Feb. 23, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
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The New York Y. C. 
The annual* meeting of the New York Y. C. was held on Feb. 14, 
Vice-Coin. Brown presiding. The reports showed the club to be 
in a very prosperous condition, with a membership of over 1,100, 
a fleet of 300 yachts, and a handsome balance in the treasury. The 
following officers were elected: Com., Edward M. Brown, st. Syl- 
via; Vice-Corn., Henry C. Ward, sch. Clytie; Rear Com., James C. 
Bergen, si. Hildegarde; Sec, J. Y, S. Oddie; Treas., F. W. J. 
Hurst; Meas., John Hyslop; Fleet Surgeon, Morris J. Asch, M. D.; 
Regatta Committee.'S. Nicholson Kane, Chester Griswold, Irving 
Grinnell; Committee on Admissions, Frank T. Robinson, Robert 
Center, D. T. Worden, C, McK. Leoser, Joseph Stickney; House 
Committee, E. E. Chase, C. Alfred Grymes, H. Edwards Ficken, 
and Arthur Ingraham; Library Committee, Fordham Morris, 
William Gardnes, and Arthur H. Clark; Committee on Club Sta- 
tions, W H. Thomas, E. O. Benedict, Clarence McKim, L. Vaughan 
Clark, F. L. Anthony, F. P. Sands, and Lewis Cass Ledyard. 
The following members were elected: A. G„ Hamilton, Albert B. 
Hilton, F. M. Hoyt, Harry S. Henry, James Sibley Watson, Augus- 
tus S. Van Wickle, J. Henry Whitney, Charles H. Mclntire, 
George R. Evans, U. S. N.; Harry M. Hodges, U. S. N.; W. J. 
Arkell, H. Ray Miller, E. C. Gregory, W. O, Hulme, U. S. N.; 
Henry E. Picking, U. S. N.; Percival W. Clement. William H. 
Watrous, Henry D. Macdonald, John A. Shearman, U. S. N.; R. 
C. Oswald. William H. Emory, U. S. N; C. L. Wilson, Howard C. 
bmith, Walter Stanton, Hugh K. Norman, James B. Dickson, 
Stephen Loines, Edwin C. Hoyt, Thomas H. Kerr. 
Mr. Ogden Goelet notified the club, by letter, that he : would 
offer this year the usual $1,000 and §500 cups for a race off Newport. 
The announcements were made of a letter from Secretary Grant, 
of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and also that the club had renewed 
the leases of the town house and the Newport station, each for 
five years. The annual regatta was set for June 13. 
The report of the committee on revision of the classification and 
racing rules was discussed at length, but the proposed amend- 
ments were finally carried, with two exceptions; that limiting the 
crew to the number on board when the yacht is measured, and the 
following: If an overlap exists between two yachts when both of 
them, without tacking, are about to pass a mark on the required 
side, then the outside yacht must, as far as possible, short of tack- 
ing, give the inside yacht room to pass clear of the mark. 
The most important amendments were that establishing a classi- 
fication on sailing length, and that limiting the number of crew in 
each class; both of which were .'adopted. We are unable to give 
them in full this week, but will do so shortly. 
The Carl, 21ft. "Knockabout*" 
Widely as opinions may differ, both as to the ends to be attained 
m a perfect measurement rule and as to the extent to which ex- 
isting rules exert a beneficial influence on yachting, there is one 
hard fact that cannot be disposed of by the advocates of unlimited 
sail area and other "plain and simple rules;" that, in these day3 
at least, unlimited racing soon exhausts itself, leaving for a time 
nothing in its place. It is one of the healthy signs of the times 
that, the great yachting bodies having thus far failed, possibly for 
very good reasons, to produce a general measurement rule which 
does not tend to extremes, the smaller clubs are dealing with the 
question locally, but none trie less effectively, bv special legislation 
of the most extreme restrictive nature. Especially is this the case 
in England and Scotland, where the small rater, though perfect 
as a l-acing machine, quite evidently does not meet the wants of 
the majority of yachtsmen, who are not prepared to build anew 
and more expensive sailing toy each year. It is this class of racing 
yachtsmen which has produced the little "one-design" craft of 
the Clyde and Thames, and the older classes of the Clyde, as well 
as the Irish "Mermaids" and "Water wags;" the men who have 
organized each class having bound it with the most rigid restric- 
tions, in many cases to the extreme of building from one uniform 
design and specification. 
In this country the same causes are leading to the same results; 
we find first that any class, however popular at first, under the 
general measurement rule and existing classification, but without 
special restrictions, has a life of one or possibly two years. This 
has been the case of the forties, the thirties, the forty-six footers 
and the Boston twenty-one footers. The reaction caused by the 
lapsing of a class does incalculable harm to yachting, driving men 
into steam or into other sports; many of them being permanently 
lost to racing. 
One of the most brilliant failures in the way of a regular racing 
class, limited only by the regular rale, is the twenty-one foot class 
of 1892 in Eastern waters; starting out with a burst of enthusiasm 
and showing a fleet of a dozen boats, but practically dying at the 
end of its first season. 
In contrast to this brief meteoric racing is the class which has in 
a measure succeeded the twenty-one footers, of which Alpha was 
the head; a class that from a small beginning has grown lustily 
and has now a fair promise of permanence. 
Through the kindness of the designer, Mr. W. E. Waterhouse, of 
the firm of Waterhouse & Cheesebrough, we are able to illustrate 
the first and one of the best of the now famous "Knockabouts " 
the little Carl, built in the spring of 1893. The intention of her 
owner, Mr. C. H. W. Foster, of the Eastern Y. C, was to get a 
small and handy craft; not for racing, he then having the forty- 
six footer Barbara on the stocks, but for knocking about off 
Marblehead and Half-way Rock, alone or with a friend. To this 
end the hull was made of moderate dimensions and compact foim; 
and with a very simple sail plan, the tack of the jib fast to the 
stemhead. From the ;first the boat was a success, showing very 
fair speed, even compared with the regular twenty-one footer's 
in general sailing, though of course not fast enough to race with 
them. In point of convenience and sea-going qualities, she left 
nothing to be desired; the latter being tested once in particular 
on the occasion of the Gloucestsr celebration in the fall, when Mr! 
Foster and his skipper tailed over from Marblehead to Gloucester 
and back to see the races in a gale that brought to grief some of the 
big fishermen, sailing in a race in the same water. The little boat 
was dry and easy, and made fine speed under reefed canvas. 
~The present "Knockabout" class had its origin in the Carl, and 
took its name from the work that she was built for, and so suc- 
cessfully accomplished. Before the first half-dozen boats had 
been built, it was seen that the class, as it then was, could be 
made to give plenty of good racing; but that unless some stringent 
limits were placed on outbuilding, it would soon degenerate into 
something no better than its predecessor. To this end various 
rules were adopted by the different clubs interested, the Corin- 
thian of Marblehead adopting the following late in 1893: 
"A knockabout boat is a seaworthy, keel (not to include a fin- 
keel), decked or half -decked boat of fair accommodations and 
rigged simply without bowsprit and with only mainsail and only 
one head-sail, and capable of being comfortably managed by one 
man in any ordinary summer weather. 
"Limitations have been placed on the class as follows: 1. w. 1. 
not to exceed 21 feet: beam not to exceed 8 feet; crew three per- 
sons; depth amidships from gunwale to rabbet line shall not be 
less than 3 feet 3 inches; freeboard shall not be less than 18 
inches; mast at deck not less than 5 feet from forward end of the 
water-line. The limits on beam, depth, freeboard and place of 
mast not to exclude any existing boats which otherwise would 
come within the requirements. The sail area shall be limited to 
500 square feet, measured by this formula; multiply 85 per cent, of 
the base by one-half of the sum of the gaff and the distance from 
topof sheave of upper throat halliard block to stem head." 
Last year the "Knockabout" class was remarkably successful 
the racing about Boston practically centering in it; while at the 
same time the boats were used for cruising and general work- 
After the close of the season, an association composed of the own- 
ers of the boats formed and adopted the following rules, the neces- 
sity of prohibiting all "freak" features and extreme light con- 
struction being apparent: 
A knockabout boat is a seaworthy keel boat (not to include fin- 
keels) decked or half-.de.cked. of fair accommodations, rigged 
simply, without bowsprit,and with only mainsail and one head sail 
The load water-line length shall not exceed 21 feet. 
The beam at the load water-line shall be at least seven and not 
more than eight feet. 
L The freeboard shall be not less than 20 inches. 
The forward side of mast at the deck shall be not less than five 
feet from the forwardTend of the load water-line. 
The planking, including deck, shall be not less than three-quar- 
ters of an inch thick, finished. 
The frames shall be not less than one inch square, and spaced 
not more than 12 inches on centers. 
The dead wood shall be filled in. 
The rudder shall be hung on stern post. 
The outside ballast shall be not less than 3.500 pounds. 
The limits of the freeboard, beam, planking, frames, deadwood 
rudder and place of mast shall not exclude any existing knock- 
about boats which otherwise come within the restrictions. 
The sail area shall be limited to 500 square feet, measured by the 
formula, viz.: Multiply 85 per cent, of the base by half of the sum 
of the gaff and the distance from the top of the sheave of the upper 
throat halliard block to the stem head. 
The Carl and her successors may be taken as the I'ealization of 
that ideal which was sought for by so many with but indifferent 
success between 1880 and 1886, a small, smart and thoroughly ser- 
viceable cutter. That the early boats were more or less failures 
