484 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



|May 19, 1894. 



Vigilant. 



The work of preparing Vigilant for her ocean voyage is now going 

 on at the Erie Basin dry docks and the yacht will be ready to sail 

 early in June. After sandpapering the bottom last week an attempt 

 was made to launch her from the railway at Mather & Woods yard. 

 Port Jefferson, on May 10, but the tide was too low, and after an 

 attempt to tow her from the ways failed she was left until next day, 

 when she floated on the morning tide at 5 A. M . After her spars and 

 sails were taken on board at Darling's wharf she was towed to the 

 Erie Basin dry docks, at South Brooklyn, where the hull will be 

 strengthened under the direction of N G. Herreshoff and her sea- 

 going rig will, be shipped. Mr. Herreshoff visited the yacht on 

 Monday, and decided to strengthen her by bilge stringers, from which 

 braces will be run to the deck beams, as was done in Dacota h. 

 Messrs. Wilson & Silsby are making the new sails and altering old 

 ones, the dimensions being: Topmast 48ft., mizenmast 39ft bowsprit 

 16ft., main boom 60ft., main gaff 43ft.. mizen boom 30ft., hoist of 

 mainsail 56ft. 6in. The mizen will be a jib-headed sail, as m the case 



0f vTguaut le will be sailed across by Capt. Leander Jeffrey, of the 

 schooner Columbia, and Capt. Haff will cross in the steam yacht 

 Atalanta, joining the yacht on the other side. Mr. George Gould will 

 go with his family by steamer on May 16. Atalanta will carry the 

 racing spars and gear, and Howard Gould will go in her. 



FIXTURES. 



MAY. 



30. Eastern Div. Meet, Calla Shasta, Connecticut River. 



10 Hartford, Spring Regatta, Con- 30. Red Dragon, Spring Regatta, 



necticut River. Delaware River. 



30/Knickerbocker;Spring Regatta 



JULY. 



£7-31. W. C. A. Meet,' Picnic Point, Lake Mendota, Wis. 



SEPTEMBER* 



8. Holyoke, Ann., Holyoke, Mass. 15. Red Dragon, Fall Regatta, Del- 

 aware River. 



The Canadian Canoe. 



The Canadian canoe is now known throughout the United States 

 and also abroad, great numbers being exported, to England in partic- 

 ular The purpose for which they are most used is well indicated by 

 the nickname given them some years since of "girling canoe," many 

 being used by ladies, and even when manned solely by the sterner sex 

 they are used mainly for easy paddling, light cruising and canoemg of 

 the dilettante sort. . ... . A iV . , <■ - 



Excellent as they are for such service it is not the work for which 

 they were originally designed in Canada; in part for hunting and fish- 

 ing- but largely for such useful service as is so graphically described 

 n the story of "Away Up North," concluded last week. This plain, 

 practical narrative of work done in canoes shows the essential quah- 

 ties, some of which are missing in even the best of the Peterborough 

 craft, the typical "Canadian canoe 



The author of the article in question, Mr. H. K. Wicksteed, is known 

 to our readers as a skillful amateur designer, and he has also had a 

 ong and thorough experience in canoeing, both in the wilderness and 

 n civilized waters, and in all varieties of canoe from the Indian birch 

 o the lightest and most elaborate of the Peterborough craft. The 

 accompanying design is one of several made by him for service 

 canoes of various sizes within the past four or five years, this particu- 

 ar design being for his personal use in the event of another expedition 

 ike that to Lake Temagami. Two canoes of this type were built about 

 Ave years ago for an exploring expedition, being 18' long, 3' 6' beam, 

 and V 6" depth, with a camber of 4" in 12', the weight being but 901bs. 

 The canoes were very successful, being superior to any of the ordinary 

 craft. Two similar ones are now building, one a lapstrake, by Knapp, 

 of Kingston, and one a smooth-skin, by Dey, of Ottawa. In describing 

 them Mr. Wicksteed says: 



I ("The philosophy of the design is that the requisites are, m order of 

 mportance: First, lightness; second, carrying capacity; third, 

 structural strength to resist the strains due to unequal loading; fourth, 

 handiness and seagoing qualities, and lastly speed. Having a given 

 volume of displacement to provide for, of course the least weight is 

 o be obtained by adding to the depth as much as is consistent with 

 moderate draft, and next to the beam as far as may be without getting 

 too much to squeeze between rocks in narrow channels and between 

 trees on portages. 



"An Indian canoe is seldom more than 3ft. wide and the more un- 

 frequented portages are cut to very little more. So that 3' 6" is about 

 the limit in this direction. 



"The Peterboro canoes are decidedly too straight on the keel and too 

 hard to turn qnickly. a most important requisite, so I have given con- 

 siderable camber to the backbone. Being built for shooting and ex- 

 treme light draft, they are also very flat in the floor— causing them to 

 drag in shallow water and making them very weak in the bottoms. 

 In my experience neither extreme light draft nor initial stability are 

 very important requisites in a cruiser, so I have introduced a little 

 deadrise and a comparatively easy bilge. It will be noticed that the 

 waterlines are very fine fore and aft, judged by modern standards; 

 this is not done so much to secure easy diagonals as to give needed 

 strength to the knuckle of the stem, which is to receive very severe 

 blows; and secondly to give plenty of place and lifting power above 

 water. 



"I have suppressed the customary little deck fore and aft because 

 it is useless unless cambered like that of a lifeboat to throw off a sea, 

 and it adds very much to the weight. I expect the 18ft. canoe to 

 weigh from 75 to 851bs.— an easy load for one man. 



"The 16ft. boat will not weigh more than 40 or 451bR., but these 

 canoes, it must be remembered, are intended to be handled like bark 

 canoes, with the most elaborate caution and care, and not to be 

 knocked about as some of the A. C. A. boats are. They are always to 

 be lifted in and out of the water, not 'drawn 1 upon the beach; and as 

 soon as the bottom is taken in a shallow rapid every mother's son of 

 the crew goes overboard in the twinkling of an eye. Further, every 

 chance abrasion is smoothed over at once with canoe gum or some 

 kindred material." 



Apart from the gain in quick turning over the long straight keel, 

 the rocker and rounding up of the ends serve another important pur- 

 pose; rapids are almost invariably shallow on the crest of the fall, 

 and the bow and midship of a canoe may pass safely, but when the 

 bow strikes the surge at the bottom it rises quickly and the stern 

 dropping strikes the rocks. The rounding up prevents tbis and allows 

 the canoe to pass easily in places whpre it would otherwise stick, or 

 at least strike hard. In this connection the form of the bow should 

 tend to freeboard rather than flare, keeping out the water without 

 lifting too quickly in the wave at the bottom of the rapid. The stern, 

 on the contrary, may well be flared out considerably with much less 

 freeboard. The only limitations on this form are the necessity for 

 using a steering paddle well aft, which is interfered with by the wide 

 stern and the desirability at times of using either end first, according to 

 circumstances. A 16ft. canoe, from the design, will weigh not over 

 451bs. and wiH carry two or three single paddles. The design is 

 admirably adapted for a decked canoe of the river cruising type of 

 either wood or canvas construction. 



A. C. A. Membership. 



Eastern Division: Percival S. Hatch, J. W. Ball, Ralph E. Mathew- 

 son, Orel E. Davies, Joseph Lawson Clapp, Eugene Nicolai. 



Beideman Rifle Club. 



Philadelphia.— The following shows the weekly shoot of the 

 Beideman Rifle Club, at their range, Beideman Station, N J., for week 

 ending May 5. Conditions— 25yds., possible 250, 10 shots on J^in. ring 

 targets, J4in. bull outside range, strictly off-hand: 



W Wurfflein.. 21 23 23 24 24 24 24 25 25 25-238 



A McGowan 23 24 24 24 24 24 24 25 25 25-242 



J L Wood 23 24 24 24 24 24 25 25 25 25—243 



Dr E L Gardiner 25 24 23 25 25 25 25 25 25 25-247 



Pistol, 50yds., S. A. target: 



Dr E L Gardiner 6 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 10—80 



7 7 8 8 9 10 10 10 10 10-81 



7 8 8 9 9 9 10 10 10 10-99 



8 8 8 8 9 10 10 10 10 10—90 



H 



% 



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