440 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
The America Cup, J 899, 
Thk work of constructing the new challenger and de- 
fender for the America Cnp races of 1899 is now well 
under way on each side, but as a matter of course very 
little is known as to the plans and progress of either 
party, and nine-tenths of the special reports are mere 
guesses and unverified rumors. 
The final plans of Shamrock have been completed and 
submitted to Sir Thomas Lipton and his associates, and 
the work of actual construction will begin very soon. 
It is reported that the hull will be built by Yarrow & 
Company, on the Thames, the famous torpedo boat 
builders." The firm is thoroughly equipped for handling 
aluminum and very light plating, and will no doubt turn 
out a . fine job if the work is entrusted to it. Another re- 
port in connection with the races is that the Duke of 
York will visit New York to witness them. 
On Nov. 1 Valkyrie TIL was towed to Greenock from 
her moorings in Gourock Bay, where she has laid since 
her return from New York, and she was hauled out at 
Scott & Company's yard for cleaning and painting. 
She has been cleaned, a heavy growth of barnacles being 
removed, and after the bottom was tarred she returned 
to her moorings. Nothing is known of the. purpose of 
her owners, but she may be fitted out for trial races with 
Shamrock next season. 
At Bristol the new defender is laid down and work is 
under way on the first patterns, etc. The lead for her 
keel has arrived, and the frames are being bent. She 
will not be set up, however, until Defender has been 
repaired and launched from the south shop, where she 
now lies. She was hauled out on the new railway on 
Nov. 15. This railway has been specially constructed 
within the past two months for the handling of the old 
and the new boat, it runs out 300ft. to a depth of over 
20ft. on the cradle. The ways have been laid by a diver, 
the work being interrupted at times by bad weather. The 
cradle is but 28ft. long, but very strongly built, of wood, 
steel and cast iron. It is fitted with a number 01" steel 
struts, extending up to the body of the hull, instead of 
the ordinary sliding blocks or poppets. The hauling is 
done by a powerful steam winch at the head of the shop, 
The work of hauling out Defender is described as follows, 
by Mr. Robinson, of the Boston Globe, who was pres- 
ent: 
Just how extensive will be the work of repair on the 
Defender cannot be stated with exactness until after care- 
ful examination of her hull, but Mr. Herreshoff considers 
her in good condition for a boat that has lain idle at her 
moorings for three years, and has not been hauled out 
since before the Cup races in September, '95. The 
aluminum plating of the topsides and the aluminum 
deck beams are undoubtedly in bad shape and practical- 
ly will have to be replaced, but it is believed that the 
steel frames of the boat and the manganese bronze plat- 
ing below the water line are sound and that they will 
need comparatively little attention. 
A good look at the boat to-day, as she was being 
hauled out, confirms these impressions. The corrosion 
of the aluminum topsides is mostly hidden under a coat 
of white paint applied before the boat left New Rochelle 
for Bristol, but in places the plates were deeply pitted, 
and there are other evidences that the lightweight metal 
has not stood a long seawater test. Still it stood long 
enough to successfully defend the Cup, and that was 
really all that was expected of it. The new syndicate 
has money enough to replace it for next year's work, as 
well as to build the new boat, so that outsiders seem to 
have no quarrel with the use of aluminum in either new 
or old. 
In many places on the manganese under-water body 
of the boat, notably on the rivet heads and the edges of 
the plates where they are butted together along both 
bilges, there are quantities of iron rust. 
The difficult task of hauling out Defender was accom- 
plished with neatness, if not with dispatch. Plenty of 
time was taken, for the work begun soon after 8 o'clock 
in the morning was not finished until late in the after- 
noon, but since the safety of the boat was the first con- 
sideration, time did not count, and nothing that could in- 
sure that safety was left undone. The Herreshofif in- 
genuity was shown everywhere in the work, and Mr. N. 
G. Herreshofif gave the job his personal supervision. 
The cradle is fairylike compared with the cradle of 
the ordinary marine railway, and yet it serves its pur- 
pose much as do the light launching cradles used by the 
Herreshoffs. It is noticeable for its absence of heavy 
bilge blocks. In place of them on either side is a 
series of inclined shores reaching 'from the sides 
of the cradle to the body of the boat just as it rounds into 
the keel, or just where the garboard strake would come 
in boats of ordinary construction, and extending about 
30ft. fore and aft. 
The keel rests on the. usual heavy blocks, but of other 
support there is none, except a shore on the forward 
end of the cradle, which finds its top bearing on the bob- 
stay plate, where it is riveted to the stem. The con- 
struction is of course solid, but its lightness and sim- 
plicity are marked. 
The work of hauling out was begun just before 9 
o'clock, when Defender was warped from her berth at 
the north pier by means of properly placed cables, and 
was moored stem and stern at the outer end of the ways, 
ready to be run into the cradle when it should be let 
down the ways from the shop. But the cradle wasn't 
ready as soon as Defender. Men were still at work in 
the shop on its wooden blocking. Mr. N. G. Herreshoff, 
who had been on Defender, went ashore in a small boat 
to hurry things along, but it was 9:45 before the cradle 
ran slowly and smoothly down the ways and stopped at 
their end just under Defender's bow. 
Defender was hauled slowly and carefully ahead and 
was apparently almost in place on the cradle when she 
refused to move further. Diver G. O. Phillips, of 
Quincy, who has been at work for eight weeks on the 
ways for the Fall River firm having the job in hand, 
was sent down from its diving scow to see what was the 
trouble, and reported that Defender was binding hard 
against the cradle on the starboard side. The boat was 
then hauled somewhat to port and soon slid ahead until 
her keel had full bearing on the blocks. Then the cradle 
was hauled up until Defender's waterhne was about 2ft. 
above the surface, when the diver again went down and 
drove home the wedges between shores and hull, making 
everything solid. 
The work of getting Defender on to the cradle had 
been done none too soon, for there was barely a foot of 
water' under her keel when she was finally settled in 
place,' where there had been nearer 3 at high water. 
The cradle and with it Defender was now. slowly hauled 
up on the ways, with one or two stops for the firm 
placing and wedging of the forward shore, and as the 
noon whistles were blowing the boat's bow was within 
a dozen or 15ft. of the end of the shop. 
Here work was suspended until after the men had had 
their dinner. Defender was now left to herself for a 
while, with the water just lapping the bottom of her 
lead keel. 
And very handsome she looked, too, when left alone 
and with only the lightest of cradle support. Rust stains 
on her underwater body could not hide, much less detract 
from her fine model, the easy and graceful sweep of her 
fore and aft lines and her general racerlike look all 
around. No irregularity in form was to be seen, and 
she looked outwardly as though a little scraping, polish- 
ing and painting was all that was needed to put her in 
shape. She is certainly a beautifully modeled boat, as 
all who saw her in the dry dock in New York in '95 
will testify, and it is not easy to see where Mr, Herreshoff 
can improve on her. Whether or not he can improve 
on her will be shown later in the new boat. 
• Soon after 2 o'clock the work of hauling the boat into 
the shed was taken up, and with a stop now and then to 
make sure of dredging and shoring, was completed be- 
fore dark. There had been no serious hitch in the 
work and everyone interested breathed more freely when 
the 150 tons and 20ft. draft of Defender was safely housed, 
shored and blocked for the work of repair. This work 
will now be pushed so that Defender may be launched 
and the new boat set up in her place. 
Assisting Mr. Herreshofif to-day, aboard the Defender, 
was Capt. Charlie Barr, who sailed her around from New 
Rochelle, and who will sail her in next season's races. 
Pres. John B. Herreshofif of the firm was" a frequent 
visitor to the north pier during the forenoon, and was 
kept well posted as to the progress of the work. After 
the boat was in the shop both the Herreshoffs expressed 
satisfaction that a job which would have taxed any of 
the regular marine railways had been satisfactorily done, 
but neither would give an opinion- as to the extent of 
the repairs needed or the probable time required. 
Defender's mast, boom and other spars are on the 
south pier, where later they will be safely covered from 
the winter storms. Sails and rigging have been stowed 
away in the lofts. 
Capt. Barr has returned to his home at Citv Island for 
the winter. 
The Capabilities of Small Yachts. 
We continue below the republication of the very in- 
teresting discussion of this important subject, from the 
Field. As a matter of vital interest to all cruising 
yachtsmen and single-handers, we hope that our read- 
ers will feel inclined to discuss it still further. The 
designing of a thoroughly stanch and seaworthy cruiser, 
capable of keeping the sea and of giving good living 
room to her crew, and at the same time a smart lively 
boat, and not a mere leewardly box, is one of the most 
interesting problems of yacht designing, especially when 
the fitting up to the best advantage of every inch of 
space is included. 
The discussion thus far has developed various views 
of the value of overhangs versus square ends, all types 
finding their warm advocates, but the happy mean for 
real sea-going will probably be found very far from the 
square stem or stern in the form of moderate over- 
hangs of the whaleboat type, giving long diagonals, an 
easy form, and ample buoyancy above water. There is 
little doubt that this type of boat is superior both to the 
square-ended craft with straight stem and bluff bows, and 
the racing type with excessive overhangs on each end. 
The question raised in your issues of Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, on 
the capabilities' of small boats, is, in my humble opinion, of 
paramount importance to all yachtsmen. My experience of sailing 
began with a small deck boat about 17ft. long, with a cutter 
rig. In this craft I knocked about the lower reaches of the 
Thames for a season. The following year I had a 3-tonner, but 
still I was ambitious for a boat which could stand almost any 
weather that one is likely to encounter on our east and southeast 
coasts. As this boat did not answer my requirement, I sold her 
some time before the close of the season, and then spent my 
leisure in going from one yacht yard to another. I visited the 
whole of the yards inside the Solent, and then up as far as 
Brightlingsea, for the ideal cruiser, I came across many that 
would answer my purpose, but there was invariably some draw- 
back, and I had almost made up my mind that, to get the boat 
I wanted, I should be compelled to go to the expense of build- 
ing; but when I asked a friendly builder the probable cost, I 
was winded on the spot at his reply. Luckily, however, an agent, 
just at the right time, sent me particulars of a boat which he 
thought would suit. 
I went down to the fort where the boat was lying, and at once 
saw she was the craft I wanted; Thames measurement, she 
worked out at 8 tons. Her length over all was 30ft., 28ft. \.wA., and 
9ft. 3in. beam, and cutter rigged. 
A few days later she became mine, and T shall not easily forget 
the satisfaction I had when we brought her round to the Thames. 
Her draft was 5ft. 3in., which gave comfortable head room. 
The cabin was about 9ft. long and 9ft. wide, giving plenty of 
room to move about in. 
The gunwales were only 4in. high, provided freely with scup- 
pers, so that when under way the water simply washed over 
her. . «fSi. , . - / 4,*"' . <i 
Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating. To look 
at from the shore she looked an ideal cruiser, but the primary 
consideration was what would she be like under canvas well down 
Channel. ' . »*,-.*',;. 
To find out from one's own personal experience is. I think, 
decidedly the best; therefore I resolved to bring her up to the 
Thames myself instead of engaging any extra hands. On board 
with me was a skipper and a boy. 
At the end of April we got under way and stood up Channel. 
The day had been fine, but toward evening I noticed the wind 
was shifting from S. to S.W., and the glass falling. The clouds 
were chasing one another up from the windward like mountains 
of black wool, and I made up my mind for a wicked night. I 
was at the tiller, which we moved in a somewhat large cockpit, 
made completely watertight by a wooden covering. The tide 
was favorable, and the course easterly. I had all my work cut 
out in watching the end of the main boom (the sheet being free) 
and the waves, which were chasing us astern. The wind in- 
creased in violence every minute, and as we ran up the breast of 
one wave, and halted on the crest for a dive down into the 
gulf of another, I took a hasty glance to windward and saw 
the waves following each other, regiment after regiment. I 
thought it was utterly impossible to avoid getting pooped, but 
we did not get so much as a bucketful over the counter. To 
the buoyancy of the boat I could only attribute this fact. Hour 
after hour we slashed her through, and having gained confidence 
in the boat's seaworthiness, I had not a particle of fear that 
we should weather the gale safely. 
: 
On the following day we got round the North Foreland in a 
brutal sea, .caused by the tide rips, and the wind being abeam 
we were scudding along with double-reefed mainsail, reefed fore- 
sail and storm jib. The water occasionally came over the bows 
simply in tons, but owing to the law bulwarks simply rushed 
over the sides, back from whence it came. Instead of a fair 
wind, it was a dead peg the whole of the day to Queensborough. 
Tack after tack we made, and the wind and tide contested every 
foot of the way. After a spell at the tiller I dived below for 
a rest, and lay for some time listening to the wind howling through 
the shrouds, and then dozed off into a sound sleep. I must 
have slept for about three hours, when I awoke and found by 
the motion of the boat that the going was much easier and not 
accompanied by a vicious kicking at her heels. Going on deck, I 
found that there was less force in the wind and our port of desti- 
nation was in sight. When at anchor that evening I took up the 
floorboards of the cockpit to see what water was in her, and was 
delighted to .find that there was scarcely a bucketful of sea water. 
A water breaker which had broken loose accounted for the rest. 
I have had a good many dustings off the Forelands this year, 
but none so severe as the one just related. 
Looking back over the cruises of this year, I cannot but feel 
satisfied, as well as confident, that a boat well built and well 
handled can hold her own in almost any weather. 
The recent contest on the Medway, between the Maid of Kent 
and the Irex, contains food for ample reflection for yachtsmen 
generally. In conclusion, I am decidedly of opinion that there 
is a large field open for builders if they can turn out cruisers 
of the above type, or, say, a shade larger, giving a length over all 
of 36ft., 30ft. on the water length, beam 9ft. 3in., draft 5ft. 3in. These 
dimensions would give a large forecastle and two cabins, with 
a cockpit amply sufficient for working her. With a schooner bow 
and an elliptical counter such a boat would, I venture to assert, 
be one that any yachtsman would be proud of. 
Ernest A. Orr. 
The letters which have appeared in the Field under this head- 
ing, and the interesting editorial remarks on the subject, open 
up a wide area of discussion, in which I hope I may be per- 
mitted to join. 
Mr. Chatwin admirably sums up the three most urgently neces- 
sary points in the design of a yacht intended solely for cruising 
purposes; but I am not quite in agreement with him in making it 
an absolute rule that a small yacht when caught must necessarily 
"run for it." It all depends upon circumstances, and under 
some conditions good seamanship would dictate heaving to in 
preference; but, at any rate, it is desirable to be able to run 
-successfully whenever necessary, and as small craft are not oiten 
caught very far from shelter, it is most usually resorted to. I do 
not anticipate that any of your readers who have had much ex- 
perience at sea in small craft will deny that running a small 
yacht in a heavy sea, even under the snuggest sail, is an anxious and 
trying job, and if the correspondence should clear up any doubt- 
ful point in the design of cruising yachts, very much good will 
have been accomplished. 
With regard to counters — if the words quoted from "Yacht and 
Beat Sailing" be taken in their absolute and literal sense, i. e., 
"a short, neat counter" — I think there can be no question that 
such an adjunct- is most valuable in running. The kind of counter 
usually found on a racing yacht can hardly be accurately described 
as short; but even that is better than an absolutely square stern, 
although one would hardly put such a long tail on a small 
cruising yacht, and I doubt very much whether any form of 
counter and after body would run longer or more safely than the 
"unconventional" sharp stern form alluded to by Mr. Chatwin, 
if this were accompanied by a fairly long heel, and a nicely 
rounded off forefoot of not much more than half the depth of the 
sternpost, and a sufficiently large rudder. 
"Broaching to," that ever-present terror when running in a high 
sea, would not perhaps be entirely banished; but at any rate it 
would be removed to a safer distance. ' 
This particular form of _ stern, which, I think, was first intro- 
duced by myself for cruising purposes (the Jullanar possessed 
one years before, for measurement cheating purposes), very 
much'approximates to what was known as the elliptical or round 
stern, which that veteran cruiser, Mr. McMullen, speaks so 
favorably of. His words are: "Having experienced the great 
discomfort of riding at anchor in rough weather in a boat 
with a long counter, I had the Sirius built with a round stern, 
which, although it was at the time considered an ugly innova- 
tion in yacht building, has since become common * * * the 
long overhang stern * * * is an excrescence and a nuisance 
in seagoing vessels, where comfort and safety are of more import- 
ance than elegance." 
On turning to the plates in his book "Down Channel," which 
give outline views of the different cruisers he built, it will be 
found that the overhang aft of Sirius, 11 tons, was only 8ft.; and 
that of the Orion, 16% tons, but 4ft., while the Leo, his first 
yacht, although only 20ft. over all, had 2ft. of overhang aft. It is 
probable that these yachts would nowadays be voted intolerably 
slow; but there is no denying their abilities as cruisers when 
handled by their owners. Yet, remarkable fact, the Procyon, a 
later boat still, and a single-hander, has a perfectly flat stern, and 
only 6in. more draft aft than forward! Evidently a "master" can 
cruise safely in a square-sterned boat; but that a "short, neat 
counter," carrying out the body of the boat, would have been a 
vast improvement, it is hardly possible to deny, with out present 
knowledge of form. 
The limits of overhang, both forward and aft, are practically 
decided by the form of midship section. It is only the flat- 
floored, high-bilged bulb-keeler that can take unlimited overhang. 
With the full, deep body necessary in a cruising model, it is not 
very easy to overshoot the mark if the design is kept fair, even 
with a large amount of cutaway forward, though this feature, car- 
ried to excess, is one of the causes of unsatisfactory behavior, 
when hove to, which a designer of experience would know how to 
avoid, without actually indulging in a "square toe,," and given, 
say, 36ft. as extreme over all length, a more satisfactory and 
actually larger cruiser could be designed with 3ft. overhang for- 
ward, and 4ft. or 5ft. aft, than one with a straight stem and an 
Sft. counter, the greater part of the after end of which would be 
useless, ' and therefore, as Mr. McMullen dubbs it, an "ex- 
crescence." 
Although "converted" lifeboats are often made into fairly suc- 
cessful and safe cruisers, they can be at best but makeshifts, cost- 
ing nearly as much in the end as would a properly designed and 
built cruiser, in which one could obtain far more comfort and 
an exact disposition of the centers necessary to sticcessful per- 
formance in all weathers, in addition to the very valuable amount 
of surplus buoyancy gained by judicious overhang fore and aft. 
Mr. Chatwin may be glad to hear that the unconventional sharp' 
stern, which he evidently approves of, is rapidly coming into favor 
in the small class of cruisers, now known as canoe-yachts. Several 
are being built in England and America, and I am at present en-, 
gaged upon the designs of two others which will be afloat next 
summer. Albert Strange. 
Scarborough, Oct. 15. 
In the discussion about designs for seaworthy yachts, and everii 
in editorial paragraphs on that subject, certain misleading defini- 
tions have crept in, which may prove to be hurtful. 
The controversy centers on the value in strong weather of over- 
-hang, either forward or aft, or at both ends. The Field, in an I 
earlier stage of the discussion, took the view that "overhang at 
either end was of great value in a sea, and any one who had- 
ever been caught in a blow in a square-sterned craft would rec- 
ognize the use of the counter, either for running or jamming 
the wind in a heave-to." 
It has been my lot to have watched both experiments in both' 
types, and unreserved>y I dissent from the implied conclusion.; 1 
'lhe question really is, in effect, what is the length of a vessel? 
Compactness of hull in all directions facilitates construction,^ 
docking, storing and swinging, and is therefore desirable. For 
purposes apart from convenience, yachts are rated in most| 
countries by their waterline length; without doubt additional 
length in the ends, which comes into play at high rates of speed, or 
in broken water, may add power to a boat, but the overhang 
ends are in fact length, added, but not counted. • 
Any naval architect would, I imagine, design his waterhne 
the full length of the hull if no penalty of measurement were 
thereby incurred, and if the vagaries of fashion were neglected; 
If noses and tails are of greater value for seagoing purposes than 
waterline length, logically it would improve the model of a suc4 
cessful square-sterned boat to carve away at either end till tht 
ideal shape were attained. A cutter without overhang, scientific- 
ally designed and constructed, whose waterline length was equa,' 
to the over all length of the Britannia, would lose that success 
ful vessel in any weather: 
Lifeboats and crabbers, Penzance luggers and torpedo boar 
destroyers, are all practically the length on the waterline that 
their respective sizes admit, and even in the newest Atlantiv 
liners the trifling overhang at one end is barely sufficient tt. 
keep hawsers clear of propellers- It seems to me that the disputi] 
arises from misapprehension, SfiUABB TaxXh 1 
