14 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 2, 1897. 
— , , _^ , 
prestige of its own tliat cannot be questioned, nor can it be 
usurped by any other dub. It is the oldest, the largest, tbe 
richest and most prominent club in the western world. It 
numbers the first yachtsmen in the country among its mem- 
bers and the finest yachts of the world in its areat fleet. It 
has the America's Ciip, which, it has successfully defended 
for many years, and without going into all the minute de- 
tails of this defense, it. may be said that its whole action in 
the last two races and the disputes which have attended 
them has increased rather than diminished its prestige. It 
is able to hold its own races without the aid of other clubs; 
it has a more than ample fund to draw on for prizes apwt 
from the public spirit of such individual members as Mr. 
Ogden Goelet; and its annual cruise is one of the established 
fixtures of the season. 
Conceding all this, there is still another side to the ques 
tion : The past two seasons have witnessed a turning point 
in American yachting in the matter of racing legislation. In 
this particular branch of yachting the advance has been 
notably slow. When the battle of the types was first begun 
by the Forest and Stbeam, with the aid of a few individ- 
ual enthusiasts, the subjects of attack were not limited to 
design and construction alone, not even to the measurement 
rule, but the faults and errors of the then existing methods 
of racing were also included. In spite of the wonderful ad- 
vances long since accomplished in design and construction, 
and the early introduction and general adoption of the Sea- 
wanhab a rule, but little was accomplished in the direction 
of uniform and improved racing management for many 
years The conflict of minor details of measurement, clas- 
sification, allowance tables, entries, etc., was endured year 
after year, with no general eJfort for a change; the "time 
start," with intervals of sometimes as much as twenty min- 
utes in which to cross the line after the starting gun. was 
rigorously adhered to by all but a small number of Ameri- 
can clubs; owners were freely allowed to build at the bot- 
tom inf-tead of the top of a class, or to shde about at will 
from one class to another. 
The change that has been wrought in all of these matters 
has been so rapid as to be almo&t marvelous. It seems hardly 
more than yesterday that the Forest and Stream was 
abused as an "aDKiomaniac" for advocating the building lo 
the upper limits of a few common clasi^es with no time 
allowance; the general use of the one-gun start; the filing of 
measurements before starting; the limiting of each yacht to 
one cla.ss; and oiher essentials of systematic racing. To-day 
there is in existence a strong union of the Boston clubs, 
another of ihe New York clubs; on the lakes the old L. T. 
R. A., the pioneer in all of this work, promises to become 
the nucleus of an interlake association; and throughout the 
country yachtsmen are generally interested in the associated 
tasks of' improving and unifying all racing regulations. 
Though the work as a whole is yet in its preliminary stages, 
and many serious obstacles to a national union must be en- 
countered, sufiicient progress has already been made to war- 
rant the adage: "Well begun is half done." 
Experience in the past has taught us the slow and discour- 
aging steps through which every reform in yachting must 
come, and we are not prone to be too enthusiastic; but we 
have never felt more encouraged as to the future of American 
yachting than on this present New Year of 1897. The ten- 
dencies of the times are entirely in the direction of such har- 
monious and concerted action among the great body of 
American yacht clubs as must bring about good results im- 
mediately, so far as each separate locality is concerned, and 
also in good time lead to a national union of many, if not all, 
of the clubs. 
It is stating the case entirely too mildly to say that this 
work has been done without the"aid of the New York Y. C. ; 
it is much more correct to say that it has been done iu the 
face of opposition, positive, however carefully masked at 
times, from the club Again and again have steps toward 
united action on difl:erent matters been inaugurated by other 
of the larger clubs only to fail when submitted to the New 
York Y. C. for its cooperation. With all of its wealth and 
prestige, the club has made no yachting rules save those 
relating to the America's Cup; but it has taken from time to 
time the rules introduced and tested by one or the other of 
its younger fellows. 
"The new movement within the club is inaugurated by men 
who are in active touch with yachting and who are looking 
forward instead of backward. Whether they are one and 
all in hearty accord with the present trend of yachting is of 
no moment, but they probably appreciate the one vital fact 
that this movement, begun out of nothing and gathering 
force of itself, until in but two years it has resulted in a 
strong, progressive body that is even now the controlling 
factor in the yachting system of New York and the Sound, 
has come to stay; that work thus begun under unfavorable 
auspices, and drawing its strength from no one club, but 
from the many individual yachtsmen to whom it appeals, 
must succeed when many previous efiforts in the same direc- 
tion have failed. In this they are right; the Massachusetts 
Association and the Sound Union, each just beginning its 
third year, with no pretensions to either wealth or prestige, 
are already factors m the actual yacht racing of Massachu- 
setts Bay and Long Island Sound that far outweigh any of 
the great yacht clubs 
It is true that the New York Y. C. can go on without 
them in the future as it has done in the past; it needs no aid 
from them to maintain its large membership and its pres- 
tige, to obtain challenges for the America's Cup or to defend 
it; and the club may also be able to turn the tide of recent 
years and to biing back some of the old-time glory to its 
annual regatta and to inluse new life into its annual cruise. 
Granted that in all of these points it can gain nothing 
' from a part in a national association, it is quite as true on 
the other hand that its aid is by no means essential to the 
furtherance of the work now in hand. Even in the event 
ol a triumph of the opposition and the failure of the new 
scheme, the vaiious existing local associations will continue 
as before; and presumably with a proportionate growth. 
The immediate result which may be looked for is the con- 
trol by the Association of the great bulk of building and 
racing; and a more distant but almost inevitable result is 
the union of the local associations in one national body; 
leaving to the New York Y. C. all that it now has, but tak- 
ing from it much that it might have, and depriving it of all 
claims to preeminence in actual yacht racing and law- 
making. 
While we do not believe that the present work will fail for 
lack in the future of a support that it has never had in the 
past, we at the same time recognize that the New York Y. 
C. is by its position the natural leader in a movemenii of this 
kind, and that nothing better can happen to American yacht- 
ing than the realization by the club of this fact and of the 
pjppoitwity pow pfferecl IQ it to is^^f JJje }§^^, Tb^ §c]ieio§ 
novf under consideration, and which may do in a season 
more than may otherwise be achieved in ten years, is entirely 
too extensive to be carried through without the active aid of 
the New York and all the other large clubs. The prelimi- 
nary work has already been done by various agents, it only 
remains for the New York Y. C. to step into the field plainly 
open to it and to lead the way. In doing this it need have 
no fear whatever of a loss of prestige through association 
with small clubs, or that the latter will in any way infringe 
on the rights of the New York Y. C. to manage its private 
affairs in its own way. 
Thb battle of the types on the lakes promises to be an in- 
teresting one, as the fin-keel has found many opponents 
there. Lake Ontario has already been the scene of a yacht- 
ing conflict for some years, the shoal centerboard sloop 
once being supreme on the lake. What with importations 
from salt water and the local productions of the late Alex- 
ander Outhbert, an expeit in such craft, the centerboard 
type was strongly represented when (he first narrow cutters, 
favot of the Jracht of moderate section, such as Zelma and 
Yam£i 
In additioti Id this, the iCTip Which Canada won being their 
personal pm^terty, they have been for some time discuss- 
ing the bes^ iheans to make it a permanent trophy for the- 
Great Lakes;, tflieir intention being to donate it for that pur- 
pose. Aft'et^Wng their time freely through the spring and 
summer to the- buildina; and racing of the Canadian cham- 
pion, they have heen equally busy since the season closed iui 
organizing the new Union, preparing rules., corresponding;: 
with other organlzaiions, etc. 
Except for the opposition of some of the Lake Michigan 
yachtsmen to the barrina; of fin-keels and professionals, all 
has gone well; the Union has been formed and its rulefr 
adopted, the Interlake Yachting Association of Lake Erie 
has indorsed both; the Royal Canadian Y €1, the largest' 
on the lakfts, has amended its rules to conform to those of 
the Union, and it was fully expected that the Lake Y. R A. 
would do the same. At the very last moment all this work 
has been frustrated by two or three persons, one armed withi 
Yerve I., Verve II and Cyprus, invaded its waters. Gradu- 
ally the old sloops have disappeared, and the narrow cutters 
as well, to make way for the modern cutter of the Minerva 
type, a thoroughly wholesome craft in design and construc- 
tion; fast enough to outsail anything of the old types, and in 
accommodation and general usefulness excellently adapted 
to the conditions of lake yachting. 
This type, which has proved in every way satisfactory, is 
now threatened with extinction at the hands of the bulb- fin 
racing machine, of which at present there are hardlj'^ half a 
dozen of over 35ft. r 1. on the entire chain of lakes The 
only claim that can be made for this type is that it gives a 
small increase of speed at a cost of a serious loss of accom- 
modation, the yachts being somewhat faster in the compara- 
tively few races sailed in a season, and practically useless for 
the large amount of cruising and general sailing which has 
up to this time been the custom of the Lake yachtsmen. 
While the harm resulting from the free introduction of the 
fin-keel will be very much more serious in the larger classes, 
the advocates of the type are all men interested only in the 
smaller boats. The so called compromise at the recent meet- 
ing is simply an impossibility and cannot be allowed to stand; 
the question is one that must be decided positively iu one 
way or another. 
From first to last the conduct of the gentlemen who built 
and raced the successful Canada last summer must commend 
itself to experienced yachtsmen as eminently wise and 
sportsmanlike. In declining in the first instance to build a 
large fin-keel to meet the Chicago copy of Niagara, and in 
insisting on adhering to a smaller class, they were acting 
upon a long and intimate experience of lake yachting, the 
different members of the syndicate having between them 
owned and raced many of the best yachts on Lake Ontario, 
and having raced and cruised on all the lakes. Realizing 
fully the uselessness of yachts of extreme drait and limitea 
accommodation, as well as the impossibility of building up 
a 55ft. class, they refused to build out of the largest existing 
class on the lake, the 42ft. ; making an agreement to meet 
the larger yacht under certain conditions, which they fully 
lived up to. 
Though in the 43ft. class, the yacht which Mr. Will Fife 
gave them for the Toledo race was of a very undesirable 
type, a semi-fin of extreme hght construction, and by no 
a handful of proxies and casting a vote on each of them. 
However serious the immediate results may be in delaying 
the joining of the Union by all the associations, and in the 
encouragement it gives to the advocates of the fin-keel and 
the opponents of Corinthian sailing, we have little fear that 
such a misuse of power and failure to recognize its responsi- 
bilities will do permanent harm to a good cause. 
With the present issue the series of articles on Yacht 
Designing is resumed. We hope to continue it at regular 
intervals through the winter and spring. 
YACHT DESIGNING— XI. 
BY W. P. STEPHENS. 
(Continued from page U81, June IS.) 
In the preceding chapter the general principles of ortho- 
graphic projection on three coordinate planes were described 
as applied to a simple rectangular solid. The application 
of these principles to the delineation of buildings, machinery, 
etc , is a comparatively simple matter; such objects usually 
possess numerous plane surfaces, with the boiinding lines 
and angles sharply defined, and consequently readily pro- 
jected on one or more of the coordinate planes. 
In the case of a vessel, however, the problem is apt to be 
much more difflcult, from the fact that we have to deal 
almost entirely with curved surfaces of the most compli- 
cated description, and with practically no plainly marked 
edges or angles, and not even one fiat side as a basis for 
measurement. Especially is this true of the modern as dis- 
tinguished from older yachts; the latter had certain plane 
surfaces and sharp lines about Ihe keel, but the former, such 
as Defender, Gloriana, Minerva. N iagara, or even El Heirie, 
is bounded by but two curved surfaces — the two sides 
merged into one single surface by the continuous curve of 
the sections across the keel — and the deck. The only posi- 
tive edge or line that such a body presents is the joining of 
the deck with the topsides of the hull. 
In examining such an object with a view to its exact rep- 
resentation on paper, the novice, even though familiar with 
ordinary mechanical or architectural drawing, would be 
puzzled as to where to begin. Fortunately there is one step 
by which matters may be very much simplified at the out- 
FIG. 31. 
means the yacht to promote yachting on the lakes. No one 
knew this more thoroughly than they at the end of last sea- 
son; and they were certainly not so obtuse as to underesti- 
mate the fact that all the prizes in the 43ft. class for next 
season were theirs if they chose to race Canada again. 
One result of their meeting with other lake yachtsmen 
was to convince them that the time had at last come for a 
successful effort, after many unsuccessful ones, for a union 
of all the clubs of the great lakes in one association, and 
before the season was fairly over they had taken the neces- 
sary steps toward the creation of such a union. Possessing 
the fastest yacht on the chain of lakes, their first effort was 
to bar her and others like her, in accordance with what they 
deemed to be the best interests of the sport under existing 
conditions. In accordance with this end, they have offered 
to withdraw Canada from all races, to sell her on salt water 
if possible, or if not, to keep her from the racing; to accept 
three, four or five times the regular allowance if she were 
still raced apd her type prohibited, or to make any ether 
cgnces^ipQ neciessary to har the fln fto4 pmi'flo type§ in 
set. In most structures it is necessary that the complete 
object should be represented, but in a vessel it is seldom 
necessary to draw more than one side, the other being pre- 
cisely similar. The first process then will be to cut our ves- 
sel into two parts by a vertical, longitudinal plane through the 
center; in other words, supposing that we have the reduced 
model of the vessel, we will hold it vertical, in the exact 
position in which it should float, and pass it, in a direction 
from bow to stern, over a circular saw. We now have two 
halves, symmetrical, but reversed, one of which we may 
throw away entirely, confining all oui; operations to the 
other. 
The question of which one to retain is commonly consid- 
ered of no importance ; but as we propose to start right from 
the very beginning a few words on this point are in 
order. It is usually a matter of chance or taste with a 
marine draftsman whether he discards the port or the star- 
board half; in other words, whether he represents a vessel 
with her bow to the right or to the left. In a general way, 
one method is as good ss the otker^ but it is Wghly desirably 
