AVG: 0, l8o8.j 
FOftfiST ANt> STREAM. 
177 
and cup races of the following year were built upon a 
new and radically different principle, they were deliber- 
ately designed to be sailed with but one bilge immersed, 
the other being high in the air, by means of shifting 
the crew to leeward if necessary in a light air. As for 
the keel, it was intended to be just about at the surface, 
of Ihe water. 
This innovation, perhaps the most extreme in the his- 
tory of designing, was accompanied by a very marked 
increase of speed through the successful evasion of 
L.W.L. as measured, the practical result being that the 
bilge became a narrow canoe hull, with a far greater 
length than the L.W.L, when upright, and the boat 
was allowed a much larger sail plan than the older boats 
of less effective length and far greater beam. There was 
a trick in balancing the boats, but it was far less diffi- 
cult than sailing a canoe with a long sliding seat, and 
quickly mastered. This same principle was naturally 
carried up into the 20ft. class in 1897, where it has been 
developed to an extreme point by all designers. 
The attitude of the Forest and Stream toward all 
developments in the direction of extreme speed and the 
specialization of the racing machine is well known, but 
in this case there was nothing to do out to follow the 
example of the yacht clubs and yachtsmen, and at least 
to accept quietly the new departure. As far as the 
clubs were concerned, no effort was made to condemn 
or eheck it, and the freaks which rapidly bred under it 
were one and all welcomed without a question as to their 
type or nature. Nearly fifty small craft, of 15 or 20ft. 
racing length, have been built for the Seawanhaka trial 
races in the past four seasons, of which number prob- 
ably two-thirds would justly come under the name of 
freaks, and yet no attempt has been made to draw a 
line. We realize well the difficulty of such a task, had it 
been attempted, and we do not question the wisdom of 
the policy of the race committee, as indicated by its 
acts, or lack of positive action, in encouraging the de- 
velopment of the highest possible speed at the evident 
sacrifice of every other attribute of a yacht. We merely 
wish to show that, regardless of all conventional ideas 
and sentimental scruples, designers have been encouraged 
to try the most extreme experiments, as in Skate, 
Alanka, In It, Vagary, Akabo, Arauca, Question and 
numerous others. 
The fact has been generally recognized that the high- 
est speed yet attained in either class was in boats sailing 
on the new principle, of one immersed and one emersed 
bilge; practically a new variation of the double-hull 
idea. 
The possibilities of a further extreme of development 
in the line of cutting out the practically useless keel and 
thus improving the form of each independent bilge have 
also been understood and discussed, and in fact this is 
the only conclusion which can logically result from a 
careful study of the small yachts of the last three years. 
The first one to take this final step, as it will prob- 
ably prove, was Mr. Duggan, in Dominion; and no one 
who will study the boat as she deserves to be studied will 
be inclined to deny that he has done the work well, 
whether it be legitimate or otherwise. In Dominion he 
has employed the methods of design first used in Sothis 
and Glencairn I., in carrying out the new principle to 
its logical and probably final step, as it does not seem 
that much more can be done in this peculiar line. It 
is very likely that further experiment will show that this 
particular boat can be materially impfoved in detail to 
make the finest racing machine yet known to yachting; 
but as far as principles of design are concerned, the end 
has probably been reached. 
We have not yet heard from any who have condemned 
her a word to indicate that they appreciate the vital 
points of her design. The leading principle, of sailing 
on one bilge at a time, as in Momo, Seawanhaka and 
Challenger, has been more thoroughly and scientifically 
worked up in Dominion than in any other boat of the 
type, but this is not all. It has long been the dream of 
yachtsmen to produce a variety 'of double-hull boat in 
which a large hull is superimposed on a smaller one, the 
latter immersed, and the former just clear of the water 
when in measuring trim, but so immersing itself when 
under way as to utilize the unmeasured length. Boats 
of this type have been built for the Seawanhaka trial 
races and have sailed in them, but have been unsuccessful 
for perfectly obvious reasons, their transverse sections 
being of the old form, more or less of the V. It has 
proved impossible to immerse any effective length by 
heeling, as there is a certain amount of displacement to 
be disposed of in some way. In Dominion Mr. Dug- 
gan has solved, we believe for the first time, tins old 
problem; and in a practical and effective way. The dis- 
placement of the two hulls is sufficient to float easily 
on a L.W.L. of 17ft. 6in. topsides of great overhang, 
about oft. at each end. These overhangs form practically 
a long canoe superimposed on one of half the length. 
As soon as the weather hull lifts clear of the water, the 
position in which the yacht does her best work, its 
70olbs. of displacement is immediately transferred to the 
lee hull, which is immersed for practically its whole 
length. The curve of areas for the upright position, or 
the two hulls, and the inclined position, with one hull 
just clear of the water, shows more plainly than anything 
else the ratio of length to midship section, and the 
enormous gain in fineness of form. 
This point alone separates Dominion from the cata- 
maran. The former does her best work with but one hull 
immersed, the other being barely clear of the water, but 
not enough to catch the wind under it. A catamaran, of 
either the ordinary raft construction or the Herreshoff 
articulated construction, is intended to sail with both 
hulls equally immersed, and with her limited displace- 
ment and great beam will probably pitchpole when one 
hull is lifted clear of the water and all the buoyancy 
of the other called into play. 
The popular view of the case, that Dominion is a 
catamaran and that catamarans are barred from com- 
petition with vachts of the normal type, either by usage 
or definite legislation, is a perfectly natural one, and 
there is nothing strange in that it has been accepted on 
sight as positively conclusive by many, even among 
yachtsmen. The only remarkable point is that experts, 
men who have been intimately associated with the de- 
velopment of the modern freak racing machine, as de- 
signers, critics and in the management of matches and 
races, should accept off-hand such a narrow and super- 
ficial view. All who have been in any way associated 
with the 15 and 20ft. classes since 1895 have been com- 
pelled to study closely a peculiar course of freak de- 
velopment which has run to all possible extremes of 
form. The one point of this wide and often wild experi- 
menting that has produced good results in the line of 
speed is the use of but one bilge at a time, as in all 
the Crane and Duggan boats. Anyone who looks at 
Seawanhaka or Speculator to-day will see the bilge car- 
ried forward until it forms a positive shoulder or hump 
at the bow, the idea being to gain length when heeled 
by the immersion of this hump. Every student of these 
boats has had to discard all conventional ideas of fair 
form in an approximately upright position, and to ac- 
custom himself to a model that looks like a tub when 
upright, but that shows very fine and easy lines when 
considered as heeled until her keel is just clear of the 
water. 
So far as sentiment is concerned, a man who had 
spent the last three years at the North Pole might be 
justified in condemning Dominion as a freak that was 
barred by usage from the companionship of legitimate 
yachts; but with a man who has watched in succession 
Question, Hope, El Heirie, In it, Glencairn L, Skate,- 
Arauca, Vagary, Monantiquot. Alanka. Akabo and Gold 
Bug. with their fellows, the case is entirely different. 
As to the actual merits of the two boats. Challenger 
and Dominion, both confessedly racing freaks and noth- 
ing else, and the former accepted as perfectly legitimate 
by" the yachting community, it must be admitted that they 
are designed upon precisely the same principle, worked 
out by similar methods; of the two, Dominion, as far 
as tested, is fully as seaworthy and safe in model, more 
comfortable as a sailing machine, very much more dur- 
able in construction, being apparently good for a long 
period of future use, while Challenger is already a 
wreck, 
So far as the development of extreme speed goes, ap- 
parently the sole end of modern yacht racing. Dominion 
marks as great an advance as El Heirie and Glencairn I., 
as yet she is but the first experiment, and there is little 
doiibt that she is as capable of implement as these two 
were in producing Momo and Glencairn II. So far as 
the advancement of naval architecture is concerned, she 
must go in with the rest of the class, as part of a com- 
paratively useless experiment in the evasion of measured 
waterline, establishing no principles of material value. 
It is foolish at this late day to represent Challenger 
as a normal and legitimate yacht, and Dominion as a 
freak that is properly barred by sentiment, if nothing 
else. If any line is to be drawn, and thus far the 
clubs have declined to do it, it must be between the 
old type of yacht, with both bilges and keel immersed, 
and the new type, with one bilge and the keel in the 
air. This line once passed, all sentimental considera- 
tions and conscientious scruples disappear, and it will be 
a very difficult matter now to draw a just line of limita- 
tion between the fair and the ttnfair freak. 
The present question resolves itself to this: by com- 
mon consent and usage of both parties, designers^ have 
been encouraged in disregarding all previously existing 
considerations, and seeking for the highest possible 
speed in any form of hull. No attempt whatever has been 
made to pass judgment upon freaks of the most ex- 
treme tvpe, but such have been admitted without ques- 
tion to' the trial races of both clubs. One particular 
feature of design has received the open approval of all 
parties, and its development to a greater extreme each 
year has been relied on by each for success. In this 
competition Mr. Duggan has again proved victorious, 
producing a new combination of principles which prom- 
ise a material increase of speed in racing machines. The 
one question to be decided is whether, in doing this un- 
der existing conditions, and not under such conditions 
as existed a quarter of a century ago, he has passed the 
indefinite line between sportsmanlike and unsportsman- 
like conduct. 
The Single-Bilge Principle in 
Designing. 
From the Forest and Stream, Aug: 22, 1S96. 
In tfie normal type of vessel, Ethelwynn, Gloriana, 
Volunteer, Minerva, America, all more or less of the V 
type of section, the load waterline as measured at rest 
in smooth water represents a great length for the size 
of the yacht; this is so even in the modern Herreshoff 
type with an excessive area of load water plane. When 
one of these vessels is heeled to the average sailing 
angle, the waterline actually shortens forward, though 
gaining some aft by the long full counter. The middle 
waterline, the distance measured in practically all meas- 
urement rules, is very long in comparison with the area 
of load waterline plane, and also with the longitudinal 
element of that plane at the quarter beam of the ves- 
sel or along the middle buttock line. 
In El Heirie, and to a still greater extent in Glen- 
cairn, the measured waterline is reduced to a minimum 
as compared with the size of the yacht and the area of 
the L.W.L. plane by the cutting away of the rib or V 
represented by the stem and keel of an ordinary vessel, 
and the adoption of the flat scow bottom carried right 
up the stemhead. That such a form necessitates a water- 
line that is but an ellipse, with other lines that no 
designer would accept as capable of high speed, is a 
fact that must be discussed later; the main point is that 
this peculiar variation of the scow form permits such 
a successful evasion of waterline length as has never 
been achieved before. 
In all yachts of the normal type the designer works 
on the assumption that the hull is to be sailed as nearly 
upright as possible, that the true L.W.L. plane of the 
yacht when under way in a race should coincide as close- 
ly as possible with the L.W.L. plane of the design'. In 
the scow type, including El Heirie and Glencairn. a very 
different principle is involved. It is never expected or 
desired that the yacht when under sail shall have the 
same lines indicated by a model, but the designer starts 
out in a very different manner. While the design is 
made, as a matter of conventionality and convenience, 
in the ordinary upright position, the designer assumes 
from the start that the yacht is to do her best work to 
windward and reaching m a very different position, 
heeled intentionally to a good angle, and with an im- 
mersed form that bears no relation whatever to the form 
when at anchor. In the case of El Heirie the effective 
sailing angle is probably somewhere with deck just 
awash and center of keel about at the surface of the 
water. In this position there is still displacement enough 
in the hard, round bilge; the immersed portion of the 
hull becomes of the canoe form, with a beam of but 3ft. 
and a depth of but 7in.; and, what is still more im- 
portant, the length on the new waterline is as great or 
even greater than that upon the measured waterline. 
Long, narrow, shoal and of very easy form, this por- 
tion of the hull has all the speed elements of the canoe; 
but like the canoe, it lacks power. This, however, is 
supplied, just as in the canoe, by mechanical means en- 
tirely outside of the natural stability of the hull itself. 
The weather bilge and deck are both out of water and 
serve a double purpose, first, through their own weight 
acting as the weather hull of a catamaran to windward, 
and secondly, again as in the catamaran, as a seat for 
the crew far out to windward. 
It may be said that there is nothing new in all this, 
that it is as true of the common scow as of El Heirie ; but 
the scow has found many friends and exponents in the 
past, who have proclaimed its advantages; at the same 
time we have yet to hear of one who has pointed out 
this peculiar advantage in the way of successfully evad- 
ing the measurement of waterline, ur who has em- 
ployed it in a way which indicated any comprehension 
of it. In both El Heirie and Glencairn this same idea, 
derived independently and at different times, has been 
elaborated in a thoroughly careful and scientific manner, 
which shows that the designers were not, as is so often 
the case, misled by the color and texture of the husk, 
but have faithfully sought the truth in the kernel. Com- 
pared with these two yachts the more primitive scow 
models have been far from successful, mainly in lack of 
light weather speed, there being no trouble about speed 
in a strong breeze. 
The experiment of 1891, in cutting off the fore end of 
the waterline of Gloriana, was a most radical one, but 
it reallv involved no -new principle, dealing merely with 
the reduction of deadwood. which, as it proved, was 
useless, though it had always been considered essential. 
The experiment of 1896, in El Heirie, in cutting away 
with one bold stroke what Mr. Herreshoff had left in 
Gloriana, is still more radical and goes beyond a mere 
detail in amounting to a clear and well defined principle 
heretofore unknown in designing. Just how far upward 
in the list of classes this principle may be employed is as 
yet doubtful; probably the 25ft. class will mark the ex- 
treme limit. It can only be employed where the crew 
constitutes a large portion or in fact all of the ballast, 
and in craft so small that the risk of capsize amounts to 
nothing and they may in racing be heeled to a dangerous 
angle. It is in no way probable that El Heirie's model 
would succeed in a yacht of 30 to 40ft. l.w.L, which must 
of necessity be sailed as nearly upright as possible, and 
even in the 25ft. class the allowance of crew, five in all, 
is probably too small to make such an experiment suc- 
cessful. Whatever class be selected for the contest of 1897 
for the Seawanhaka cup, there can be no question that 
this new type of yacht will play an important part, and 
much more in regard to its capabilities may be looked 
for. 
[In view of the recent articles on the proa, the word 
proa would be more correct than catamaran, as used 
above. — Editor.] 
Fixtures* 
Aug. 23.— Lyndhurst, N. J.— Live-bird handicap, 25 birds, $10. 
» T. W. Morfey, Sec'y. 
Aug. 24. — Warwick, N. Y.— Special shoot, Hudson River Trap- 
Shooters' League, on grounds of Warwick Gun Club. J. B. 
Rogers, Manager. 
Aug. 24-25. — Minneapolis, Minn. — Tournament of the Minneapolis 
Gun Club. G. J. McGraw, Sec'y. 
Aug. 25. — Bristol, Conn. — Fourth annual tournament of the Con- 
necticut State Leagvie. H. J. Mills, Pres. 
Aug. 25-26. — Mt. Kisco, N. Y. — Tenth annual target tournament 
of the Mount Kisco Rod and Gun Club. F. E. Wood, Sec'y. 
Aug. 27.— Hingham, Mass.— Hingham Gun Club's one-day tour- 
nament. 
Aug. 27. — Philadelphia. — Philadelphia Trap-Shooters' League, on 
grounds of Silver Lake Gun Club, Point House Road. J. O. 
Schutz, Sec'y. 
Aug. 27. — flackensack, N. J. — Regular monthly cup shoot of the 
Bergen County Gun Club. C. O. Gardner. Sec'y. 
Aug. 29-31.— Union City, Oklahoma.— Union City Gun Club's 
tournament. F. M. Johnson, Sec'y. 
Sept. 3. — Natick, Mass. — Amateur shoot of the Natick Gun 
Club. On Sept. 5 if stormy. S. Bowker, Manager. 
Sept. 5. — Worcester, Mass. — Worcester Sportsman's Club Labor 
Day shoot; open to all. A. W. Walls, Sec'y. 
Sept. 5. — Corning, N. Y. — First Labor Day shooting tournament 
Rain Makers' Gun Club; targets. Harry J. Sternberg, Sec'y. 
"Sept. 5. — Newark, N. J. — Forester Gun Club's Labor Day mer- 
chandise shoot. John Fleming, Captain. 
Sept. 5. — Pawling, N. Y. — All-day shoot of the Pawling Gun 
Club; targets. Morton Haynes, Sec'y. 
Sept. 5. — Woodlawn, L. I. — Labor Day shoot of the New 
Utrecht Gun Club. E. C. Frost, Sec'y. 
Sept. 5. — Schenectady, N. Y — All-day shoot of the Schenectady 
Gun Club. 
Sept. 5. — Meriden, Conn. — Fourth annual Labor Da}' tournament 
of the Parker Gun Club. C. S. Howard, Sec'y. 
Sept. 5-6. — Reading, Pa. — Mt. Penn Gun Club's merchandise and 
intercounty trophy shoot; targets. 
Sept. 5-6. — Rock Island, 111. — Rock Island Gun Club's amateur 
tournament. 
Sept. 6-9.— Kansas City, Mo.— Schmelzer Arms Co.'s fifth annual 
tournament; targets and live birds. 
Sept. 7-8. — Kingston, N. Y. — Tournament of Hudson River 
Leacue, on grounds of Kingston Gun Club. 
- Sept. 7-8.— Haverhill, Mass.— Tournament of the Interstate As- 
sociation, under the auspices of the Haverhill Gun Club. Geo. 
F. Stevens, Sec'y. 
Sept. 7-8.— Sidell, 111. — Sidell Gun Club's tournament; targets 
only. H. J. Sconce, Manager. 
Sept. 7-8. — Cherokee, la. — Second annual tournament of the 
Cherokee Gun Club. Irving Weart, Sec'y. 
Sept. 7-9. — Aledo, III. — Aledo Gun Club's amateur tournament. 
Sept. 9. — Wellington, Mass. — All-day shoot on grounds of Bos-- 
ton Shooting Association. O. R. Dickey, Manager. 
Sept. 13-16. — Detroit, Mich. — Tournament of Michigan Trap- 
Shooters' League. W. H. Brady, Sec'y. 
Sept. 21-22.— Cleveland, O— Cleveland Gun Club's eighteenth, 
annual tournament. J. R. Donnelly, Sec'y. 
Oct. 4-6.— New burgh, N. V.— West Newburgh Gun and Rifle- 
Association's fall tournament. 
Oct. 12-13.— Greensburgh, Ind. — Greensburgh Gun Club's tour* 
nament. W. Woodfill, Sec'y. 
