the horizontal waterlines entirely, and to start the design 

 with the yacht not in a vertical but in an inclined position, at the 

 average sailing angle, the section lines and diagonals alone being 

 shown. 



In designing Gloriana Mr. Herreshoff has apparently considered 

 her from this pomt of view alone, he has boldly turned his back on 



BODY PLAN. 



the waterlines, striving merely to secure as large an area as possible 

 for purposes of stability, and his attention has been directed almost 

 entirely to the diagonals. These are long, clean and easy, the main 

 diagonal, cutting the flat part of the floor, offering an unobstructed 

 passage to the water, and being especially clean aft. Blunt and 

 round as the immersed waterline appears to be, an easy passage for 

 the water is provided underneath, rather than around, by the diago- 

 nals and buttock lines. 



In all this there is no new principle, no great discovery, no mar- 

 velous invention, as some would have us believe, but there is a bold 

 stroke of genius in the way in which Gloriana's designer has thrown 

 aside all the conventional theories concerning the waterline, and 

 broken a new path in which others are hastening to follow him. The 

 value of the diagonals was established a generation ago, the desira- 

 bility of a large area of loadwater plane has been realized by de- 

 signers for years, the practicability of the convex waterline in cer- 

 tain types has long since been demonstrated by Watson and Fife, 

 but at the same time designers have followed the conventional path, 

 hampered by usage and tradition in regard to the particular form of 

 waterline which they were at liberty to use in a wide boat, and it has 

 remained for Mr. Herreshoff to remove the barrier to a field which 

 promises to be productive of the best results in the future. In our 

 opinion Gloriana would have been none the less valuable as a teacher 

 had she been no better than third or fourth in the fleet: even in that 

 case she would have served to disprove the old fallacies as to the im- 

 portance of a special form of waterline, and to have started design- 

 ers in the new direction. As a teacher she stands beside America and 

 Mosquito; they served to disprove certain accepted theories which 

 were directly in the way of progress, and she has done the same,; 

 having done this, the question of how many mugs she has won or 

 may win becomes of little importance. 



Looking at the actual value of the long ends, apart from the pecu- 

 liar form of the boat proper, the first point noticeable is that while 

 they result naturally from the cari-ying out the long fore and aft 

 curves to their legitimate endings, a large part of each end might be 

 cut off without loss of power, in fact, so far as speed in smooth water 

 is concerned, and apart from all question of appearance, the two 

 ends might be cut off plumb with tne waterline, as in the scows to 

 which Gloriana had so often been compared. Even with such a 

 shortening as this she would possess the same load water plaDe and 

 the same powerful and easy bottom, and her performance m smooth 

 water would suffer but little. Forward the loss would be nothing, 

 there would be the same entrance, the same lines below water, even 

 when heeled. Aft there would be some loss, though by no means 

 proportionate to the extreme length of the counter. 



The value of after overhang was never better understood than by 

 the builders of the type of sloop once in common use about New 

 York under the mean length rule, the tax on overhang induced the 

 designers and builders to take no more than the last inch that was 

 absolutely helpful to the boat, and how much this was we know 

 from Grayling, Fanita, Mischief and the rest of the old stub-tails. 

 The counter was carried out, the center timber as low as in modern 

 boats, but as soon as this timber was well clear of the water under 

 all ordinary condition of heeling and immersion, it was chopped off 

 abruptly. Those who have observed the modern boats traveling at a 

 high speed have doubtless noticed that the quarter wave runs some- 

 times the entire length of the counter, but it must not be supposed 

 that there is either stability or effective length for this distance; 

 quite a considerable part of this water is probably earned along by 

 tne boat, with even a positive retarding influence, and the valuable 

 portion of the entiie after overhang is certainly not greater than g, 

 third of the average length. 



Under a rule taxing overhang we would see Gloriana's ends cut off 

 in proportion to the extent of the tax; taking the boat as sheis.it 

 would be possible to reduce both ends materially without harm to he^ 

 sailing qualities, a matter of 4ft. off the stem and of 5ft. from the 

 stern would, as will be seen from the design, make no important dif- 

 ference in the lines save a turning in short about the deck. Some- 

 thing of this kind is apparent in the new Wasp and the fin- keels, the 

 bows of Wasp are even fuller than Gloriana about the waterline, but 

 the lines are turned in quicker about the stemhead. 



While we have for many years combatted the stupid and illogical 

 rule which makes compulsory the building of none but square-ended 

 yachts, with what success is shown by the almost general abandon- 

 ment of the mean-length rules, and while we believe in the utility of 

 both the clipper stem and long counter, as well as the right of a de- 

 signer to put them on any boat; at the same time we are far from 

 sharing the popular idea that. such ends are in every way an unmixed 



