58 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 21, 1894. 
public which exalted him after the Thistle-Volunteer races is now well 
nigh ready to saddle him with the blame for Vigilant's defeat; and 
after a few more races he may be no more a popular lion than the 
late "General" Coxey, and the more recent "President" Debs. 
As to the designer of Vigilant, he is probably quite as good a sailor 
to-day as he was six months ago, and quite as competent to handle 
the wheel or to advise over alterations; in fact it is safe to say that 
his ideas as to the peculiar features of Vigilant's model have beea 
materially revised and corrected since the yacht was launched, and 
especially since the last Cup race; and that to-day he is easily capable 
of beating her in a new boat or of improving her as she stands, should 
time permit. He certainly has not gone abroad to canvass for order s 
for Mr. Watson by setting up Vigilant to be beaten by Britannia. 
As to the yacht herself, barring the possibility of undiscovered cor- 
rosion, which would only affect her durability, and not her speed, she 
is quite as good to-day as last season, possibly better by the drying of 
spars, the hull being no heavier. She had last year several suits of 
the finest sails ever made in this country, which has long prided itself 
on the superior sails of the Cup defenders, and she has them yet, some 
of them almost unused; and other new ones made this year. With 
them was sent across a liberal portion of h«*r extra outfit of spars. 
There is a certain disadvantage in having such an immense outfit o f 
sails and spars, as one is always tempted to shift one for another on 
the least provocation, often to the yacht's detriment; but tbis was 
quite as much the case last year with the faithful Hattie Palmer ever 
m attendance, as it is now when that valuable mascotte is far, far 
away. It is indeed quite possible that, with continued defeats, even 
old hands like Capt. Haff and Capt. Jeffrey may finally fall to monkey- 
ing with too many sails, but the yacht certainly cannot be said to have 
suffered in any way from a defective or insufficient outfit. 
Fob local courses, such as must be sailed by clubs in their general 
regattas, the Clyde courses are by no means bad or unfair to the 
American type of yacht; in fact, after witnessing many races in home 
waters between the Cup racing class, we had looked for Vigilant to do 
some of her best work over them. While narrow, only two to four 
miles wide, the Clyde is deep and straight, with clear, open water, and 
the narrow, tortuous channels, the sandbars and the attendant fleet 
of the New York course are absent. The worst that can be said about 
the courses is that the winds are very light and fickle in summer, and 
the water smooth; but both of these conditions have on this side 
proved distinctly favorable to the American type and unfavorable to 
the British. Those who will take the trouble to follow the late races 
carefully will see that Vigilant and Britannia have been very close to- 
gether at almost all times, and that while one or the other has some" 
times been "hung up" in a calm spot, that there are no peculiarities of 
the courses which have hurt Vigilant and helped her opponent. 
There has been none of that work which has been seen so often in 
the contests of the cutters and sloops in New York Bay, where the 
sloop, with her larger sails and livelier motions in a light air, has 
slipped out of the Narrows, perhaps at the turn of the ebb, leaving 
her deeper opponent becalmed inside while she sped away for the 
Southwest Spit; or off the Point of the Hook, where, working the 
tides inshore, with board partly up, the centerboard boat has crossed 
the strong flood and caught the outside breeze, carrying her over 
seven miles to the Lightship and another seven back, the cutter mean- 
while being becalmed and tidebound Inside the Hook. Such local 
features as this, which have made the New York Y. C. course so 
justly hated by foreign yachtsmen, are not found on the Clyde, or at 
least have not figured in one of the six races just sailed there.- 
We have always opposed inside and purely local courses for a fair 
test of yachts in a match; but, in the particular case of Vigilant on 
the Clyde, we fail to see that the wide, shoal boat, with much the 
larger sail plan, has suffered any serious disadvantage on courses 
whose main objections are light winds and smooth water. 
In the latter two races over the square course of the Royal North, 
ern, we can readily see that Vigilant was at some disadvantage, owing 
to the very short legs sailed, the superior sail drill of the British crew 
standing in good stead where such frequent shifts of canvas are called 
for. It is on one of these races, however, that Vigilant has done her 
best work, picking up Britannia very fast on the windward legs. 
The reports of the four races on the upper course, show that there 
was very little shifting of sails, and none calling for specially quick 
handling. Vigilant has been at a disadvantage at the start, as she will 
be on any course, and even would be with a time start to a certain 
extent; and she has been at a further disadvantage at times, when in 
close company with her nimble-heeled adversary, whose powers of 
rapid turning ; have been fully brought out under Captain Carter's 
skillful hand on the tiller. In the mere rounding of the regular marks, 
Vigilant was at no more disadvantage with Britannia on the Clyde 
than with Valkyrie at New York; and she certainly made quite as 
good turns of the mark as the other boat last fall. Had there been 
four boats In the races, it is quite possible that Vigilant might have 
suffered somewhat from lack of room in waters as narrow as the 
Clyde; but by singular luck her task of beating the English fleet has 
been simplified to a duel such as the Cup races. Such chances as she 
has had would obviously have been seriously marred had she been 
compelled to work for the line with three rivals instead of on», and to 
work clear of the lot afterward. On the whole, judging by the work 
of the various Cup challengers and defenders in the past, we should 
say that the Clyde courses in July were distinctly favorable to the 
shoaler and more heavily canvassed American type, rather than to 
the narrower, deeper cutter with a smaller rig. 
To us', at least, there is something very funny in flattering comments 
on the personal skill of Captain John Carter and his crew which are 
indulged in by so many American papers, by way of excuse for Vigi- 
lant. Captain Carter came out to New York in 1885, sailing Genesta 
across the ocean, sailing her in all of her matches, and finally taking 
her home after a bad defeat. So much had been said and so little seen 
in those days of the skill of British racing skippers and crews, that 
Genesta and all connected with her attracted more attention and com- 
ment than any yacht which has followed her. From a personal 
acquaintance with Captain Carter at the time, and from close observa- 
tion of the work of both skipper and crew in the races, we formed a 
high opinion of him as a skillful and intelligent sailor and a very fair 
sportsman, and of the crew as particularly alert and weir drilled; an 
opinion, however, which was contrary to most of our contemporaries, 
It was conceded that Captain Carter could throw Genesta from one 
tack to the other in less time than had ever been done here, that the 
crew looked very trim and neat in their blue jerseys and red and black 
caps, that riding down the mainsail was a pretty sight, and that set- 
ting a spinaker flying from the fore hatch was a showy but useless 
trick; for the rest, the comparisons were entirely unfavorable. Cap 
tain Carter's maneuvers were generally condemned beside the skill of 
Puritan's Yankee skipper, and there was but one opinion as to the 
immense superiority over the men of Wivenhoe and the Colne, of the 
Jansens, Hansens, Olsens, Neilsens and Petersons who carried "Old 
Glory" to the fore in the successful defense of the America's Cup. 
While Captain Carter has had the benefit of some nine years' experi- 
ence since be sailed Genesta against Puritan, he was no less capable- a 
sailorman then than now, nor is his crew, probably including some of 
the same men, so vastly superior to that of Genesta. As to Vigilant's 
crew, they are by no means the green lubbers that some of the papers 
would picture them, but on the contrary, the pick of the American 
fleet; men who have sailed with Captain Haff in Volunteer and Colo- 
nia, with Captain Hansen in Vigilant, with General Paine in Jubilee, 
and with Captain Terry in Grayling, the same Norwegians, "Sou'we- 
gians," Danes and Fins that have contributed in no small degree to 
the defense of the Cup in former years. They fully deserved the 
praise which was given them when successful then, and they do not 
deserve the blame which is likely to fall to them now. 
That there is a marked difference between the two skippers and the 
two crews is quite true, but it is not true that either one is altogether 
superior to the other. So far as our observation went Capt. Carter 
and his crew in 1884 were all tnat the typical British skipper and crew 
had been pictured, capable and efficient in every way; and that they 
failed here in some respects was due simply to the difference of 
methods. Quickness in tacking, as many will remember in the first 
Puritan-Genesta race, was of no account when the other boat did not 
follow, but went away at the start in a very light air in which Genesta 
hardly gathered headway ; setting a spinaker flying in a fraction of a 
minute counted for nothing in a race of twenty miles to leeward and 
return; and so through all the petty details of the racing, everything 
was different from the English practice. We went into this question 
of American and English crews last year In connection with the Cup 
races, and need only summarize our conclusions, that the methods of 
the two countries are radically different, each having its advantages; 
the British crew being more thoroughly drilled to a set routine, while 
the American crew, though lacking in precision and exactness, is apt 
to show to even better advantage in certain emergencies. As to 
Vigilant, she has probably as good a crew as any of the Cup defenders 
—not a bad representative American yacht's crew, though made up of 
hardy Norse sailormen officered by skillful and competent Americans. 
Captain Carter's first experience of American yachting was not 
an auspicious one; sailing into Newport the day before the Goelet 
cup race of 1885, he was invited by the committee to follow the race, 
and watched it all day from the bridge of the rolling Polynia, then 
owned by Vice-Corn. Douglas. The day is an historic one among 
Newport races, the first meeting of Puritan and Priscilla, with a 
hard blow and a bad sea that disabled Bedouin and turned back Gray- 
ling and Gracie, showing for once and all the superiority of the newer 
and larger boats. Such ideas as Capt. Carter already had of the 
behavior of the centerboard sloop in this weather, based on the old 
boats of the Arrow and Fanny era, were quickly dispelled, and the 
task before him was disclosed in no encouraging light. 
Thk defeat of Vigilant in so many race3 and under such conditions 
was so unexpected by us that we have no satisfactory explanation to 
offer, but there are several points that are worth considering. In the 
i first place, there is good reason to believe that both Valkyrie and her 
crew were under-estimated by Americans last year; that, as Captain 
Cranfield has always claimed, the reduction of weight on this side of 
the water and the alteration of trim made a different boat of her and 
gave a false idea of her speed, and consequently, through her, of Bri- 
tannia. It is also quite probable that racing in new and strange waters 
put both skipper and crew at a certain disadvantage. The next point 
is that Britannia, however fast she may have been last year, is still 
faster this, going better, as many boats do in their second season, if 
not outbuilt; and being further improved by the adoption of the Her- 
reshoff-Haff rig, with a longer masthead, shrouds to upper as well as 
lower cap and stays down the foreside of the mast; the latter feature 
by the way an invention of Captain Haff 's, first tried on Colonia. 
Further than this, Britannia began the Clyde races in perfect form, 
not only having been in commission all winter and racing in the Med- 
iterranean, but having sailed in the Thames, East Coast and Channel 
races for over a month, being worked up to that form which only 
comes through actual racing. Vigilant, on the other hand, was in the 
same condition as Genesta, Galatea and Thistle in the Cup races at 
New York, as good condition as skill and money could put her in, but 
still lacking that final form which comes only from racing. This dis- 
advantage, and it is no small one, is inevitable in the case of an ocean 
passage, all the Cup challengers having suffered from it, having noth- 
ing to gauge their speed by after the necessary changes of the voyage, 
while their opponents were improving every day through the trial 
races. No doubt Vigilant has suffered in this respect, but it was 
known before she started that she must. Mr. Gould has been blamed 
by some for putting her into the races without more preparation, but 
the fact is that beyond a certain point, the only preparation which 
could help her was the actual racing, necessarily with the foreign fleet. 
What, in our opinion, has contributed to a marked degree to her de- 
feat is that vague, indefinable influence which always operates against 
the man who fights away from home, and for he who battles in his 
own dooryard. It is not the mere lack of local knowledge, but the 
fact that one is among strangers, that the sympathies of the multi- 
tude are with the other side; that acts on even the most practical and 
unsentimental natures. Slight as it may be, the effect is double, for 
one side and against the other, and in our opinion this mere senti- 
ment, of fighting on one's own hearthstone, has contributed in no 
small degree to the defense of the America's Cup, and to the defeat of 
the many bold and skillful men who have challenged for it. No doubt 
many will ridicule such an idea, but let them watch the operation of 
the same causes on a smaller scale, in the case of the home boat 
against the stranger in even local races, as between New York and 
Boston. So far as mere pilotage goes, Vigilant has availed herself of 
the best pilotage to be obtained on the Clyde, the old pilot Morris 
being aboard, as well as Capt. Diaper; but there is something more to 
the question than mere local knowledge of tides and winds. 
The one hope which is now held out is of the races in the "open," 
away from those "inside courses" which Americans have at last 
learned are so unfair; but to us there seems but little promise in this 
direction. We have no doubt that Vigilant is fast enough under cer- 
tain conditions of a strong, true topsail breeze and reasonably smooth 
water to more than save her time from Britannia, but for every day of 
such racing there is an equally good chance of light weather, in which 
the Clyde performances may be repeated; or of a lower sail breeze and 
a bad sea. The performance of Vigilant in the windward work of the 
last Cup race, poor as it was generally considered, was a surprise to 
us, as under most adverse conditions she did relatively better with 
Valkyrie than we had expected in even moderately rough water. 
Judged from this race, when better canvassed and sailed than on that 
occasion, she should be a dangerous rival in a lower sail breeze and 
moderately rough water; but with any sort of a bad sea we should 
look to see Britannia still further ahead than in a drifting match; and 
for this reason we do not look to the more open courses to reverse the 
result of the Clyde races. 
There is ,one phase of the matter which, as consistent advocates of 
the keel type for many years, cannot fail to be gratifying to us, that 
at last the keel has fairly beaten the centerboard in the largest class. 
Again and again has the superior speed of the keel type been proved 
in the smaller classes, by Kathleen, Saracen, Fancy, Minerva, Gloriana 
and Wasp, but each time the friends of the old centerboard sloop 
have fallen back on the fact that the modern compromise had beaten 
the keel boats in the largest class. Now, however, the keel boat has 
proved victorious over the latest and fastest of the centerboard type, 
and that in weather always considered as peculiarly favorable to the 
latter. 
The way in which the news was first heralded is in itself amusing; 
one heading ran like this: 
VIGILANT DOES WELL. 
Beats Britannia Boat for Boat. 
BUT LOSES ON ALLOWANCE. 
It is all very well to talk about flukes and drifting matches, and to 
condemn the Clyde courses, but a study of the six races discloses 
some hard facts that cannot be explained or disposed of in this man- 
ner; stretches of five to ten miles in moderate breezes in which 
Vigilant, at first in the better berth, is finally passed and left astern 
by Britannia without shadow of a fluke; and positions without num- 
ber in which, in previous races on this side, the American boat would 
soon have been to windward and ahead, but in which, in this case, she 
is left astern. The most encouraging work is in the stronger wind of 
the last races, on the windward legs; but against this there are many 
cases in which Vigilant has most unaccountably lost a good position ; 
the only explanation being that, under these conditions, at least, 
Britannia is the faster. It is not so many years since the cry of flukes 
and inside courses was heard from the other side; the reply being that 
American yachts, at least, were built to sail in the average summer 
weather, and not in howling gales; and this from the very men who 
are now watching for the outside races and praying for a gale to help 
along the centerboard boat. 
After the races last fall the superiority of Vigilant's model seemed 
beyond question; but, barring the obvious defect of too little draft, 
our choice has always been for Colonia as the best of the large Herres- 
hoff boats, both in dimensions and model, of more moderate beam and 
easier form than Vigilant. The extreme flaring topside and full round 
bow of the latter have never commended themselves to us as either 
beautiful or advantageous, save as the former served to wing out the 
weight of the large ballast crew; and we doubt now whether Mr. 
Herreshoff will ever go to such extremes again. Whether finally suc- 
cessful or otherwise, Vigilant's performances abroad must tend to 
strengthen the American side, as showing to an extent never before 
realized, the strong points of the challenger and the weak ones of the 
defender. If any serious chance of defeat exists in the American 
type, it is better to discover it now than when too late in a future race 
for the Cup. 
In view of the controversy of last winter over the value of Vigilant's 
ballast crew, it is most interesting to note that thus far she has been 
sailed under those conditions which we contended would materially 
impair her speed, with a smaller crew and the equivalent weight 
stowed low down in the form of pig lead. If the evidence of seven 
straight races is worthy of consideration, this change has been hurt- 
ful in the extreme, and the result offers a convincing proof of the 
value of live ballast in a wide boat, even of the largest size. Thus far 
Vigilant has not been measured, and she has been at liberty to carry 
any reasonable size of crew, but as she must shortly go under the 
measurer's tape, her advisers will have to decide as to the number of 
men aboard at the time of measurement, and to restrict the crew to 
that limit. Under these conditions she is likely to carry some two 
tons less of Scandinavian bone and muscle than in the Cup races last 
fall. 
It is impossible to foretell with any chance of success the outcome 
of the remaining races of the season, but unless it shall appear later 
that Vigilant has been badly off her form in the Clyde races, the fault 
being discovered and remedied, we have little hope that she will make 
a much better showing in the future save on exceptional occasions. 
Whatever the result may be, however, it should not be forgotten that 
those in charge of the American yacht are engaged in a task which 
entitles them to the fullest sympathy of American yachtsmen, and 
that they are entitled to just as hearty praise in the event of defeat 
as when victorious in the past. The attempts to saddle on them 
the entire responsibility for defeat are unjust and cowardly in the 
extreme. 
The information that Lord Dunraven will replace Valkyrie with a 
new cutter next year, and that she wiil probably be a TO-footer, can 
hardly be classed as ne'ws, though just cabled to this country, Lord 
Dunraven having said as much last fall. The rumor that Lord Lons 
dale will be his associate in the new venture is news, if true, so far 
as it goes. The fact that another challenge for 1895 is a certainty is 
far too important to be officially ignored on technical grounds and it 
is highly desirable that the New York Y. C. should take some early 
action in the matter. The good old days of forty years back, when 
wealthy gentlemen chased each other around in the same old boxes 
year after year, sailing six or eight miles an hour, with a mainsail 
three years old, and all the while imagined they were racing yachts, 
have passed away ; and modern match sailing has become a purely 
scientific study, calling for the expenditure of unlimited skill and 
money. This being the case it is time that the conditions governing 
the more important matches should be made as perfect as possible, 
and that the haphazard methods of bygone days should be replaced 
by others more exact and systematic. One of the recognized essen- 
tials to a fair trial of two yachts is an equality of measurement, 
eliminating as far as possible all time allowance. This condition is 
found in many smaller classes, but has never existed in America or 
England in the classes best adapted for international competition, 
those of about 70ft. l.w.l. and larger. 
While the Y. R. A. rule compels this equality in the classes up to 60 
rating, about 65ft. l.w.l., the yachts above this size are not built to 
class, the rating of the four large cutters of last year being 140, 149, 
151 and 161. On this side the same inequality has existed, the lengths 
Of the modern Cup defenders varying from 80 to and 87ft., while the 
sail areas range from 8,000 to 11,000 sq.ft. 
In the interest of designing on both sides it is in every way desirable 
that such international competition as that due to the viBits of Valkyrie 
and Navahoe last year and 'Vigilant this year shall continue regularly, 
not at long intervals, but alternating from side to side every year or 
two with good results to both winners and losers. The first step 
toward such regular international racing is the establishment by both 
sides in con j unction of some standard class, thus doing away with that 
constant struggle to outbuild which has done so much harm in more 
ways than one, and which obscures the trule value of each race. It is 
to the immediate advantage of both sides that some to + tal limit of 
measurement should be decided on before another yacht is designed 
for international competition, and we believe that this might easily 
be done. The opportunity for the initiative is now presented to the 
New York Y. C; it knows informally but positively that a challenge 
is ready for presentation as soon as the legal date arrives; and with 
Com. Morgan and other members of the club now in British waters, 
there is every opportunity for an informal suggestion of the matter to 
representative British racing men, or to the Y. R. A. It should be 
easily possible to arrange a conference of representatives of both par- 
