June 25, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
528 
demned by foreign yachtsmen, was the question of the 
hour in the yachting world, and yet to discuss it fairly 
and thoroughly on the triple basis of law, equity and the 
accepted usage of sportsmen meant nothing less than 
the condemnation of the club and the men who had 
for three successive years won honorable victories for 
American yachting. As previously in the case of the 
*loop and cutter, in 1878, the Forest and Stream was 
Conipelled to decide a serious question as to its com-se. 
Apart from a few strong criticisms of the new deed when 
it first appeared, the American dailies and periodicals 
which had devolted pages to the reports of the victory 
of Volunteer showed no disposition to discuss this diffi- 
cult question, ignoring all foreign criticism of the new 
deed. As a matter of principle, however, such a course 
was impossible, and, as before, the Forest and Stream 
decided Upon a bold and unprejudiced discussion of the 
whole case on its technical merits. This it began the 
week that the new deed was made public, and it has 
continued ever since. Its statements of fact have never 
been disproved, its arguments have never been disnuted. 
It has been abused and vilified without stint by those 
who could not answer its objections and who, through 
bitter n..tional prejudice, fail to realize that the under- 
lying principles of science, of law and of fair play know 
of no political boundaries. On the other hand, its cour.se 
has been justified by the attempts of the makers of the 
new deed to repudiate, to interpret^ and to nullify the ob- 
jectionable provisions. 
The period from 1884 to 1892 was an important and 
interestmg one, an era of material progress in design 
and construction, of spirited racing, and of extended 
development of yachting throughout the United States 
and Canada. It includes the first cutters. Bedouin and 
her fellows, the "compromise" sloops Valkyr and The- 
tis, the modern schooners Sachem, Grayling, Sea Fox, 
Marguerite, Iroquois, Yampa, the fleet of big single-stick 
Cup defenders, the smaller Gloriana, Wasp, Clara, 
Minerva, the 40ft. and 30ft. classes; and numerous ex- 
citing international contests for the America Cup and 
in local racing generally. Following it, with its fleet 
of fast, able and roomy yachts, of good construction and 
fitted for other service as well as racing, came the era 
of the fin-keel and the skimming dish racing machines. 
This period, with Vigilant, Defender, Wen»nah, Niag- 
ara, Onawa, Spruce, Ethelywnn, El Heirie and the two 
Glencairns, has not yet passed by, it is a matter of to- 
day, and familiar to the youngest yachtsman, so we 
shall not tarry over it; while America has been almost^ 
uniformly successful in the international contests, 
through Vigilant, Defender, Niagara and Ethel wynn, 
both nations have kept closely together in the improve- 
ment of the racing yacht and the development of rac- 
ing, and the conditions of the sport are much the same 
to-day in England and America. 
Important as they are, our space does not permit the 
discussion of these conditions at present, it is sufficient 
to say that yachting is suffering from that extreme de- 
velopment which is found at times in all sports. With- 
in this period so much has been done to develop the 
highest absolute speed in each class, and to perfect the 
racing machine, that the entire nature of the sport has 
been changed and much of its charm eliminated. The 
racing machine has attained such a close approach to 
absolute perfection as such that it is worthless for any- 
thing but racing, the average yachtsman finds it im- 
possible to live on it, and even the most enthusiastic 
racing men cannot or will not attempt to live up to it. 
The cost of construction and running, whether in a 
defender of looft. racing measurement or an El Heirie 
of but iSft., is so inordinately out of proportion to the 
pleasure derived from a victory, to say nothing of the 
disappointment which is the inevitable lot of all but one 
contestant, the yacht is so worthless, either for further 
racing after the main contests are concluded, or for 
conversion to a cruiser, that very few are found to try 
a second venture in the construction of an up-to-date 
machine, either for special international matches or for 
the usual races of the season. 
We have seen that the period from 1885 to 1891 was 
, one of progress and prosperity in yachting, while that 
from 1891 to 1898, in which the extreme type of racing 
machine such as Defender displaced the all-round yacht 
such as Puritan, has resulted in a cessation of yacht 
racing, and a general stagnation in yachting in all 
but the smaller classes. It is evident that yachting is 
now entering on a new period of general and salutary 
restrictions on design and construction. The first step 
to this end was the establishment several years ago in 
England of various "restricted classes," each under 
stringent limitations, in many cases everj*^ yacht in a 
class being built from one standard design, all subse- 
quent alterations of ballast, hull, rig, etc., being pro- 
hibited. Even where the one-design is not followed, 
some liberty being left to individual designers, the lead- 
ing features of the class, dimensions, ballast, general 
construction, etc., are strictly guarded, as in the Boston 
knockabout, one of the most successful of these classes 
on either side of the ocean. As general racing under the 
established formula has decreased through the introduc- 
tion of racing machines, the restricted classes have in- 
creased, fii'st in England, but of late with great rapidity 
in this country, until we find in the fleet built during 
.the past winter by Mr. Stearns, at Marblehead, for four 
. glubs, fifty yachts to practically one design. 
The result of the establishment of local "restricted 
classes" is already visible in connection with general 
yachting legislation. Two years ago the British Y. R. A. 
adopted its present rule, with the avowed intention of 
discouraging the extreme racing machine and promot- 
ing the building and racing of yachts of greater dis- 
placement and capable of a wider range of use. The 
Seawanhaka rule of length and sail area was adopted 
in 1883, the Forest and Stream standing alone at the 
time in its advocacy of the proposal. This rule has 
since come into universal use in the United States and 
Canada, and up to the introduction of the fin-keel its 
results were most satisfactory. It has, however, failed 
entirely to meet the most recent advances of racing de- 
sign, and there is now an" imperative necessity for a new 
formula. What this will be no one can say, but there 
is no doubt that it will be strongly restrictive in its 
nature, encouraging- as far as possible a type of racing 
yacht with the general characteristics of the fleet of 
i88s to 1891, of strong and durable construction, reason- 
able living accommodation, and sea-going qualities. 
Even with a perfect rule of this kind, which is a good 
deal to expect, it will be a long time before yacht racing, 
in other than the smaller classes, is restored to the pros- 
perous condition of the days of Puritan, Mayflower, 
Minerva and Gloriana. 
The present situation in American yachting presents 
two different and contrary views, accordingly as it is 
examined from the standpoint of racing and the large 
yachts, or of the sport in general. From the first posi- 
tion, and remembering the. fleets and triumphs of the 
past, the outlook is most discouraging; there has been 
for several years no building of other than small yachts, 
and no disposition to race the existing boats. Prizes 
that are valuable both from association and intrinsically, 
like the Goelet cup, the Larchmont schooner cup, and 
the Commodore's prizes of the Seawanhaka-Corinthian 
Y. C, are awarded for sail-overs or left without con- 
test in the silversmith's vaults. Special efl"orts to stimu- 
late racing by means of handicaps, extra prizes and novel 
races have all uniformly failed. This is true not only 
of the classes in which the racing machines are supreme, 
but in special classes from which they are excluded 
in the interests of the older and outclassed boats. The 
immediate conditions of the present season are of course 
exceptional, the war has disturbed yachting in common 
with more serious afi'airs, but the outlook at the con- 
clusion of last season and through the winter, before 
thought of war arose, showed that nothing was- to be 
hoped for as an improvement on 1896 and '97. 
Looking at the other side of the picture, yachting as a 
national sport was never more prosperous than at the 
present time; it is more generally pooular than ever 
before, there are more yachtsmen, more yachts, more 
clubs, and the numbers are growing rapidly. Races are 
sailed and cruises made fi-om Puget Sound down the 
Pacific Coast, and from the Gulf of Mexico up to Hali- 
fax, while the inland waters, the Great Lakes and the 
innumerable small lakes and rivers . are thickly dotted 
Avith the sails of the American pleasure fleet — to say 
nothing of their being also scented with the fragrant 
vapor of the naphtha launch. While individually the 
yacht clubs are numerous and strong, collectively they 
have recently taken a great step forward in the organi- 
zation of local associations and a national union. As a 
result, a wonderful improvement has been made in the 
general revision of racing rules, the establishment of a 
higher standard of racing usage — quite as important in 
maintaining the purity of the sport as the printed rules of 
racing— and a general harmony of action in the ad- 
vancement of yachting and yacht racing. Narrow and 
local interests have largely given way to work on a 
broader and more generous basis in the advancement 
of yachting at large rather than of one club at the ex- 
pense of another. 
As opposed to the dullness and lethargy, that distin- 
guishes yacht racing in those points which were once 
the marked centers of the sport, there is among the clubs 
at large a general interest in racing; apart from the 
immediate effects of the war, there has been for several 
years an increase in the number of clubs, the number 
of racing boats, and of races sailed. One important fac- 
tor in the smaller classes is the Seawanhaka international 
challenge cup, established in 1895, and made famous by 
the Spruce-Ethelwynn races of that year ; from this as a 
starting point, a very large fleet of small racers has 
grown up throughout the country, as at Montreal; New 
Orleans, on the Massachusetts coast, and on the small 
Western lakes. 
The machinery of yachting and yacht racing is to-day 
more perfect than ever in the past, and is extended over a 
vastlj'' greater area; what is needed is something to start 
it into motion, some revival of the old racing spirit 
which was the one conspicuous feature of the da3's when 
the yachts themselves, as well as the rules and all acces- 
sories of yachting, were but crude and imperfect. What 
this moving power maj' be we cannot vtnrare to predict, 
it may come through an international race or through the 
final advent of that long-looked-for period of business 
prosperity. The one thing to provide for is that when 
it arrives there shall be in general operation throughout 
the country a good rule of measurcmem, under which a 
new fleet will be built. 
Looking back for a quarter century, there are innu- 
merable details of yachting progress we should like to 
note if space alloAvcd: the wonderful growth of such young- 
clubs as the Larchmont and the Corinthian, of Marble- 
head; the increased conveniences and luxuries of yacht- 
ing, such as the naphtha launch and electricity, the latter 
not only lighting the yacht in saloons, engine room and 
on deck, but also driving owner's gig; the conveniences 
in the form of numerous well-equipped club houses ex- 
tending their hospitalitj' to yachts of other clubs, and of 
such a system of club stations as has been established 
by the New York Y. C. With these has come a wonder- 
ful improvement in mere mechanical appliances, such 
fittings and appurtenances as were once obtained Avith 
difficulty when made to order can now be had instantly, of 
improved construction and at less cost, of any supply 
house. This is especially the case as apolied to the 
smaller yachts; where there once was nothing suitable 
in the way of blocks and fittings, now every detail and 
fitting can be had, of the proper size and proportions and 
the most improved material. 
In yachting literature of all kinds, the yachtsman of 
to-day is far ahead of the old fellow of 1873. I11 place of 
Marett's book and Bowdish. he has now m his club 
library standard works on design, construction, navi- 
gation, with cruises in all waters, from the North Pole 
to the southern seas, made in yachts and written h- 
yachtsmen. Added to this,- he has technical journals of 
a high class in English, French, German and Italian, all 
treating of his favorite sport. 
In the way of a purely exterior accessory to yachting, 
there is nothing that has done so much as the advance of 
photography. In 1873 a photo of a yacht was practically 
unknown, now this branch of the art is a specialty with 
the most expert photographers, as offering one of the 
i^Dst inviting fields for artistic success; while' on 
»he other hand the yachtsman himself rarrirs his 
c'-^nllpr camera for a permanent rccc" ' ( f ''v- 
citing races and pleasant experiences. To photo- 
graphy and the dry plate the yachting of to-day 
owes much of its popularity and success; it is the camera, 
more than any other agency, that has introduced the 
yacht to remote localities, and has trained the eye of the 
amateur yachtsman to an appreciation of the highest 
standards of beauty of form as well as of mechanical de-* 
tails of hull and rig. By its aid the complete details of 
all importanc races are accessible to those who are un- 
able to witness them in person, and it gives a record of 
actual movements and positions that offers unimpeach- 
able evidence in the case of a dispute. 
It is with no small degree of pride and pleasure that the 
Forest and Stream; surveys the yachting of to-day as 
cotnparcd with that of 1873, the fleets of handsome crafty 
shipshape in form and perfect in all mechanical details, 
each class starting with the gun, and the race being over 
when the first boat crosses the line, without waiting un- 
til next day or next week for the calculation of time al- 
lowance and the announcement of the result. Almost 
every detail of the yachts and the racing, so different 
from those of twenty-five years ago, the leading points 
of design, construction and rig, the building to class, the 
one-gun start, the absence of time allowance, the open 
race, was first advocated in this journal and for years 
in it alone. It was the Forest and Stream that first 
tirged the need of material improvements in American 
yachting, and pointed out the specific lines on which 
such improvements were possible, and it was the Fore.st 
AND Stream that of late years has sought to prevent the 
evident danger of over-development from which yacht- 
ing now suffers, and advocated the timely adoptiori of 
restrictions upon extremes of design and construction. 
The Forest and Stream was the first to point out twen- 
ty years ago the dangers of the extreme shallow type, 
and to advocate a material increase of depth and draft; at 
the same time it was the first, within a few years past, to 
protest against that abuse of draft and low ballast which 
produces the fin-keel racing machine, and prohibits the 
yacht of moderate draft and displacement. 
It has been the invariable policy of this paper to deal 
promptly and positively with every matter which comes 
up in yachting, forming its own opinion on the merits of 
the case, and expressing that opinion in terms plain 
enough to be unmistakable. The record of these opin- 
ions is on file in the fifty volumes of the quarter ceijtury, ■ 
and there is very little in it that we would change if we 
could. While it would have been easier and safer to have 
waited for a time to make certain that a new thing would 
be successful and popular before approving of it, we have , 
preferred the other course, of putting ourselves boldly 
upon record as soon as all the essential facts were known, 
leaving it to the future to vindicate the correctness of. 
our judgment. It has sometimes been a matter of 
years, as in the question of the value of the lead keel, 
from 1878 until the success of Puritan in 1885, before 
a popular verdict has endorsed our first judgment, but 
in few cases indeed out of hundreds has that verdict 
failed. Looking back over the long record, we find but 
two important points on which our judgment has been 
proved to be in error. 
The first of these is that of narrow beam; there was a 
time when, in our opinion, there was an advantage in 
the extreme narrow beam of the cutters of 1875 to 1885. 
This opinion was based upon a livelj'- appreciation of the 
evils arising from, the abuse of great beam in American 
3'achts, and upon the numerous demonstrations of the 
good qualities of the narrow cutters, their safety, speed, 
sea-going qualities, accommodation and appearai^ce. as 
compared to the sloops of the day. We have to admit 
that in a discussion involving a large number of impor- 
tant issues . we placed an altogether false value upon one. 
narrow beam, as a material element of advantage, instead - 
of the reverse, as was afterward proved by the cutters 
of moderate beam. It may be urged that our knowledge 
of naval architecture in tlie abstract should have prevent-' 
ed this mistake, but at this time the cutters, in spite of 
their narrow beam, were winning new victories each year 
from the wide sloops; and we were, too, in pretty good 
company on both sides of the Atlantic in attributing a 
part of this success to the lack of beam. Of all the in- 
numerable other points relating to models, methods and 
yachting in general, which were in controversy for over 
ten j^ears, there is no important one on which we would 
change our original position. 
The second matter is of quite a different nature; it will 
be remembered that in the course of the discussion of 
the new deed of gift the Forest and Stream, about 1890, 
made the assertion that no British yachtsman would 
challenge for the America Cup under the new deed. In 
this, as events proved, we were wrong, as the Cup was 
challenged for and raced for twice, in 1893-5. In making 
this assertion, after a careful consideration of the case, 
we had in mind the explicit statement of the Royal 
Yacht Squadron that it would back no challenge under 
the new deed, and Ave had cauA^assed thoroughly the list 
of British yachtsmen whose prominence and position fit- 
ted them to follow Sir Richard Sutton and Lieut. Henn. 
As events have proved, there was not then or after one 
of this class willing to recognize the new deed; but 
there was a novice, then practically unknoAVh in yachting, 
who was at once so careless of the question of principle 
involved as to AvaiA'e it entirel}^, so selfish in his desire 
for fame as a challenger as to compromise his fellow 
yachtsmen, and, unfortunately, so pOAverful in his influ- 
ence as to be able to compel even the Royal Yacht 
Squadron to humble itself before the New York Y. C. 
What with explanations, interpretations and special 
stipulations, the question of the exact terms of the in- 
te^mational races of 1893-5 has never been settled, but 
Avithout any-appearance of quibbling whether the final 
terms Avere or Avere not literally those of the new deed, 
we are quite Avilling to admit that in this case the Forest 
AND Stream was Avrong and the New York Y. C. right; 
it did indeed obtain a challenge, in fact two of them, from 
a "British yachtsman," Avith results only too well known. 
It is quite evident that our course in the past has 
been satisfactory to our readers, that is, to the leading 
yachtsmen of all countries, as the Forest and Stream 
has long since Avon the respect a^d confidence of foreign 
as well as American yachtsmen by its bold and open dis- 
cussion of all questions, and its inprejudiced reports of 
actual facts. This being the case, w^. can promise nothing 
more than a continuance of it for the future. 
W. P. Stephens. 
