jAN. 2^, 1900.1 
DODO, DESIGNED BY F. W. MARTIN FOR ROBERT OSBORNE. ESQ.. 1899. 
The Sailing Skiff Dodo. 
The little craft here illustrated, which, by the way, is 
very different from the popular conception of a ''skiff," 
was designed by F. W. Martin, of Waukegan, 111., and 
built as well as sailed by her owner, Robert Osborne, 
Esq., of the Queen City Y. C, of Toronto, a young am- 
ateur. In 1898 Mr. Osborne built and raced the skifi: 
In It, also designed by Mr. Martin, with much success, 
and Do Do was built last winter to replace her, after her 
sale. The boat is a curious combination of the leading 
features of the canoe, the small-rater, and the modern 
scow, having the elliptical waterlines of the latter, with 
canoe section and canoe fittings, and at the same time 
showing the outline of the conventional sailing boat above 
water. She has proved very successful, winning first price 
DODO. 
in the race of May 24, 1899; first on June 3, and again 
on June 10; third on July 8 and IS, In It being first on the 
latter date; third on Aug. 5; second on Aug. 26, and 
second on Sept. 9, In It being first. Her dimensions are: 
Length — 
Over all 22ft. 
L.W.L 12ft. 
Beam — 
Extreme 5". 4 m- 
L.W.L 5ft. I m. 
Draft- . . 
Hull 8 m. 
With .board 6ft. 
Freeboard—. 
Bow ift- 9^in- 
Least I ft. 
Stern • • • • • ift- 4 ]n. 
Crown of deck 6 in. 
Mast— 
From stem at l.w.l ift. 
Deck to hounds iQft- 
Boom 2oft. 
Yard ipft. 6 m. 
Mainsail 262 sq. ft. 
Jib 68 sq. ft. 
Total 330 sq. ft. 
The mainsail is of the gunter type, with battens, and 
the English roller jib is used. 
The Girth Rule in America. 
The following is from The Yachtsman of Jan. 4: 
With regard to the abandonment of the British rating 
rule in America, a correspondent tells us some very plain 
truths, and lest there should be any misconception of the 
feelings of our cousins as a mass, toward us, we repro- 
duce them here. The short and long of the matter is 
that the Yankees hate the British and all their works. 
That is to say, the bulk of the people have an inborn 
hatred for the British, and this is one of the great reasons 
why the British rule did not survive. We have never 
been under any delusion in regard to the feehngs of our 
cousins. Those of them who stay at home have a very 
pronounced antipathy to the British, which they do not 
always care to conceal. They mistake the habitual reserve 
toward strangers for an evidence of conceit, which is not 
by any means always the case, and the Britisher in his 
turn does not always conceal his disgust at some of the 
manners and customs which he is taught to consider ob- 
jectionable. In the lapse of time this will all disappear, 
no doubt, but it is a most notable fact that those Yankees 
who have spent their lives in knocking about the globe 
have little or none of this feeling. They are accustomed 
to our little ways, and look deeper than the surface. It 
is unpleasant to think that this antipathy should find a 
place in yachting, circles, but our correspondent is not 
to be doubted. 
The above comments of The Yachtsman cover a very 
large field, that of "Our Common Hur'tage," as Mr. 
Dooley puts it, the Anglo-Saxon alliance, etc., which we 
do not propose to discuss. As far as yachting is con- 
cerned, however, and especially the girth rule in America, 
we can assure The Yachtsman that it has been seriously 
mislead by its correspondent. Having been interested 
for many years in the allied subjects of a new and uniform 
measurement rule, and a national union of American 
yachtsmen, we have been in a position to follow veiT 
closely the attempts recently made toward the two ends. 
We can state confidently that the abandonment of the 
girth rule by the Long Island Sound Y. R. A. was in 
no way due to the British origin of the rule, and this of 
itself has never been a factor in the case. 
So far as the opposition to the eirth rule being due to a 
dislike of all things English, or British, it is onlv neces- 
sary to look at its most orominent opponents. The Sea- 
wanhaka Corinthian Y. C, the one club in the Sound Y. 
R. A. which refused to accept the girth rule, was the first 
American vacht ctub to introduce in America such British 
ideas as Corinthian sailing, no time allowance, profession- 
al designing, and the British cutter itself. Its reputation 
for liberality of opinion and freedom from all iiiiernational 
prejudice was established long ago. 
Of those individuals who have opposed the introduc- 
tion of the girth rule by the Y. R. U. of N. A., the most 
prominent perhaps are Mr. John Hyslop, Mr. G. H. Dug- 
gan and the writer. The former gentleman, an English- 
man by birth, is universally known and respected for 
his broad and liberal views, and for his advocacy of 
everything that tends to advance the interests of yacht- 
ing, whatever its origin. He has for many years espe- 
cially championed those ideas as to the use of depth and 
ballast that were once considered to be particularly and of- 
fensively English. Mr. Duggan is a Canadian, certainly 
free from any anti-British prejudice, but opposed to the 
principle of the girth rule. The writer, though in every 
way an American, won what he considers now a title of 
honor, though not so intended by his enemies — "Anglo- 
Maniac" — when he, in conjunction with the late Mr. 
Kunhardt, attacked the national type of capsizing skim- 
ming dish and advocated tbe English cutter. After being 
instrumental in the introduction of all sorts of British 
innovations, the keel type, lead ballast, one-gun starts, 
class racing without allowance, and others now permanent 
parts of American yachting, he, with Mr. Hyslop, has op- 
posed the girth rule, not because it is of British origin, 
but because it is not suited to the requirements of Ameri- 
can yachting, however the case may be in England. 
That in the old days of the cutter and sloop contro- 
versy and the war of the old builders against the pro- 
fessional yacht designer there was a very strong feeling 
on the part of the majority of American yachtsmen 
against anvthing and everything British is a historical 
fact. That such a feeling exists to-day, or has existed for 
some years, we deny. There may be a few writers who, 
for private ends of their own. decrv everything British, 
just as they write of Queen Mab, Minerva and Defender 
as "sloops" : but there is no such general sentiment on the 
part of yachtsmen. A few ."years ago the British half- 
rater was not onlv warmly Wiclcomed in this country, but 
the word "rater." though- obviously incorrect as applied 
to yachts designed, built and raced under the Seawanhaka 
