94 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 2, 1901. 
ment is, care must be used in making, and rigging it. 
The float itself is not expected to contribute any stability, 
as it is almost totally immersed, this being a part of the 
plan in order to minimize the resistance offered by wave 
motion, and to present no appreciable surface for wind- 
age. 
The problem is the same as that of putting ballast 
outside a yacht, only much simpler, as all the required 
data are obtainable by the use of a foot-rule and a pair 
of scales. The first point to be settled is the required 
height of the pole above the water. Suppose this to be 
18 feet, weighing say 20 pounds. The center of gravity 
of this may be assumed at a height of 9 feet. At the 
top of the pole is carried a target or device, weiging say 
5 pounds. We thus have an upsetting force acting 
through the center of buoyancy made as follows: 
Pole 30 pounds by 9 feet 180 pounds. 
Target 5 pounds by 18 feet 90 " 
270 
If the heel of the pole projects ^ feet below the water 
and is loaded with a weight of 50 pounds, we have a 
counterbalance equal to 350 pounds, less say ten per 
cent., due to the immersion of the weight, or 315 pounds 
net. This affords plenty of m.argin for windage, and 
msures the mark and target always remaining right 
side up. 
Having decided on the spar and weights to be used 
the float can be built of a size to support them. Using 
sides 6 feet long and a foot wide of 2-inch stuff, it will 
contain some 2^ cubic feet of wood, and the weight that 
this will support depends upon its quality and dryness. 
The surest way is to test both this and the stability of 
the marks by dropping it into the water alongside a 
dock, with a line attached. When properly planned and 
built the float should show a little above the water to 
allow for soakage, and the pole and target should in- 
stantly assume their proper position, no matter in what 
shape the outfit is thrown into the water. The only 
objection to a mark of this kind is that it is a\vkward 
.to handle, not so much in setting out as in taking in. 
There is no great difficulty if the steamer is provided 
with a boat or anchor davit, from which the float may be 
slung alongside and rigged or unrigged. In setting, a 
line is bent on the anchor and the latter lowered away 
uatjl it reaches the bottom. After allowing sufficient 
slack the other end is carefully fastened to the buoy. 
The pole is then shipped, the weight attached, and the 
outfit dropped overboard. In taking in, the chief difficiilty 
is to hoist the mark and disconnect the weight, a davit 
or swinging boom being very useful for this work. In 
their absence more hands are required, and the boat's 
paint may sufifer. It is not the weight, but the awkward- 
ness of. the mark that makes the trouble — once the pole 
is unshipped everything is easy. 
Many details of this mark may be improved. In all 
cases the wooden float should be strongly fastened, pins 
or bolts being used instead of nails. The pole might be 
shod with an iron weight of no greater diameter than 
itself, so that it could be readily shipped and unshipped. 
For the wooden float a metal air chamber might be sub- 
stituted, made of light boiler plate or even thinner iron, 
but in the latter case some wooden bracing would be 
needed in the wake of the mast. A rig of this kind would 
be useful where it had to be set and taken up frequently, 
constant care being exercised to guard against corrosion 
and punctures. Where a mark is set out for the season 
the wooden float would be more reliable. 
In frequently setting these marks, some curious opin- 
ions have been offered us by spectators. One man 
thought a small weight would answer for a larger one, if 
only it were hung on a lanyard, arguing that the lower 
center of gravity v/ould give additional leverage. So it 
would if the connection between pole and weight were 
rigid, or^ m other words, a continuation of the pole itself, 
but a loose connection adds nothing to the leverage of the 
weight; it serves merely to transmit the pull just as a 
lanyard on a tiller does. Another man did not see the 
necessity of getting the anchor to the bottom in deep 
water, supposing that the mere weight at the end of a 
long line would hold the buoy. In this connection it 
may be said that with a mark of this kind the float is so 
neailly immersed that a small anchor and less scope 
than in ordinary practice may be relied on. The strain 
on the ground tackle is nothing like that caused by a 
small boat, such as might be used for the purpose. For 
this reason alone the buoy is far superior to any boat; 
while a sea that will swamp an open boat at anchor will 
pass harmlessly over a buoy. 
The style of target used will depend on the course and 
its surroundings. For open water with a background of 
'sea and sky, no one thing will answer at all times. A 
flag of black and white cr red and white is easily seen 
when blowing across the line of vision, but is useless at 
any distance when blowing down wind or in a calm. 
A sphere of basket work painted or covered with painted 
cotton is an imorovement. The top of the pole may be 
crowned with a 'bright tin cone, small end up, which as 
it sways will throw off flashes at various angles, which 
carry "a long wav and are particularly valuable in hazy 
weather Instead of a cone a many-sided pyramid may 
oe used. For buoys with a shore background, care 
should be taken that the target is of a character that will 
'stand out against it. Bright colors are useful ani on a 
low-lying shore covered with trees a target near the water 
is more readilv picked up than if slung higher. Experi- 
ment alone will alecide what is best for any particular 
When laying a course in open water the compass 
oearino-s will be taken and included in the printed in- 
structions. This is simple enough if the steamer em- 
ployed has a properly adjusted compass, but many tugs 
and small craft used for this work are not so provided. 
Tt is hardly necessary to add that the best compass put 
aboard a small steamer bristling with iron work cannot 
be relied upon. The onlv resort is to try to ascertain 
the amount, of the deviation, and to check any bearings 
taken by cross-bearings plotted on the chart, and by such 
local marks as are available. In case of final doubt the 
bearings should be described in the instructions as ap- 
proximate- and if the course is long so that one mark 
^afttiPt re^dUy k §9^w from another, th? §ame ftftmcr 
used in laying it should go ahead of the yachts to show 
the way. -1 
Windward or leeward courses must, of course, be laid 
on the day of the race, the steamer starting either with 
the yachts or :a little ahead of them. One member of 
the regatta committee should be on board to superin- 
tend the work, and it will usually be better to provide a 
separate boat for the starter. This leads up to the actual 
conduct of the race, which requires the services of sev- 
eral officers, although at times all the various duties may 
be discharged bv one man, We have so far assumed 
in cone 
'Target 
\i4 
Elevation o| -f/oat 
MARK USED BY THE LAKE YACHT RACING ASSOCIATION. 
the regatta committee to be in charge of all the pre- 
liminary arrangements. Thej' may and often do go 
further and attend to all the technical duties of race 
officers. On the other hand, they may content themselves 
with a general supervision, and leave all the active work 
to starters, judges and timekeepers, usually in such cases 
retaining the duty of deciding protests and disputed 
points. In some cases it is really the race officers who 
are known as the regatta committee, so that their duties 
begin where those of the regatta committee of another 
club may end. There is no fixed usage in such matters, 
and the customs of various clubs are established not by 
any general law, but by convenience and local conditions 
— even by accident or caprice. The important point is 
that the duties ot race officers be properly discharged, and 
where this is accomplished names signify little. 
The starter should satisfy himself that all the necessary 
gear, such as flags, signals, guns and ammunition, is in 
its proper place aboard the steamer, or wherever it 
will be required, and that everything is in good working 
9fd^, The yacht ^w^m i§ n^tw^Uy TO9h wse4 for 
starting, but unless everything is in perfectly good order 
it is unreliable for such exact important work. It should 
be clean inside as well as outside, the breech should open 
and close easily and the moving parts be well oiled. A 
cannon belonging to a well-kept yacht, in constant use, 
may be depended on, especially if the man who usually 
cares for and fires it can be spared to serve it, but even then 
there is a chance of missing fire with a bad primer, so 
that to guard against accidents' I have always, where it 
was possible, used two guns. One man can handle the 
two lanyards and pull the second without appreciable 
loss of time if the first misses fire. An excellent sub- 
stitute, however, is a double-barreled shotgun, using 
shells loaded with noisy powder. It is easier to handle 
than a cannon, and much more reliable, as a rule. 
An accurate timepiece is, of course, a necessity, a ship's 
chronometer being the best, but a good watch which 
accuartely registers seconds will serve. A stop-watch 
having a "sweep seconds" hand is useful as being easily 
read, but one should beware of complicated watches un- 
less they have been proved rehable. They are more 
liable to derangement than simpler movements, and I 
have known one stopped by the shock of firing the first 
gun. This was very awkward, as the starting guns had 
to follow at exact intervals, and I should have been in a 
fix had not another less pretentious watch set to the 
same time been available. 
The starter will arrange in good time for such as- 
sistants as he requires, placing one man at the gun, 
another at the signal halliards, and perhaps another to 
write down times at the start if it is desirable to preserve 
them. Unless he know of a better man he had better 
hold the watch himself. Suppose a race to start at 11 
o'clock. At 10:55 he will call out "Five minutes," 
then at 10:59 "One minute," and in succession 
"Half a minute." With a hasty glance to see 
that his assistants are all ready and attentive he will con- 
tinue, "Fifteen seconds — ten seconds— five — four — three — 
two — one. — fire!" At the word both gun and flag should 
respond. The man with the watch must keep cool and 
avoid allowing his attention to be distracted by the gossip 
and bustle that always occur on a committee boat at the 
start of a race. In the intervals between guns, no matter 
what else he has to attend to, he must keep an eye on 
his watch. 
The timekeeper is the complement of the starter, and 
indeed it is convenient for one man to attend to both 
duties. Times around intermediate marks are usually 
taken for the benefit of reporters, if for nothing else, and 
when several rounds of a course are made, each com- 
pleted one should be timed as carefully as a finish. For 
taking the latter the committee steamer should, if at all 
possible, be moved so that the finishing line is at right 
angles to the last leg of the course; thus no yacht is re- 
quired to stay or wear around the mark. Similarly the 
starting line should be arranged at right angles to the 
first leg of the course, but of the two, it is of less conse- 
quence, and might give way to other requirements, such 
as sea-room. Rule books usually prescribe how and 
when a course is considered completed. The old rule 
read when the mast cuts the line, but the newer rule is 
when any point — usually the bowsprit end — crosses the 
line, the course is completed. Of the two I consider the 
latter fairer and decidedly more convenient. _ One can 
always see when the bowsprit comes in line with a buoy, 
but the latter is usually hidden by the sails by the time 
the mast outs the finishing line. For particular work one 
man may sight the yacht and call her out to the time- 
keeper, who keeps his eye on the chronometer, notes the 
time, and either writes it down or announces it to the 
man who is keeping the records. With the assistance of 
a split-second chronograph the timekeeper may sight 
the finishes himself. The necessary corrections for time 
allowance should be made and the results tabulated as 
soon as possible. 
In reports of yacht races one often reads of judges 
and sometimes of a "referee." These terms appear to 
have been borrowed from other sports, and used as 
loosely and indefinitely as other titles previously referred 
to, The most reasonable and exact application of the 
term "judges" is in the case of race officers who act 
under the "authority of the regatta committee, or who 
are specially appointed to the work, as in the case of 
the races for the Canada cup. Here each of the two 
yacht clubs appointed a judge, and the two judges se- 
lected a third, who might have been called a referee, but 
in point of fact all three acted together as a race com- 
mittee. There is a real need of some precise name for 
such race officers. The word judge fits badly, and is 
more suggestive of a fat stock show than a yacht race. 
Having thus sketched the technical and perfunct9ry 
duties of a regatta committtee, it would be interesting 
to consider that part of their work which is discretionary; 
but in this so much depends on common sense and the 
personal equation that it is by no means easy to lay 
down rules or even offer suggestions. Ore thing may 
be said with certainty, and that is that no doubtful point 
should be left for settlement after a race which can 
possiblv be cleared up before the start. Racing men 
usually' consent to anything reasonable when announced 
fairly in the racing instructions, but they bitterly resent 
arbitrary decisions, however fair, when they disqualify 
or unplace a yacht after a race has been sailed. Some- 
times a loser will go further and protest against a change 
of course or of the time of starting, which a committee 
may have seen fit to order, arguing that the change was 
to 'his disadvantage and prevented him from winning. 
Needless to say there can be no protest, within the mean- 
ing of the rules, against any act within the discretion of 
the regatta committee, although some yachtsmen do not 
appear to understand this, and cheerfully "protest" 
against anvthing that does not suit them. No responsi- 
bte committee will refuse to consider complaints even 
aeainst themselves, and to rectify any wrong that had 
been done, but it is quite impossible for them to pay 
any attention to a man whose grievance is that because 
a course is altered he lost a race he expected to win. 
Coming to protests proper, one competitor against 
another, opens up a very large and complicated su'b- 
ject where the committee will require some skill in 
hearing evidence and sifting facts, after which they must 
apply the rules as far as possible, and finally fall back on 
fair play and common sense, Jn clearly proved c^e§ tj^e 
