Dec, 26, 1903.3 
FOHESf ^ANID StREAM. 
INBOARD PROFILE, CABIN AND SECTIONAL PLANS OF 57-FOOT CRUISING LAUNCH. DESIGNED BY SMALL BROS., FOR C. H. KELLEY. 1903. 
arid retaining the rig of the third, as it is at present, if 
successive trials were had in light, strong and heavy- 
winds, that the boat with the largest rig would win in 
light winds, the one with the moderate rig in strong 
winds and the one with the smallest rig in heavy 
weather. 
• I am afraid that one would expei-ience great difficulty 
in arriving at any accurate determination from the re- 
sults in these trials, as to the exact value of a square 
foot of sail area as an independent speed factor, and 
that it might be found logical to fix its value in a 
minus quantity in some of the races that might be 
sailed by these boats. 
I can confidently state as an owner of a Newport 
-thirty for several years, from my experience in racing 
in my own boat, and in others of the same class, that 
any considerable increase or reduction in the sail area 
would be detrimental to the chances of winning a ma- 
jority of fhfe races sailed at Newport, and that no value 
could be correctly put upon sail area as a factor of 
speed independently of the other necessary factors of 
a. rating formula. 
The conclusion that the value of sail area cannot be 
taken by itself as a speed factor, brings us to the con- 
sideration of its true relation to speed and to its proper 
function in a rating formula. 
Accepting the principle that within economic limits 
opportunities for speed vary in different vessels as the 
square roots of their respective lengths, we find that 
length alone without beam or depth is without power 
to carry sail or support any propelling force, and that 
with length it is necessary to have both beam and depth 
to utilize any power to produce speed. As we increase 
depth or beam or both, we increase the power and the 
ability to carry sail. 
With the increase of power to carry sail, we increase 
the resistance by the increase of the bulk to be driven, 
and on a fixed length we find that within reasonabje 
limitations the increase in the power to carry sail in 
order to maintain the same speed for the length, com- 
pels an increase in the driving power to overcome the 
increased resistance. - 
It would seem natural, therefore, to conclude that sail 
area or propelling force has only relation to the bulk 
or power to carry sail, and the resistance to be over- 
come. 
Taking length as the index of speed and propelling 
force in proportion to bulk or differently expressed, sail 
area in proportion to displacement, I take it, we reach 
the true relation of sail area to speed and give it a 
proper place in rating measurement. 
A formula with length as the factor of speed, and 
with an allotment of sail area to displacement, would 
seem to bring us to the true principle, which should 
be the foundation of any just rule. 
[While it is perfectly true that power can be obtained 
by using draft or beam, or draft and beam on a reduced 
displacement, the reduction in the allotment of sail for 
the reduced displacement eliminates any undue advan- 
tage of this method of getting increased sail carrying 
power, and at the same time a reduction of the resist- 
ance. 
The temptation to cut the displacement unduly is re- 
moved with a rule allotting sail area to displacement, 
and while the premium of additional sail area is given 
to increased displacement, the naval architect is left 
free to design a boat of a fixed length, of large dis- 
placement and a sail area proportionate to this displace- 
ment or a boat of small displacement with a restricted 
sail area in proportion to the reduced displacement, or 
vary the length, displacement or sail area in any pro- 
portions that may be deemed advisable, depending on 
the type of the boat desired, limited only by the total 
sum of the factors taken figured together according to 
the rating formula. 
The rule, heretofore, in general use of - ' -" in 
which the length taken is the L. W. L. and the sail 
area is limited only by the length of the L. W. L. 
taken, has resulted in the building of boats with ex- 
cessively long and full overhangs, in which the L. W. 
L. does not represent at all the actual length of the 
boat, and in the reduction of the displacement to the 
extreme limit so as to obtain the power to carry sail 
with the least resistance. 
The natural result has been that the boats built under 
this rule have been substantially of one type, none 
others having the least chance of winning, and spoon 
bows, shoal bodies and deep fin keels have been evolved, 
one extreme following another, until it became neces- 
sary to build a machine to take any successful part in 
the racing. 
In order to check the evasion of the length and sail 
area rule, girth rule was adopted by the Y. R. A. of 
Great Britain, and an effort made in that way to com- 
pel the taking of more displacement and a fuller mid- 
ship section. The effect has been beneficial in promot- 
ing" a better type of vessel, but not entirely successful 
in accomplishing satisfactory results. 
With the samep urpose in view, the Larchmont Y. C. 
and the Long Island Sound Y. R. A. have added to the 
rule penalties for excessively full waterlines and for 
lack of area in the midship section. 
The effect of these limitations would seem to have 
been to hamper and control design and to simply pro- 
mote the evasion of the restrictions. At best such a 
modification of the length and sail area rule must prove 
but a temporary make-shift and be superseded by a 
rule in which the proper relations of the factors of 
speed are established in a rating formula. 
To the New York Y. C, belongs the credit of taking 
the initiative in a movement to better the existing con- 
ditions and to determine the principles upon which the 
measurement and classification of yachts should be 
based. 
The acceptance by that club of the report of a com- 
mittee appointed to obtain the views of prominent de- 
signers and the adoption of a rule of measurement 
recommended, in which the factors of length, sail area 
and displacement are combined in a rating formula, 
makes the eventual establishment of a uniform system 
of measurement a matter certain of accomplishment. 
The length in the old rule of L. W. L. has been dis- 
carded, and in its place a measurement of length taken 
at the quarter beam, which approximates the sailing 
length of the hull. 
The sail area is the actual measured area of the sails. 
The principle of the allottment of sail to displace- 
ment or to length and displacement is embodied in the 
use of the displacement in the denominator of the for- 
mula. 
If experience shall demonstrate that the exact re- 
lations established need modification, that the premium 
on displacement has been put too high, that the tax on 
sail has been fixed too low, that the advantage of 
length may not have been given sufficient importance, 
that the methods of measuring can be simplified, as 
these features are all matters of detail, they can be ad- 
justed as experience may suggest. 
There are no complications involved in the rule and 
no measurements or calculations required which can- 
not be made by anyone of ordinary intelligence or 
schooled in the simplest problems of mathematics. 
That the rule will produce a more wholesome type of 
vessel to be developed under its influence, and that its 
adoption will admit of the building of such a type is 
certain, and also that such vessels will be rated by it in 
a way that wiW place them upon an equality in the mat- 
ter of speed for rating with the machines evolved under 
the old rating. 
The one other point to which attention should be 
called is the relation of displacement to light construc- 
tion. In considering this relation it will be found that 
the premium on displacement minimizes to a very great 
extent the advantages heretofore obtained by the de- 
signer availing himself of the extreme possibilities of 
light construction and the dangerous saving of weight 
in the hulls, and that it also does away to a very great 
extent with the necessity for the adoption of any 
scantling rule or table of restrictions with respect to 
fittings or outfit. _ _ . 
In concluding what I have to say on this subject so 
important to the future development of yachting, I feel 
compelled to dissent from Dr. Poor's statement that 
"no consistent attempt has been made to study the 
scientific principles involved in the problem." 
With the writings of such eminent authorities as Ben- 
son, Kemp, Bucknall, Kroman, Froude, with th^ 9W- 
