194 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 3, 1894. 



LA VENDENE8SE, ALUMINUM RACING YACHT, DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED BY MESSRS. GODINET AND GUILLOUX, 1893. 

 Scale J^in. to the foot (nearly). P, Forcastle; B, Pantry; J J, Watertight Bulkheads; S, Saloon; O, Steerage; V, Sail Room. 



VENDENESSE SAIL PLAN. 



La Vendenesse. 



THE FIRST ALUMINUM SAILING YACHT. 



; ). i.it foundation there may be for the idea that the French 

 maritime people than the more northern nations, it must 

 ; ,', fill in iu i:d t hat they have held a relatively high place in naval design 

 ••>'•" construction, from the days when the English were glad to copy 

 i f,.. 1 "<: .,r the captured French frigates down to the first adoption of 

 > ■ iron armor for war vessels, and so to the present time. Though 

 lacking the constant stimulus which necessity has imposed on their 

 insular neighbors both iu war and commerce, with the accompanying 

 Bating; they have still maintained a foremost place as 

 students and investigators of the science of naval design, and as prac- 

 jotors. Compared with its condition in England and 

 j riea, yachting has labored under very serious disadvantages in 

 France; but at the same time it has grown into an established and 

 recognized national Hport, wit h a code of rules and a large and growing 

 fl6»t. Though dependent largely on England and America for its 

 yuchts, not a few have been built at home, and serious and systematic 

 efforts have been made for some time to promote a national type, or 

 type of home- built yachts. 



The latest yacht built under the new rule of the Societe des Yachts 

 Frangais*, adopted in 1892, possesses a special interest not only from 

 her design, but from the fact that she is the first sailing yacht built of 

 aluminum, the commercially new metal of which so much has been 

 said and so little is popularly known. In the Forest and Stream of 

 Sept. 1892, we illustrated a steam yacht of this metal, built in 

 Zurich, Switzerland, for use on the Seine, but the chance of th« suc- 

 cessful use of the metal in a sailing craft has thus far been merely 

 conjecture. Thanks, however, to the enterprise and skill of several 

 Srench yachtsmen, the true value of aluminum in yacht construction 

 s now being practically and to all appearances thoroughly tested. 

 We are indebted to our French contemporary, Le Yacht, which paper 

 has done much toward a better knowledge of aluminum, for the ac- 

 companying designs, which it describes substantially as follows- 



/ L _P\ 



* The rule is \ <t) X P X ^SA . P is the girtu of the yacht 

 130 



See Forest and Stream, Dec. 8, 1892. 



The design for La Vendenesse had been ordered by County J. de 

 Cnabannes la Pahce from Mr. Godinet, the author of the new French 

 measurement rule, the^yachfc being planned originally for wooden 



construction, and the dimensions of hull and sail plan having been 

 calculated so as to assure as far as possible a faster craft than Aline, 

 purchased in Scotland by the brother of Count de Chabannes (Aline 

 was formerly the 10-rater Encore, designed and built by Mr. Will Fife, 

 Jr., in 1890). After the yacht was planned, Count de Chabannes, 

 struck with the promised advantages of aluminum in a racing yacht, 

 determined to make the experiment of substituting aluminum for 

 wood and steel. In order to put the experiment in practice he called 

 upon Mr. Victor Gilloux, a naval engineer, the author of several arti- 

 cles on aluminum in Le Yacht, and although the cost promised to be 

 high, the entire construction of the proposed yacht was finally in- 

 trusted to Mr. Guilloux. 



As the result of an understanding between the designer and the con- 

 structor, the original design was altered, the length on the waterline 

 being increased and the lines fined down, in order to realize the great- 

 est possible advantage of the light hull which the use of aluminum 

 permitted. Tne final dimensions of the design are as follows: 



Length over all 57ft. lin. 



L.W.L 39ft. 4in. 



Beam extreme 9ft. i}Axn. 



Draft 8ft. 4%ia. 



Displacement 15 tons. 



Ballast 11 tons. 



Sail area l,938sq. ft. 



The building was done at St. Denis, at the works of the Societe des 

 Chan tiers et Ateliers de la Loire, the construction devised by Mr. Guil- 

 loux including first a rigid framework of steel, intended to carry the 

 weight of the lead and the strains of the rig, and to distribute them 

 as evenly as possible. This framework was covered with aluminum 

 in plates and angles, serving to bind the different parts together, and 

 to form the outer skin. Two unbroken bulkheads of aluminum are 

 built into the hull, serving to bind the sides together and to give addi- 

 tional safety in the case of grounding or collision. 



The fitting and rivetting of all the parts was done with extreme care; 

 both the heating of the plates and the driving of the rivets being oper- 

 ations requiring the most delicate handling, the metal itself being 

 difficult to work, and the proper mode of working it being yet uncer- 

 tain. The workmen employed were accustomed to working iron, 

 steel and copper, but not aluminum, and many trials were necessary 

 to determine the best methods of handling a metal possessing such 

 absolutely different physical properties. One point of special diffi- 

 culty was the tightness of the hull, a much closer spacing of the rivets 



being required than in iron or steel, so close in fact as to affect the 

 final strength of the joint. By careful work, however, on the part of 

 Mr. Guilloux. assisted by Mr. Boulogne, the superintendent and Mr. 

 Lecomte, the engineer of the works, the hull, as proved by the test 

 described further on, was made both tight and stroDg. 



The weight of aluminum used in the hull is 1.08 long tons, and of 

 steel 1.67 tons, or 2.75 tons to a total displacement of 15 tons, a ratio 

 of 18J^$. Although aluminum is unaffected by air or fresh water, it 

 is perceptibly affected, though less than steel, by contact with salt 

 water, and by the salts contained in the sea. It was absolutely neces- 

 sary to protect it in some way, and after researches in which he was 

 aided by Messrs. Letellier and Veyrassat, chemists, Mr. Guilloux dis- 

 covered a paint and a special mode of application which appears to 

 meet fully the conditions of the case. Three coats are used, the first 

 to secure adherence to the metal, the second to protect the metal 

 from corrosion, and the third to prevent all growth of barnacles and 

 other foreign substances. This preparation is said to be similar in 

 principle to the lacquer used of late years in Japan for the hulls of war 

 vessels.* The interior of the skin was at first simply varnished, to 



* Forest and Stream, March 26, 1891. 

 show the natural color of the white metal, but the difference between 

 the temperature of the air and water resulted in an excessive con- 

 densation of moisture on the side, even greater than in an iron yacht, 

 and to prevent this three coats of paint were applied. 



The interior arrangements include a forecastle in the forward com- 

 partment, a main saloon and steerage in the middle compartment, 

 and abaft the after bulkhead a large sail room, capable of use as a 

 stateroom. In the forecastle are three hammock berths, a galley and 

 pantry, with locker seats, ihe headroom being 5ft. 7in. under the 

 beams. 



The saloon is 9ft. 6in. long, with a light wooden bulkhead dividing 

 it from the steerage, the headroom under the beams being 5ft. 8in. 

 It is conveniently and tastefully fitted up with lockers, table, shelves, 

 etc. To port of the companion is a toilet room with w.c. and to star- 

 board a wardrobe. Two permanent berths are fitted in the sail room, 

 also serving as shelves when not needed for sleeping. The interior 

 fittings, which altogether weigh under 8001bs.. are of white pine, and 

 so fitted as to give the greatest possible effect in strengthening the 

 hull when in place and held by their screw fastenings, and yet to be 

 quickly and readily removed. 



The deck is of aluminum plates, just under }4m. thick, and covered 

 with a single sheet of linoleum to the planksheer. To meet the 



LA VENDENESSE— DIAGRAM OF HEELING TESTS. 



heavy weight of lead and the large sail plan, the rigging and fittings 

 are of especial strength, all of the fittings being designed for the 

 yacht by Mr. Gilloux. The yawl, which was also built from his 

 designs, is 8ft. 3in. long and 4ft. 3in. beam, of light draft with a flat 

 bottom and two side keels. It has been tested to carry seven persons, 

 though small enough to stow conveniently on deck. 



La Vendenesse was launched on Dec. 5 and the following day she 

 was put to a severe test demanded by her owner before he would 

 use her on the sea. The yacht was moored, as snown in the plaD, in 

 the canal and heeled down by a purchase from her masthead to a crab 

 at some distance, the moorings being arranged so as to allow her to 

 heel freely. She was moved gradually from 0 to 40 degrees inclina- 

 tion, being left in the latter position for two hours, during which time 

 the hull, free from all fittings below, was carefully examined for 

 signs of straining or leakage, none being found. She sailed for Havre 

 a week later, from which port she will bail in the future. 



Feels Lost Without It. 



I am over sixty, still just as full of legitimate sport as at sixteen, 

 and feel lost if I don't get the Fobest and Stream regularly. 

 Hartfqbo. B. H. H, 



