FOREST AND STREAM^ 
[Oct. 24, 1896. 
Ill the Adirondacbs the bicycle is responsible for such 
paragraphs as the following: 
"Charles H. Palmer, foreman in the ofl&ce of the 
Post and Gazette, is out on his annual deer hunting vaca- 
tion. He left town on his bicycle yesterday, bound for 
North Hudson, his face beaming with happy anticipation. 
We await the realization, hoping and trusting that his 
fondest expectations will come to pass." 
In Maine, according to the Bradley, Me. , correspondent 
of the New York Sun, a thrifty skunk trapper uses the 
bicycle to hunt skunks. He formerly hunted them at 
night with a dog. Now he lights a lantern and mounting 
his bicycle rides through the mown grass fields, and 
whenever he sees a skunk dismounts and kills it with a 
club. On his first bicycle hunt he is reported to have 
killed eighteen. He likes the new method, and says that 
for results a good bicycle is away ahead of any dog he 
ever saw. 
Circumstances alter cases. An old horseshoe with nails 
in it is not considered a lucky find by wheelmen. 
In the matter of good roads New Jersey is one of the 
foremost States in the Union. Hundreds of miles of fine 
macadam roads have been constructed within the last ten 
years, and the results of this progressive movement now 
serve as an object lesson for less enlightened communities. 
The story of one of the small towns in a farming and 
trucking locality will serve as an example. Originally 
the roads were about the average of country roads, and at 
certain seasons of the year were practically impassable. 
As a rule the maximum load for four horses was fifty- 
five bushel baskets, or about two and one-half tons of 
produce, on a wagon weighing l,9001bs. Two men accom- 
panied this to market and it took a day to make the round 
trip. Under these conditions farms were a drug on the 
market, and there were no buyers for real estate. 
A few years ago, however, the community woke up. 
The town issued $4,000 worth of bonds and applied the 
proceeds to building good roads. As a result the neigh- 
borhood experienced a new prosperity. Two horses are 
now able to do more work than four on the old roads and 
with greater ease. Ninety to 125 bushel baskets are not 
considered too large a load for two horses, and it is a com- 
mon thing now for one man with two horses to take four 
and a half tons of produce to market on a wagon weigh- 
ing 2,3001b8., or about double the old four- horse load, and 
instead of one trip a day he makes four. 
According to these figures one horse on the improved 
stone roads does the work of sixteen on the old mud 
roads. A remarkable commentary on the value of road 
improvement. 
The tabulated report recently issued by the Illinois State 
Board of Equalization, compiled from the returns of the 
assessors of 103 counties, shows a heavy decrease in the 
valuation of horses, due to the influence of the bicycle 
and electricity on the market. In 1895 the returns 
showed the number of horses in Illinois listed by the local 
assessors to be 1,169,360, valued at $15,014,342, or on an 
average $13,84 per head. 
The returns for 1896 show the number to be but 1,113,- 
094, valued at $13,599,782, which reduces the average 
valuation per head to $11,32. From these figures it will 
be seen that in a single year the number of horses in 
Illinois decreased 57,266, while the loss in valuation was 
$3,414,560. With fewer horses in the State, each horse is 
worth $1.51 less than it was last year. 
shorter lever and greater weight as the means of carrying 
sail ; the extreme light construction, the faulty lateral plane 
and the increased sail plans. Many remedies have been 
suggested, and one has even been tried with small success. 
That some remedy must be found is indispensable ; in spite 
of the fact that the practicable limit of draft has already 
been passed, it is still possible to outbuild the most extreme 
of new yachts by others a little deeper in draft and of re- 
duced displacement. At the same time it does not follow 
that the case is now so bad that it cannot be made very 
much worse, or that any change must be for the better. In 
studying carefully the important step now proposed by the 
clubs mentioned, the imposition of an arbitrary limit of 
draft, we cannot avoid the conclusion that the work has 
been carried on too hurriedly, that very important considera- 
tions have been ignored, and that if any general revival of 
building takes place under the rule, the resulting type will 
be most undesirable and detrimental to yacht building and 
racing. 
The proposal, as elsewhere stated, is to place an arbritrary 
limitation on the draft of yachts in. each class, with a cer- 
tain penalty for any excess. The very first idea that would 
suggest itself in this connection is the imperative necessity 
TZIN— BODT PLAN. 
of protecting both the keel and the centerboard types from 
unfair discrimination, in accordance with the whole policy of 
American yachting in the past, permitting fair play to both. 
That this point has not been considered in framing the pro- 
posed limitation is very evident upon inspection; and* it is 
equally plain that any competition under the rule must pro- 
duce one type of yacht, and that, we believe, a very unde- 
sirable type. 
Taking first the single-masted classes, which in all clubs 
but the New York Y. C. run from 15ft, racing length to 
70ft,, not including the unlimited clas8,*the limits of draft 
proposed are plainly derived from actual practice, as found 
in existing yachts, and for keel boats they are very satisfac- 
tory. If they applied solely to the keel type, with a separate 
provision for the centerboard type, no fault could be found, 
but they do not; the only proviso is that the centerboard 
shall not be measured in the draft. One need not look 
ahead very far to see what the result must inevitably be ; 
the rule is a direct premium on what may be called the 
"Jubilee" type: the canoe hull, the narrow fin, with the 
bulb carried at the extreme limit of draft, and in addition, a 
plate board of more or less weight housing in the fin. The 
rule in its intent does not go far enough in penalizing the fin 
type and promoting the yacht of greater body, even as ap- 
plied only to keel boats; but with such a limitation it could 
do little harm. With the centerboard thrown in free , there 
can be no chance for the restoration of such a type as yachts- 
men are now looking for, of reasonable dimensions and ac- 
commodation, and yet fairly fast. 
It may be that in some classes the conditions will result in 
a keel boat — for instance, something between the Wasp and 
Uvira types — and not in the centerboard-bulb-fin, but we 
doabt it; and we do not look for any healthy development 
of the keel yacht. 
At the same time it is still more certain that under such a 
limitation there is no chance whatever for another useful 
type; the deep centerboard boat of good body, such as may 
be designated as the "Harpoon" type — such a yacht of say 
9ft. draft for a measurement of 60ft., would have no chance 
whatever against a craft of lift. 6in. draft, and also equipped 
with a centerboard. 
If it is desirable either to encourage the keel boat alone-of 
such general type as indicated by Minerva, Uvira and Glori- 
ana, or to encourage side by side with it the moderately deep 
centerboard boat of the type of Nymph and Harpoon, then 
a different plan must be adopted. The limits as already set 
will answer well enough for keel boats, but it should further 
be provided that centerboard boats shall not exceed in draft 
a certain fraction, say 70 per cent., of the limit for keel boats 
in the same class. Such a limitation as this would recognize 
and estimate at about its proper value the difference of draft 
existing in actual practice prior to the introduction of the 
bulb-fin, as in the old 30ft., 40ft., 46ft. and 70ft. classes; it 
would be unfair to no one, and would undeniably exercise a 
radically different influence on designing, as compared with 
that of the proposed rule. 
In the schooner classes the general result is the same, 
though under somewhat different conditions. The schooner 
is less of a racing boafi.han the cutter, and has never reached 
the same point of development in speed, while more has 
always been expected of her in cruising and general all- 
round use. Owing to her greater size, the proportionate 
limit of draft has been kept below that of the single-stickers, 
and the centerboard has been used in all racing schooners. 
In this rig, whatever the class, the centerboard has been 
proven far more valuable and practicable than the keel type 
for racing, just as thd reverse has been the case with the 
single-stickers. If the tendency of the proposed change were 
merely to bar the keel schooner, we should make no objec- 
tion to it, as we recognize the superiority of the centerboard 
type as exemplified by such yachts as Quickstep, Iroquois, 
Ariel, Lasca and Volunteer. Such, however, is very far 
from being the case. Under the rule as it is proposed'there 
is no possibility of the restoration of this general type in a 
modernized form ; but it must give place to the "Jubilee" 
type, the centerboard-bulb-fin, with all of its disadvantages, 
it is obvious that, while in the single-stick classes the figures 
are based on existing practice in keel craft, in the schooner 
classes nothing has been considered but th« most extreme 
point yet reached in the centerboard type — Quissetta, Amor- 
ita and Colonia. The limitation in the 75ft. class is the de- 
signed draft of Amorita, about 3in. less than her present 
draft; that of Quissetta being about in the same proportion, 
lift, on 66ft. l.w.l. ; and in the 95ft. class it is but little under 
the draft of Colonia as a schooner. 
The result of the rule in the smallest schooner class is 
something for yachtsmen to contemplate, a boat of about 
62ft. l.w.l. for her class limit of 65ft. racing length, and 
drawing lift. In the next class come Amorita and Quis- 
setta, with 12ft. draft. What chance is there for the once 
popular and useful all-round schooner such as Shamrock or 
Quickstep? 
If the end in view is not the direct encouragement of a 
bastard fin type, but the general good of yachting, and the 
promotion of yacht racing by inducing men to build and race 
yachts of moderate types, then the limits in the schooner 
classes might better begin at 7ft. in place of 11, and end at 12ft. 
in place of 14^ with intermediate figures of 9ft. for the 75ft, 
and 10ft. 6in. for the 85ft. classes ; while in the single-stick 
division the present limits should apply solely to keel craft, 
with a decrease to 70 per cent, for centerboard boats. 
If it be decided that such a change is desirable, there is 
The movement now under way about New York for the 
improvement of racing rules is of special importance as in- 
dicating a feeling on the part of the clubs and of individual 
yachtsmen that some change is imperatively necessary, and 
also an evident disposition among all concerned to work in 
harmony toward the desired end. At the present time three 
important yachting bodies are engaged in the same task — the 
Yacht Kacing Union, the New York Y. C. and the Larch- 
mont Y. C, While the Seawanhaka C. Y. C. has taken no in- 
dividual action, it is closely identified with the Yacht Kacing 
Union, and will in all probability accept the amendments 
adopted by it. 
The movement as a whole is not only being carried out 
with that unity and harmonious action which is in every 
way desirable, though often lacking in the past, but it has 
been inaugurated at the proper time, immediately at the end 
of the racing season, and not in the spring, as has been too 
often the case, at so late a date as to prevent any action for 
the next season. 
The changes proposed in the New York Y. C, rules, which 
we print this week, show the general details of the move- 
ment, most of which will be recognized as desirable. The 
classification will be uniform in all of the clubs in the Yacht 
Racing Union, including the Seawanhaka and Atlantic, in 
the New York Y. C. and the Larchmont Y C. The various 
special classes, such as the misnamed "34-raters," etc., will 
be abolished, the yachts finding their places in the different 
regular classes; the allowance table will be uniform; time 
allowance will be abohshed among yachts built after the 
present season; the crew limit and the class designations will 
also be uniform. In this latter detail a very good plan has 
been adopted, of allotting a letter of the International Code to 
each class as a permanent signal for the class; the answer- 
ing pennant being pressed into service as "A" for the largest 
class. 
But one result can follow these changes. Yacht racing will 
be made more thoroughly systematic, the last traces of the 
old haphazard, go-as-you-please methods will be eliminated, 
and the sport wiU be far more interesting and exciting, with 
greater inducements to owners to follow the races regularly 
through the season. 
These changes, important as they may be, are after all 
matters of detail. The one main point of the present move- 
ment involves a question which must exert a very strong in- 
fluence on the yachts which it is confidently hoped may be 
launched in the near future — the limitation of draft. Yachts- 
men the world over have recognized for the past three or 
four years the mischievous tendency of modern designing, 
the increase of dimensions and the decrease of displacement, 
the substitution of the long^lever and light weight for the 
:S3 
TZIN,— SAIL PLAN. 
