S12 
FOREST .AND STREAM. 
[April i8, 1903. 
Winner of Third Prize in "Forest and Stream" Cruising 
Competition. 
RY WILLIAM LAMBERT BARNARD, BOSTON, MASS. 
I am, alas, a "charity sailor" — not having a boat 
of mine own I am dependent upon friends for my 
cruises. Some times I am able to do something for 
them. Thus it was in the present case. 
The Armorel's owner wished to have her at Port- 
land, Maine, when his vacation began, but could not 
find the time to take her down from Marblehead 
himself. So I charitably agreed to sail Iier down 
for him and he in turn charitably said that if I would 
have her there on time I. could use her for a little 
cruise beforehand. Our final arrangements provided 
that he and a friend would sail her from Marble- 
head to Gloucester one Saturday afternoon, that I 
should join them early Sunday morning and then they 
would sail with me as far as we could get that day, 
when they would return to Boston and strenuous 
life while I continued on my way with the Armorel 
and Albert, the boy. This arrangement was carried 
out to the letter. 
The Armorel is a 21ft. knockabout and was 
designed by Mr. Arthur Binney, and built by the 
Lawley & Son Corporation in 1895. She was origin- 
ally known as the Sally. She has rather more free- 
board than is customary with boats of her length, 
but owing to the fact that her waterline is painted 
quite high she appears to have only the usual height 
of side. Her ends, which are moderate for these days, 
are sharp and so M'ell balanced that she is very easy 
and dry in a seaway. 
She is 31ft. over all, 21ft. on the waterline, 7ft. iiin. 
extreme beam, and draws sft. when in cruising trim. 
She has about 4ft. gin. headroom under a low cabin 
trunk with a very flat roof. There is a hatch in the 
deck forward of the mast. 
ARMOREL. 
The cockpit which is self bailing is roomy and 
comfortable. From it you enter the cabin. On 
either side of the companionway is a hanging locker. 
The floor is 2ft. 6in. wide between the transoms which 
are nearly 2ft. wide and have very comfortable cush- 
ions. The transom tops are hinged to lift and beneath 
each is a large stowage space for bottled and tinned 
goods. 
At the forward end of each transom is a bufifet with 
a locker behind and drawers beneath it. These draw- 
ers have a novel feature, an idea of the owner — a 
tin box with hinged lid was made to fit inside each 
drawer so that everything stowed therein might be 
kept dry. It is extremely "comfy" to have one's 
linen, socks, towels, and bread always free from 
dampness. 
On the port bufifet a large lamp and an ash tray are 
securely fastened. Over the lamp, in the cabin top, is 
a brass ventilator which when opened carries ofif the 
heat from the lamp. It can be closed and made water 
tight by simply turning the flat brass top. Above the 
starboard bufifet are the ship's clock, aneroid barom- 
eter, and thermometer. Back of each transom is a net 
for clothing, toilet articles, etc., etc. 
Access is had to a large lazerette beneath the cock- 
pit by removing the companionway ladder. In this 
lazerette are kept the three spare anchors and rodes, 
spare rope, oilers, rubber boots, etc. 
The blankets, which have been converted into 
sleeping bags by folding them and sewing them across 
the foot and two-thirds of the way up the side, when 
not in use are folded and rolled up in a waterproof 
cloth so that they keep remarkably dry. 
Forward of the starboard bufifet js the stove space 
which is a sort of cuddy of galvanized sheet iron. In 
it are two brass Primus stoves. There is a brass 
plate in the deck above them which can be removed 
and a ventilator screwed in to carry ofif the surplus 
heat. This stove cuddy has doors which can be shut 
—then anything hung in front of them can be well 
dried out- This furnisbes-^a convenient method of dty- 
Chart t,^ course taken 
t:Wl,..41er 
i'lg- iocks, underwear, dish towels, etc., after sun- 
down or during wet v/catiicr. 
Forward of the stoves is a narrow bunk (with an air 
cushion) just far enough below the deck to admit of 
one's turning over when lying thereon. Opposite the 
stove space is an ice-chest with a capacity of 150 lbs. 
This amount of ice, when wrapped in a cloth, will 
last three or four days. The drip from the ice drains 
into a small tank which can be removed and emptied 
— a daily task. Or better still, the drip can be used 
when washing dishes and silver, thus reducing the de- 
mand on the supply of drinking water. Forward of the 
ice-chest is a locker for such things as cofifee, sugar, 
salt, pepper, cereals, plates and tableware. Still fur- 
ther forward are hooks and lanterns, dust pan and 
brush, etc., and here are stowed the jibs and spin- 
naker, each in its separate canvas bag. 
Fresh water is carried in a wooden breaker which is 
stowed beneath one of the seats in the cockpit. It 
has a faucet so that the water is easily drawn ofif and 
it holds enough to answer all the cooking, drinking 
and washing needs of two men for three days. A box 
for vegetables, stops, light gear and tackle, and a pail 
stow away under the other seat. At the aft end of the 
cockpit are small doors on either side of the rudder- 
post — these doors give access to small lockers where 
are kept kerosene, metal polish, paint, varnish and 
tar. 
She has 580 square feet of sail in mainsail and jib. 
Sunday. July 27, 1902. — Got underway at 8:15 A.M. 
with a light south south-west wind. Beat slowly down 
Gloucester harbor to the buoy ofif Eastern Point, over- 
taking and passing a small yawl with a clipper bow — 
the Keren, if I remember aright — and then squared 
awav for "the Londoner" ofif Thatcher's Island. The 
wind was rather soft but we got along fairly well and 
pulled steadily away from the yawl. Armorel's spin- 
naker boom does not have jaws — they have such a 
heavy clumsy look. Instead a becket is made by the 
passing of a light line through a hole in the heel of 
the spar splicing it back onto itself. As the old one 
had disappeared I occupied myself for a few minutes 
by splicing in a new becket. 
We had the two lights on Thatcher's abeam at 10:10 
A.M. and a few minutes later set the spinnaker. This 
bit of "muslin" is of no mean size, having a hoist of 
some 2Sft. with a 24ft. spinnaker pole. After the sail 
^^■s- lioiSted m snapped its Qkw to the tip of the spin- 
naker pole, ran that out to port and passing the bec- 
ket around the mast, thrust the heel of the boom 
through the becket. We also stuffed a bit of canvas 
between the mast and boom to prevent chafing. 
When the spinnaker was sheeted home and its tack 
taken down to the bitts it added a good bit to our 
speed. All this takes time in the telling but was a 
short task and had been easily accomplished some 
minutes before we had Straitsmoutli Light, (Rock- 
port) abeam at 10:20 A.M. 
Our course was now N. to take us just inside 
the Isles of Shoals, and the wind was a couple of 
points ofif our port quarter. We wallowed along 
through the long, easy roll at a good, steady gait, con- 
stantly drawing away from the yawl and slowly over- 
hauling a craft ahead, which was steering about the 
same course as we were. The day was warm, but not 
hot — the sun only showed occasionally — inside of us 
up Newburyport way the weather looked rainy. On this 
run the owner brought out a jar of prunes and insist- 
ed upon our eating some of them. It did not take 
much urging to persuade us to fall in with his wishes, 
and I mention the fact merely because we found the 
prunes of value medicinally — they are a slight laxative 
and offset the efifects of amateur cookery and the salt 
air. 
The craft ahead of us was caught up with as we 
passed the whistling buoy south of "the shoals" — she 
proved to be the Reynard. I suppose her crew attri- 
buted our superior speed to our large spinnaker — they 
had their jib poled out, but, of course, it was not as 
efifective as our "merrie muslin." The Reynard now 
held more to the westward and was evidently running 
for Portsmouth. 
We had the Isles of Shoals abeam, to starboard, 
just before two o'clock. The wind had pricked on a 
bit and we had taken on quite a turn of speed. The 
yawl was hull down and hard to s^e. . The light air 
hardly suited her rig and larg'e displacement. 
As we ran on for York River the breeze took on 
more and more, reaching a quite respectable velocity 
and backing until we were running a bit by the wind. 
We held on, however, not wishing to take in the spin- 
naker until we reached York and being too lazy to 
shift it over to «tarboard; Biit it finally had to come 
down at 3:30 P.M., just as we were passing inshore 
of Stone's Rock Spindle. The shore thereabouts is 
not' high, but 15 5teep and rocky with almost m Un\\ 
