Nov. 12, 1898. J 
390 
who have always opposed the proposals for restrictive 
legislation, on the ground that the object of yacht racing 
wasthe development of the highest possible speed, have, 
at last come to realize that there is no such thing as 
absolute speed in yacht racing, according to all standards 
thus far accepted by yachtsmen; that among fairly good 
yachts the winner and loser are only determined by the 
particular standard by which the race is measured; and 
that the search for absolute speed at the expense of the 
essential qualities of a vessel must inevitably result in the 
survival of one extreme racing machine in each class, and 
the exclusion of all true yachts. 
The proposal to limit the scantling has been made 
repeatedly of late years, hut no attenmt has "been made 
to put it into practice, some being opposed to any 
such restriction on racing speed, and others recogniz- 
ing the difliculty of the task. At the recent meeting of 
the Y. R. A. of Long Island Sound, this proposal came 
up, almost by chance, as a mere suggestion, and at once 
met with such favor from those present that it was de- 
cided to attempt to put it into immediate effect in some 
of the smaller classes. ■ Such racing as there has been 
about New York for the past three years has been main- 
ly under the direction of the Sound Y. R. A., the fleet 
being made up mainly of yachts under 36ft. R.M., cut- 
ters, sloops and catboats. of moderate type and reason- 
ably staunch construction. The classes that have filled 
best have been those in which the older yachts have still 
had a fighting chance. Which they have made the most 
of. As matters now are. these classes are rapidly dying 
'put, through the introduction of a few new and extreme 
yachts. Instances will occur to all who follow the rac- 
ing where the sport has been good for a season* in some 
particular class through the continued competition of 
'half a dozen or so of evenly-matched yachts. The 
promise of sport in the class leads some one man to build 
;to the limit of the rule, with extreme dimensions and 
light and temporary construction. The first season he 
wins everything, the old boats put up a good fight for a 
mine, but the hopelessness of it is soon too painfully 
apparent, and one by one they abandon the racing. The 
next year the new champion is left to enjoy her honors 
alone, the old boats will not continue to sacrifice them- 
selves for her benefit, and there is no strong inducement 
to men to outbuild her by a more extreme machine. 
The result is that the class is killed for an indefinite time. 
If the new yacht represented any substantial improve- 
ment on the old, as was once the case, there could be no 
objection to such a survival of the fittest, inevitable in 
all sport; but as it now happens, the new yacht is prob- 
ably inferior to the old ones in every respect save speed; 
she is unfit for other use than racing, through her light 
construction, extreme draft and limited accommodation, 
she costs irfuch more to build, and When her brief racing 
career is at an end, through outbuilding if the interest 
in the class keeps up, and through the absence of com- 
petitions if it fails, she is entirely worthless. 
This course of racing evolution is now so common that 
it can no longer be overlooked or denied, and yachtsmen 
generally have come to understand that they must choose 
one of two things, a single racing machine in each 
class, or a standard of limitations which will preserve 
the class to a number of yachts of moderate type. This 
is the case to-day in several classes on Long Island 
Sound, where there is a plain and direct issue between 
one or two new boats and half a dozen older ones. So 
far as speed is concerned, the issue, broadly speak- 
ing, is not between a fast boat and slow ones, but between 
a number of fairly fast boats and one that is just enough 
faster to win with certainty under the average racing 
conditions. With such perfection of design and con- 
struction as is quite compatible with strength, accommo- 
dation and seaworthiness, a modern yacht may be in 
every sense a very fast boat, and but little inferior to the 
racing machine. 
The proposal now before the Association, so far as it 
has taken definite shape, is to divide each of the several 
classes concerned into two divisions, which, for want of 
better terms, may be roughly designated as racing and 
cruising. The former will be open to all yachts built un- 
der the rule as it now stands, without regard to con- 
struction or accommodation. The latter will be open 
only to yachts, new or old, which conform to certain 
standards established by the Association. These stand- 
ards, of construction and arrangement, if not of actual 
design, will be such as are indicated by good existing 
yachts; such as the average all-round yachtsman will 
be glad to build to with the assurance that he may have 
a yacht that is at least thoroughly strong and staunch 
and so fitted that he can live aboard; and at the same 
Bine he can race her against Others of her own kind. 
How far it may be possible to go in the regulation of 
design, as well as construction, is as yet an open ques- 
tion. It is possible that some general restrictions on 
design, construction and accommodation combined, as 
in the knockabout classes and the definition of a cabin 
yacht, may be found practicable, so that the necessity for 
separate knockabout classes may be avoided. The task 
assigned to the committee is by no means an easy one, 
and it is too much to expect that perfectly satisfactory 
results will be attained from the start; but in the present 
condition of racing the experiment is well worth trying; 
it the very least it can make matters no worse than they 
now are; and it may lead to a general improvement in 
:he rules. 
A Chicago Challenger. 
1 Chicago, Nov. 4. — The coming season bids fair to be 
in active one in yachting circles on the Great Lakes. On 
next Tuesday evening there will be a meeting of the 
Chicago Y. C. for the purpose of appointing a com- 
nittee who will go to Toronto to represent this city in 
irrangements for the international regatta next summer. 
This committee will meet representatives of the Royal 
Canadian Y. C, and perhaps we may seen an early ar- 
rangement of details in the American attempt to win 
aack lost yachting honors. We are likely to have a 
lumber of good boats on Lake Michigan for the trial 
aces, and it is thought that three or four boats will be 
milt by the Chicago Y. C. for the trials, probably in the 
ts'ft. class. One boat may already be considered under 
vav. and will be owned by Com. Morgan, Sec'y C. H; 
Thorne and William Herrick, E. H, 
Yacht Measurement. 
Editor Forest alid Stream: 
I have to thank you for sending me your issues of 
Sept. io and of Oct, 1 and 8. 1 could not deal adequately 
with the two questions referred to in the conclusion of 
your comments, accompanying my last letter, without 
hunting up some mislaid papers, which I have only now 
had leisure to do, T will take the two questions suc- 
cessively: 
[. Your arguments against a girth tax as an induce- 
ment to a greater area of section. 
1 fully agree that, per se, a girth tax, like any other 
cross Section dimension tax, as e. g., a tax on B and D, 
operates primarily against, and not for, increase o( 
section area. But a sail tax also operates against in- 
crease of section area; hence an exchange of sail tax for 
girth or other cross section dimension tax (such as the 
Y. R. A. change of '895) may very well operate to in- 
crease section area, not only relatively to extreme cross 
section dimensions, but absolutely as well. 
Secondly, speaking now specifically of an outline 
girth tax. such as your arguments mainly related to. 1 
agree also that, as compared with a B and D tax, such a 
girth tax operates specially against section area in the 
region of the bilge, while in favor of it in the region of 
I li<- garboards. Whether this, so far as it goes, is an 
advantage or the reverse, is a debatable question. But 
anyhow 1 insist that both these special effects of out- 
line girth taxation, particularly the former, are of very 
secondary character. Other and much more cogent 
considerations, concerning sail carrying power in rela- 
tion to resistance, tend inexorably to impose on the 
cross section a certain general character: and this char- 
acter, such measurement considerations as we are here 
dealing with, avail only to modify in a minor degree. 
To say that outline girth tax acts in effect as B and D 
tax. and nothing more, would be an exaggeration, but 
not a very gross one. 1 low else can we account for the 
survival — the still very flourishing survival — of the plate 
and bulb form of section, or something scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from it. under the present Y. R. A. Rule? 
Your view as to the effect of girth tax on ratio of 
beam to draft 1 do not quite follow. Tn a combined 
beam and girth measurement the girth is the draft-taxing 
element, and the higher the coefficient of G relatively to 
that of B. the greater the ratio of beam to draft which 
tends to be encouraged. At present, under the existing: 
English rule, this ratio varies widely; 1 doubt, however, 
whether there is a single case in which it is as low as 
10-9. while in some successful boats it much more close- 
ly approaches your other extreme of 14-6. 
The effect of a girth tax on centerboards must, of 
course, depend entirely on the degree in which the cen- 
ter board projection may be discounted in measuring the 
girth. 
2. Comparison between the Ilyslop, Herreshoff and 
other formulas. 
For an adequate discussion of this subject, I fear I 
must be content to refer you to a letter which I con- 
tributed to the Field of Feb. 19 last, following the lead of 
Thalassa in a previous issue. But I may notice here 
that, broadly, Air. Hyslop's formula may be regarded as 
a combination of the Y. R. A. with the Herreshoff rule, 
sharing as it does cross section dimension tax with the 
former, length tax and sail tax with both, and cross 
section area premium with the latter. In the Hyslop 
formula, the cross section dimension tax is rather lighter 
.than in the Y. R. A., and the sail tax much heavier, 
while both the sail tax and section area premium are 
considerably lighter than in the Herreshoff rule. In 
virtue of their heavy sail tax. both rules would tend 
to promote under-canvasing (relatively to stiffness) much 
more strongly than the Y. R. A. Rule; and the Herres- 
hoff rule the most so of the two. At the same time, in 
computing the probable indirect effects as well as the 
direct effects of all the taxations concerned (by a method 
which cannot be explained here), I was led to the con- 
clusion that both rules, and especially the Llerreshoff 
rule, would to such an extent encourage greater sail 
carrying power (relatively to length) than the Y. R. A. 
rule, that in spite of the under-canvasing the actual 
sail spreads (relatively to length) likely to obtain un- 
der them would be as great, or greater, than under 
the Y. R. A. rule. 
Here again I am using the word "under-canvasing'' 
perhaps in a different sense from yourself. By "under- 
canvasing," in my previous letter and here, 1 mean giv- 
ing a definitely smaller sail spread (and by "over-can- 
vasing" a definitely larger one) than the hull upon which 
it is put could in the long run utilize to advantage for 
prize winning, if there were no sail tax in question. So 
defined, it seems inconceivable that, in the absence of 
sail tax, over-canvasing could continue to generally- 
obtain, whether in England or America, or anywhere 
else. I can see no conceivable inducement either to 
owners or designers to continue to give excessive sail 
plans to their boats, to the detriment of their chances 
in racing. While again, using the same definition, it . 
seems equally certain that any sail tax must in the long 
run, pro tanto, operate to promote under-canvasing, and 
do so approximately in proportion to the severity of 
the. tax. R. E. Froude. 
Gosport, Oct. 20. 
P. S. (Oct. 21). — I have just seen the letter from 
your correspondent. J. H., in your issue of Oct. i$. 
For the explanation of what seems to strike him as an 
inconsistency on my part. I must refer him to the final 
paragraph of my letter, "Every practicable rating rule." 
etc.. observing also that under the girth and beam 
rule the "lessened rating" is not "secured by an increased 
area of midship section," but by lessened cross section 
dimensions. I must also call his attention to the reser- 
vation "qua effect on hull design," which I expressly at- 
tached to the proposition concerning sail tax, to which, 
he takes exception. For the rest, I repeat that, historic- 
ally at any rate, the original purpose of yacht measure- 
ment for racing was unquestionably that of handicapping 
or classification by size, and that only, with the object 
that the fastest boats of their size might win the prizes : 
secondly', that this purpose has as yet never been ad- 
mittedly repudiated or superseded or belied by the 
shaping of the formulas that have been adopted, We 
have, of course, a perfect right, now or at any time, if 
We choose, to adopt the rating machinery to a new and 
different ostensible purpose; but it is desirable to recog 
nize that in doing so we shall be taking a new dc 
parture. R. E. P. 
The Sound Y. R. A. 
A .special general meeting of the Y. R. A. of Long 
Island Sound was held on Nov. 3, at the Manhattan 
Hotel, New York, with Pres. Cromwell in the chair. 
The executive committee made the following report: 
In the matter of the new measurement rule adopted on 
Oct. 1 by the Y. R. U. of N. A., your executive com- 
mittee recommends that it be adopted, to apply to 
schooners and cabin sloops, cutters and yawls; that, as 
regards open sloops and, all catboats, the rule now in 
force be retained; that, as' to classification, the .13ft. class 
be retained as at present; and that other changes as 
adopted by the Y. R. U. be adopted by the Association. 
Your committee also recommends that the 15 and 20ft, 
classes be abolished, and that 18 and 2.1ft. classes be 
established in their places; also that provision be made 
for knockabout classes of 18ft., 2tft. and 25ft. l.w.l. 
The report was accepted and the recommendations 
adopted, after which Mr. Jones made a motion that exist- 
ing yachts be retained in their present classes, giving 
time for the excess of measurement in cases where thev 
may exceed the limit of a class. An amendment offered 
by Sec'y-Treas. Tower to substitute the date Nov. 1, 1898, 
for Nov. I, 1896, in paragraph 4 of the measurement 
rule was adopted. A motion of Mr. Jones, that a com- 
mittee be appointed to confer with the Boston Knock- 
about Association as to uniform rules for three classes of 
knockabouts, was adopted. 
Mr. E. C. Seward, of the Sachem's Plead Y. C, called 
the attention of the meeting to the rapid introduction of 
yachts of light and flimsy construction in all classes, to 
the exclusion of yachts of reasonable construction. He 
spoke of the necessity in his own club of strength ami 
seawoj-thi ness, as the yachts, though of small size, were 
expected to be capable of cruising well to the eastward on 
Long Island Sound. The remarks were received with 
favor, and awakened a lengthy discussion as to the means 
of accomplishing an object of which all present approved. 
Mention was also made of the serious results in certain 
classes through the introduction of a single new yacht 
of extreme model and construction driving out of the 
racing a number of good all-round yachts and entirely 
killing the class. 
It was suggested that some limit to construction be 
imposed on the classes from 30ft. R.M. downward; and 
also that in imposing restrictions each class might be 
separated into two divisions, one of yachts under the 
rule as at present, with no restrictions as to construc- 
tion or arrangement; the other of yachts conforming 
to definite restrictions on construction and other details. 
The following motion, made by Mr. Seward, was final- 
ly adopted: Resolved, that the executive committee be 
instructed to prepare a scheme of restrictions as to 
scantling, construction, etc.. for all classes from 30ft. 
downward, to the end of establishing cruising classes as 
distinct from racing classes; and that the committee shall 
report to a special meeting of the Association at the 
earliest possible date. 
In view of the possibility of arranging such restric- 
tions in the regular classes as would admit the knock- 
abouts without making special classes for them, the mo- 
tions already passed, relating to the changes in the 15ft. 
and 20ft. classes, and the change of date, were recalled 
and laid on the table. The committee will act in the 
matter at once, so that any possible changes may be 
made before building begins. 
Defender. 
The fitting out of Defender was completed by Nov. 
2, such sails, spars and gear as were needed being- 
brought by tug from City Island, and all the work being 
done while the yacht lay at her permanent moorings in- 
side of Glen Island. Capt. Chas. Barr was assisted by 
Capt. Hansen, who was in command of Vigilant in 1803, 
as first mate, with a crew hired for ten days. At 1 ;to 
P. M. on Wednesday the mooring lines were cast off 
and the tug Theresa Verdon took' Defender in tow for 
the open Sound. The yacht turned round and went 
ahead through the narrow channel, but before she had 
been under way for ten minutes she brought up hard and 
fast on Lecount's Rock, inside, of David's Island, between 
it and the main land. The tug Flushing came to the aid 
of the Verdon, but both were unable to move Defender, 
even after her mainsail had been set to heel her. Thomas 
Webber, the yacht builder, of New Rochelle. was out 
in his launch, and he was able to direct the towing so 
that the yacht finally swung clear after being aground 
for some time. She was towed to Premium Point, 
anchoring off Mr. Iselin's house. At 5 P. M. she got 
nnder way with Mr. Iselin, accompanied by Messrs. 
Newberry Thorne and J. G. Berresford. and Sandy the 
yell ow dog of the Defender- Valkyrie races. She carried 
a gaff trysail, with lug foot, staysail and jib. The wind 
was light at the start, but soon freshened so that the 
staysail was taken in. She made a quick run through 
the Sound, reaching Bristol at 9:45 on Thursday morn- 
ing, the distance of 145 miles having been covered in 
sixteen hours. She was immediately stripped and 
lightened, her mast being removed so that she could be 
hauled out as soon as the ways and steam capstan were 
ready. 
The Society of Naval Architects. 
Thk annual meeting of the Society of Naval Archi- 
tects and Marine Engineers will take place on Thurs- 
day and Friday of this week, at 12 West Thirty-first 
street, New A r ork. The annual dinner will take place on 
Friday evening at Delmonico's. The Bethlehem Iron 
Co., of Bethlehem, Pa., has invited the Society to visit 
its works on Saturday, Nov. 12. The members of the 
Society will be the guests of the company on leavkrg 
New York. Members desiring to take the trip will 
please notify the secretary at the meeting on Nov. io, 
when particulars will be furnished, 
1 
