April 14, tgoo.] 
Rosamond* 
AuxilJaty Cruising Yawl. 
It is too early yet in the history of gasoline and other 
liquid fuel marine motors to fairly estimate the value of 
every one of the numerous combinations of hull and 
engine. Some are good, some indifferent, and many are 
positively bad, through the impossible character of the 
combination, defective design of hull or motor, or faulty 
details in the latter. If it has done nothing else, however, 
as compared with steam, the h3rdro-carbon motor has 
already produced one type of yacht whose utility and 
ROSAMOND— THE LAUNCH. 
real value has already been proven, though it is not yet 
well clear of the experimental stage. For many reasons 
this type, the true sailing auxiliary, was not possible 
with the aid of steam in sizes smaller than 65 to 75ft. 
l.w.l. ; but \yith the modern naphtha or gasoline motor a 
really practical auxihary cruiser may be had on dimen- 
sions that are almost diminutive. The small' auxiliary 
steam jracht, as built for the past fifteen years, is a pretty 
poor specimen of a vessel, a combination of steam yacht 
hull of alleged high .speed form with a disproportionately 
large deck house of the show-case type, mostly glass, the 
best space in the vessel monopolized by the machinery, 
forcing the owner into mere cubby holes in one end or the 
other, wliile the toothpick spars are fit only to carry flags. 
The marine engineer has had his own way from the first 
in the designing of these craft, and it must be said that he 
has made a most signal failure of the type. 
'The improvement of the hydro-carbon motors and their 
increasing popularity has within the past tliree or four 
years made possible a sailing auxiliary of an entirely 
different type, and where the problem has been worked 
out from the standpoint of the yacht designer, rather 
than of the marine engineer, some very satisfactory re- 
sults have been obtained. In many cases the work has 
taken the form of the alteration of an old sailing yacht 
by the installation of a motor sufficient to drive her 
from four to seven miles in a calm, the old sails and spars 
still being the main motive power and the acconmioda- 
tions of the sailing vessel being but little curtailed by the 
appropriation of a small .space for the motor and tank 
In other cases the problem has been worked out or 
clean paper from the start, the design showing a hull of 
the usual sailing type, with a reasonably large and 
efficient rig, the motor being purely auxiliary. Since the 
first experiments were made about six years ago of in- 
stalling small gasoline motors in several old cutters of 
about 30ft. l.w.l., many old yachts have been successfully 
converted and some new ones have been designed which 
have given excellent satisfaction. 
The yacht here illustrated was designed originally for 
-J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
sailing only, as a cruising yawl in which safety was the 
first consideration, and comfort the second. The gaso- 
line motor was an after-thought, so that the design was 
made solely with a view to sailing, the only modification 
being in the rudder and after deadwood. Rosamond was 
designed and built by her owner, Mr. W. J. Starr, of 
Eau Claire, Wis., an amateur yachtsman and designer. 
She was designed for use on the upper Mississippi and 
later on the Great Lakes, the owner sailing her himself 
with the aid of one A. B. and a boy. The accommoda- 
tions were planned to suit the owner and his family. The 
idea of the yacht was in contemplation for a couple of 
years before she was laid down in the fall of 1897, and 
the extensive facilities for procuring good lumber which 
that section of the West affords had been utilized in lay- 
ing in a stock of the tough Wisconsin swamp white oak, 
tamarack (hackmatack), both in knees and planks, cork 
pine (white) and butternut, the latter for the interior 
joiner Avork, as it is very light and also stands dampness 
well. The yacht was built by day's work, a small force of 
good men being hired and the work carried on slowly, 
every piece of wood being specially selected. All the 
work was done under the direct supervision of the owner, 
and no pains were spared in making a perfect and last- 
ing vessel. The decision to make her an auxiliary was 
reached before the building begun, but the not unusual 
experience followed — an engine from the East, promised 
in June, was not yet ready for shipment at the end of 
August; and as the water was exceptionally low in the 
shallow Chippewa River through the summer of 1898, no 
attempt was made to complete her for that season. She 
was launched in October, 1898, and the engine installed, 
and when the river was at its highest, in April, 1899, she 
made the trip down under her own engine, but without 
spars in her, to the Mississippi, the deepest vessel that 
has ever navigat-'d the shallow Chippewa. She afterward 
steamed and sailed down the Mississippi to La Crosse, 
then returned to Lake Pepin, an enlargement of the 
river, where she was used through the season. This 
spring it is proposed to take her down the river to Alton, 
ill., up the Illinois River and through the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal into Lake Michigan. 
Lake Pepin includes a stretch of the Mississippi about 
twenty-eight miles long and from two to four and a half 
miles wide, surrounded by hills from 400 to 600ft. high, so 
^ ------ - 
ROSAMOND. 
that there is always a chance to test the stability of a 
sailing yacht. Steady breezes from any one quarter are 
unknown, and the puffs and squalls from the hills have 
their counterparts in the currents and eddies' of the river. 
One run of seventy-five miles down the river from 
above Wabasha. Minn., to La Crosse, Wis., was made in 
seven hours; the run back against the current taking fif- 
teen hours. Under engine alone the taffrail log has 
shown on different runs from 5.9 knots to a little over 7 
knots. There being no sailing yachts in the vicinity of 
Lake Pepin, Rosamond has never been tested as to speed 
under sail beside others of her class, but in ordinary 
sailing she seems to be fast, and she handled most 
satisfactorily. A tiller 4l4At. long serves to control her 
easily at all times, and though the local conditions are 
such that she is sometimes at one minute under full lower 
sail and the next under mainsail and forestaysail or jib 
and mizzen. she balanced well under all combinations. 
The engine is of the two-cycle type, three cylinders, each 
by with a battery igniter, and also a small mag- 
neto-dynamo belted direct to it; the horse-power is esti- 
mated at 14 to 15, and it turns up from 350 to 380 with a 
24in. v/heel. The engine is very compact, sets low in the 
yacht, and its center of gravity is also very low, the en- 
tire weight being below the L.W.L. As far as si5ace goes, 
it is partly under the companion ladder, the fore end being 
covered when not running with a casing of hardwood 
which looks like a small sideboard. A good muffler is 
used, the exhaust coming out under the counter and the 
sound is only that of a heavy breathing. Under power 
the yacht turns in less than twice her own length, a use- 
ful quality in the narrow channels of the Chippewa River. 
As shown by the accommodation plan, very little useful 
room is sacrificed to the motive power, and the yacht 
has quite as much room as the ordinary deep center- 
board craft without power. 
The arrangement of the deck and interior is peculiar, 
but has proved very satisfactory. By means of a strong 
round to the 'deck beams and floor, full headroom is 
secured under the deck in the middle of the vessel. 
Where the floor is necessarily higher, abaft the centerboard 
trunk, a comparatively short cabin trunk is used, giving 
full headrovn; forward there is a large hatch and sk\'- 
light giving headroom in the galley. In this way thf 
deck b€a.!ns atnidship are kept ititact, strengthening the 
29i 
hull, and yet no headroom is sacrificed, Tbs plan i<> 
superior in every way to the usual wide trunk from nms^ 
to cockpit. When under sail, the tail shaft is discoid 
nected and the wheel left to turn freely, which it does, 
with no apparent drag. The dimensions are : 
Length — 
Over all 6oft. Sin. 
L.W.L. 40ft. 
Overhang — 
Bow 8ft 8in, 
Counter 12ft. 
Beam — 
Extreme 15ft 4in, 
L.W.L 13ft. 4in. 
Freeboard — 
Bow i 5ft. 
Lowest 3ft. 
Counter 3ft. Sin. 
Draft- 
Hull 4ft- 6in. 
With board loft. 6in. 
Displacement, long tons 19.00 
Ballast, long tons 8.00 
Ratio of ballast to displacement 41% 
Midship Section — 
Area 31. 00 sq. ft. 
Coefficient 52% 
Distance from Station 0 21.90ft. 
C.B. from Station O 22.25ft. 
C.L.R. from Station O — 
Hull only 22.66ft. 
Hull and board 23.10ft. 
SBARS. 
Mainmast — 
From Station 0 7ft. 
Deck to hounds 38ft. 
Pole T4ft. gin. 
Mizzen Mast— 
From Station 0 43ft. 4in. 
Deck to hounds 27ft. 6in, 
Pole 4ft. 
Bowsprit — 
Beyond fore end of L.W.L 23ft. loin. 
Gammon to cranse , 15ft. 
Mam boom , 35ft. gin. 
Mizzen boom , 20ft. gin. 
Main gaff 28ft. gin 
Mizzen gaff 15ft, 6in, 
Mainsail 1,175 sq. ft. 
Jib , 298 sq". ft. 
Staysail 227 sq. ft. 
Mizzen 400 sq. ft. 
Total 2,100 sq. ft. 
Tile weights included above under the head of "Bal- 
last" are in detail as follows : 
