288 
FOREST_ AND^ STREAM. 
Lysistrata. 
As a fitting successor to two old steam yachts, nota- 
ble in their day— Polynia and Namouna— the new yacht 
]ust launched for Mr. James Gordon Bennett under the 
name of Lvsistrata is a novelty even m these days ot 
marvelous craft. With other minor features she is nota- 
ble for a contract speed of eighteen knots m sea service 
and a combination of the naval and yacht types m her 
hull and rig. She was designed by Mr. George L. Wat- 
son and built by W. Denny & Bros., Dumbarton, Scot- 
land, being launched on Aug. 28. Her length over all is 
ctioft l.w.l. 285ft., breadth 40ft.. depth of hold 21ft. 6m., 
tonnage 2,082. Thames measurement, makmg her smaller 
by a few tons than VaHant, the largest yacht ahoal. 
The hull is of steel, with twin screws, driven by a pair 
■of triple-expansion four-cylinder engines, 23, 38, 42 and 
42 by 3oin. The four boilers have working pressure 
of 200lbs. , , , . r 
In appearance the yacht is a marked departure from 
the- conventional Clyde steam yacht and also from the 
•new type recently developed by Mr. Watson in Varuna, 
Margarita II., Mayflower and Nahina, m which the bul- 
warks are carried up to form the sides of the deck houses. 
Lysistrata has a perfectly plumb stem, a _ beautilully 
moulded yacht counter, and a straight but fair and har- 
monious sheer, the entire form of the hull from the keel 
to the rail showing the hand of the artist-shipwnght. 
The deck house is of the conventional form, with a pas- 
sage on the main deck at each side, but both bow and 
counter are covered by turtlebacks. The deck house, 
nearly 200ft. long, gives a large amount of accommoda- 
tion which is considerably augmented by the space under 
the after turtleback. The smaller houses are located on 
top of the main deckhouse, the forward one surmounted 
by a lofty bridge. One of the most striking features of 
the yacht is the rig. so far as it goes, a single pole mast 
just abaft the stack, with one square yard for signals. 
The stack is large and located almost amidships. Like 
the mast, it has very little rake, and the severely vertical 
lines of the stem, stack and mast, with the straight sheer, 
give a businesslike appearance to the yacht which is 
most attractive. Below water the keel is very nearly 
straight, the forefoot is moderately rounded up, and the 
rudder hung on a straight plumb sternpost, is slightly 
balanced at the lower end. The two shafts are encased 
out to the hubs by projecting portions of the skin. The 
bilge keels cover about half the length of the bottom. 
The following description of the yacht is from the 
North British Daily Mail, of Glasgow. 
The vessel has been built to plans prepared by Mr. 
G. L. Watson, Glasgow, and with her has been reached 
the high water mark of yacht building on the Clyde. 
Differing considerably in outward appearance from 'the 
conventional type of steam yacht so long fashionable 
both in Britain and America, she is withal a really noble 
looking vessel. She is the largest and most powerful 
yacht yet built on the Clyde, and she will also be the 
speediest. The most .important departures which her 
tnodel presents to the eye of the ordinary layman are a 
straight stem instead of the usual gracefully curved clip- 
per or O.G. cutwater, and the absence of anything that 
can really be dignified by the name of a mast. In spite 
of the want of the conventional sheer to the cutwater, 
the boat shows ciuite an eye-pleasing bow, and as the 
whole of the entrance lines are at once sweet and pow- 
erful, she should push very little water before her, even 
when going at top speed. The general body of the boat 
is modeled with a master hand, and the long counter is 
as graceful as Meteor's or Gleniffer's. She has one huge 
funnel which indicates to the initiated that she is to be 
a flyer, and with the exception of one. comparatively small 
mast^baft the funnel— to be used for signaling purposes 
— there is no other spar about her. The new boat is 
turtledecked forward, but allowing for the want of a 
curved cutwater and masts she approximates more close- 
ly in general appearance to the Duke of Sutherland's 
beautiful Catania than to those more recent big steam 
yachts of Mr. Watson's designing. Mr. William Clark's 
Tuscarora or Mr. Kenneth Clark's Katoomba. _ She is 
to be nominally an eighteen-knot boat, but it is confi- 
dently expected that nearly a knot more will be forth- 
coming on a pinch. T5 get that great speed she is to 
be fitted with magnificent machinery of the triple expan- 
sion sort, working on four cranks, the horse-power of 
which will be about 6,500. 
The introduction of the four crank engines to our 
yachts has been very little spoken of, but few things have 
made more for the comfort of those on board than those 
same engines. The smoothness with which the higher 
class sort work is so great that in some boats one is 
scarcely conscious when they are being started. Now 
the thumping and throbbing so inseparable from t\w 
engines of the older yachts were among the chief objec- 
tions which the more conservative of the old school of 
j^achting men had to a mechanically propelled vessel, 
and now that these drawbacks are being rapidly annihi- 
lated there will A^ery soon be nothing left to object to 
in the once-despised and sternly repressed steam yacht. 
At one time the Royal Yacht Squadron would not allow 
.a man to remain on its books Avho so far forgot himself 
as to keep a steam yacht! Lysistrata is built of the finest 
steel in that perfect fashion for which Messrs. Denny are 
so famed. In this boat (and her twin sister Margarita,, 
now rapi&ly nearing completion at Greenock) Mr. Wat- 
son has introduced a plating novelty, as far as yacht 
building is concerned — that is, the butts of the plates are 
overlapped. It is obvious that a yacht of over 2,000 
tons — in spite of the fact that .she is to have machinery 
capable of taking her along at nineteen knots and bunk- 
ers as capacious as small coal pit,s — must .still have an 
enormous lot of space left for cabins and other domestic, 
so to speak, accommodation, Mr. Watson has been as 
successful with the utilization of this space as he has been 
fortunate in imparting a look of grace and power com- 
bined to the boat herself. It is unnecessarj^ to go into 
details over the internal economjr of the boat, but it may 
be added just in passing that the scheme of finishing 
adooted for all -the more public rooms is classical. The 
■dining room, for instance, a handsome, airy, well lighted 
aoartment, ;^=f^ long by T^^ft. broad, is done in the Gre- 
cian style. Thi^ more artistic work on the rooms is in 
the hands of Messrs. Waring, London, Mr, Bennett. 
who has been turning over in his raiiid for several years 
back the building of a great steam yacht, visited Dum- 
barton recently for the purpose of seeing Lysistrata^ and 
he was greatly pleased with ber. 
The Massachusetts 25ft. "Class. 
The new 2Sft. class of the Y. 'R."A. of Massa'chusetts 
has been one of the disappointments of the year in yacht- 
ing, much being expected from it and very little realized 
either in the waj- of sport for the time being or of useful 
trial of some intricate yachting problems. The class 
was built under a new rule based on a radical change; 
from the accepted formulas, and with a number of new 
boats it was expected that there would be good racing 
through the season and that some valuable light would 
be shed -on the measurement question. 
The first break came when the four new boats building 
by C. C. Hahley were discovered to be outside of the 
Hmitations in the detail of cabin trunk, so that they were 
formally barred from the regular Association class and 
compelled to race as a special class. Following this 
came the discovery that though they could be measured 
into the class with the required weight on board, they 
could not carry their sail vvith this amount of ballast, and 
when finally ballasted as they pleased through a private 
agreement they ran from 26ft. to 27ft. l.w.1. instead of 25ft. 
In addition to this the masts were 50. far forward that 
the resulting position of the C.E. caused th,ein to steer 
badly, necessitating such changes" .of rig as have de- 
stroyed air useful comparisons that might otherwise have 
been made as to the relative merits of lofty and low 
rigs. The end has been that the class has raced in a 
.slipshod, go-as-you-please fashion without regard to rules, 
the ballast has been changed from day to day, according, 
to the promised weather," sails on measurement haA'C 
proved larger than the rules allowed, the sail restrictions 
have been openly violated by a palpable evasion, the 
owners have refused to allow any measurement of the 
waterline, and finally, one of the four owners laid his 
boat up early in the season, refusing to race, and later, 
as the result of a personal encounter between two- other 
owners, two more yachts have left the H. O. class, leav- . 
ing but one boat in it. The absence of these four new 
boats has also been felt in the regular 25ft. class, whei-e 
they might have more than doubled the interest in the 
racing. 
The following summary of the racing in the two classes 
is given by the Boston Globe. The most interesting 
point in connection with it is the excellent showing of 
the keel boat Flirt, designed by B. B. Crowninshield, in 
a class where the centerboards have long been supreme. 
Radof Records—Table No. U 
The Quincy race of Sept. i is not included in the tables 
for the reason that the judges had not rendered a de- 
cision on the mutual protests of Al Kyris and Hanley 
at the time the tables were made up. 
Table No. i shows the places in the races secured by 
the boats, but table No. 2 is really the most valuable 
one, as showing how many times each boat has beaten 
or has been beaten by the others of the fleet. Read 
across for a boat's wins and down for her losses. ' . 
The first of the races of the Corinthian midsummer 
series is not included in the tables, because the win of 
Hanley over Nixie had no bearing on the othejr events 
of the season's record. The doings of Eleanor and Or- 
phan are recorded as a matter of interest. The races of 
(3rphan at Hull are not included, since she was ruled out 
l)y the regatta committee for failing to qualify in the 
class. - 
As between the three H. O. boats after the withdrawal 
of Orphan, Hanley has the best record, but her margin 
of wins is so small as to emphasize the closeness of the 
racing in tliis class and to show the wisdom of securing 
the racing of the boats by clubs whenever possible. 
What might have been the result had the boats raced 
out the season instead of stopping after the Quincy race 
of Sept. r is problematical, but since the owners of 
Al Kyris and Empress chose to consider the afl^air on the 
Quincy float a mortal of¥ense and to boycott the owner 
of Hanley therefor in spite of an offered apologj% the 
record must stand on the racing up to tliat time. 
Hanley's margin is a small but a good one. 
The surprising thing about the tables is the fine show- 
ing of Flirt. She has beaten the H. O. boats more times 
than they have beaten her, as table No. 2 clearly shows. 
She is a remarkable boat in many ways, and the writer 
confesses that he must modify his opinion of her abili- 
ties, formed after the Annisquam races. The way she 
beat the H. O. boats at Hull down the channel in a 
choppy sea a week ago last Friday was a revelation. 
To an observer on Telegraph Hill the H. O. boats, as 
well as the centerboards of class D, were throwin.g heaps 
of water, while Flirt was going along finely with half the 
fuss. In smooth water and a good breeze the H. O. 
boats will win from Flirt without trouble, but when it 
comes to a thrash to windward in a seaway Flirt shows 
the full advantages of the keel model. 
Which naturally leads up to some comment on the 
H. O. models. The boats were failures in more ways 
than not having sufficient depth of body to conform to 
the Y. R. A. restrictions. They floated at 2Sft. waterline 
with the required 2,ooolbs. of ballast aboard, but that 
amount was not sufficient to give them stability in any- 
thing more than a light air. In a puff they would heel, 
out and throw their sterns up and their rudders out of 
water in a way to make a helmsman lose his temper. 
Deeper rudders and more ballast remedied this fault, 
but the boats went to 26.6 or 27ft. in doing it. 
Nevertheless, they are roomy boats, both on deck and 
below, and are better for cruising than a narrow and deep 
keel boat. With a reduced rig they will be handy, com- 
fortable and able. 
.Some light on the question of high and narrow vs. 
broad and low sail plans was expected in the racing of 
the H. O. class, but the masts on the boats were so far 
forward and the center of effort of the sails correspond- 
inglv out of place that no satisfactory conclusions can 
be drawn. Al Kyris imdoubtedly went faster when she 
changed from her original high and narrow mainsail, but 
since at the time she shifted her center of effort 6in. fur- 
ther aft it may well be questioned if the shift and not the 
shape of the sail was the cause of her carrying a weather 
instead of a lee helm. 
, " ' ■ ' . 'O cr, .S • 
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W iw H p6( (it 
Tlauley . '. 14 6 2 3 0 0 
•Flirt 6 2 3 0 0 0 
"Al, Kyris 15 3 6 ?• '2 1 
Empress 17 2 8 2 X- 2 
Cartoon 9 2 0 1 4 0 
Tingo 3 0 1 10 1 
Little Peter 4 0 I 1 0 1 
Hermes. j.- 7 0 0 1 1 2 
Early Dawn'.." 5 0 0 2 U .1 
Orphan- 4; 0 D> 2 2 0 
Eleanor t i 0 0 0 1 .. 
Racing Records — Table No. 2, 
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The Manhasset Y. C. J5ft Class. 
The following circular has been sent out to its mem- 
bers by the Manhasset Bay Y. C: 
Manhasset J5ft, Raceabout Class. 
A special racing and cruising class will be built itt the 
Manhasset Bay Y. C. for the season of 1901. 
These boats will be of the modern fin-keel type, with 
, raceabout rig, 14ft, waterline, 24ft. over all, 6ft. 6in. 
breadth, 3ft. 6in. draft. They have been designed as a 
single-handed cruiser, having cabin accommodation for 
two, or even three, but at the same time will be sufli- 
ciently speedy to insure a good one-design racing class. 
They will be built by Robert Jacob (successor to H. 
Piepgras), of City Island, and of the best material. 
The price for each boat will be $450, provided ten or 
more are ordered, and it is earnestly requested by the 
committee in charge of the class that members or their 
friends wishing to build will address the undersigned 
without delay, as the contracts for the first ten must be 
signed by Sept. 30. 
There will be a meeting of those interested in the class 
at the club house, Port VVashington, at 7:30 P. M. Sat- 
urday, Sept. 15 (date of fall regatta), and in the mean- 
time the plans specifications and model may be seen in 
the main room of the club house and any further infor- 
mation obtained of the committee. 
Manhasset Raceabout Committee-^Guy Standing, 
70 West Thirty-sixth street; Edward M. MacLel- 
lan, 90 Wall street; Georg A. Coryy^ 37 Maiden 
Lane. 
The idea of this class is an excellent one and should 
have been put into effect a long time ago. There is good 
reason to believe that the Skow distemper, which began 
with the 15-footer Question in 1895, has now about run 
its course with the majority of yachtsmen and that there 
will be a revival of the demand for abler and wholesomer 
types, especially among men who want to race at times, 
but not in bathing suits, and who also want a yacht for 
cruising and general sailing. With the present knowl- 
edge derived from fast craft of all types and with im- 
proved methods of construction and modern sails and 
fittings, it should be pos.sible to design a small single- 
hander for both racing and cruising that would be im 
measurably superior to the craft used some years ago for 
the same purpose. At the same time the details of the 
proposed class, as given in the above circular and in the 
sail plan, strike us very far from the ideal craft. The 
principal dimensions, 24ft, over all. 6ft. 6in. breadth and 
3ft. 6in. draft, are very good for the proposed use, and 
.such a boat should by all means be of the fin-keel type, 
like the did canoe yawls used years before Dilemma was 
dreamed of. In so small a boat there is no gain of room 
through the adoption of the S section, and the cost is in- 
creased and the center of buoyancy raised unnecessarily 
as compared w'ith the T section of the fin-keel type. 
Ill the proposed design, however, the extreme type is 
followed, the waterline is very short, the hull is shallow, 
the overhangs are excessive and the fin is shortened up 
as 'in the extreme racing craft, with a freak rudder. As 
long as there is no measurement of the l.w.l. there is no 
object in adopting the Skow type of hull; a much faster 
and better boat could be had with a cleanly lined hull 
of say i8ft. l.w.l., with 2ft. overhang forward and 4ft. 
aft, in place of 5ft. at each end. A little added depth of 
hull amidships would not materially affect the speed and 
it would be offset by a lower cabin house, the one shown 
on the plans being excessively high and out of proportion 
to the hull. If the j^acht is to be used as a single-hander, 
or even if she is to be sailed day in and day out by two 
persons, with any degree of pleasure, it is a great mistake 
to give her the short deep racing fin. making it necessary 
to hold the tiller in hand and to .steer her every moment 
while she is under way. With a fairly long fin and a 
rudder hung on the sternpost in the usual way it should 
be I'^ossible '0 'ash the helm and leave her to sail herself 
^vhile the single-hander is cooking, eating, cleaning up 
or reefing under way. and she will be far pleasanter to 
.^teer at all times. On the extreme dimensions given, 
the boat with the longer waterline and keel ,should co,st 
no more than the proposed design and she would prob- 
ablv give far greater satisfaction, both in point of speed 
and comfort in cruising; while .she would be smarter and 
more shipshape in appearance. 
I'he Forest and .Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspojidence intended lor publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and much earlier as practicable. 
