AraiL 9, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
801 
Perhaps you think I am straying from my subject. 
Perhaps I am — perhaps not. I know of one meritorious 
class of one-design is-footers that was disrupted in 
precisely that fashion. I refer to the Crosby designed 
class at Hyannis Port, Mass. These were 'Shoal_ draft, 
ieamy, centerboard craft, with all the ballast inside. 
The most remarkable feature of this class was that 
iall the boats were owned by the builder and chartered 
by him each season to the summer residents of Hyannis 
Port. It was a most progressive move on the part 
of the builder, and if it was not remunerative (which 
I believe it to have been) it was due to the jealousies 
Herreshoff 15-footer Teaser. 
of the putative owners rather than to any fault of his. 
Hyannis Port is an ideal spot for a one-design class. 
As a yachting center it is semi-isolated. It is remote 
from any yacht racing association and the waters and 
winds of that locality have characteristics essentially 
their own. The boats that Mr. Crosby produced were 
admirably adapted to that vicinity, although they were 
undeniably homely and were a shade too beamy and 
flat for the prevalent seas of Nantucket Sound. Their 
overhangs, both forward and aft, showed a reverse 
curve at the L.W.L., and this gave a very peculiar 
shape to the transom. New York men who recall the 
Crosby half-rater of 1896, can get a good idea of this 
craft. Although designed as 15-footers, their extremely 
low overhangs soon settled until they measured 17ft. 
on the L.W.L., and they are now considered i7-footers. 
It is well to remember this fact and their beam of 
8ft. in connection with their sail area of 388 sq. ft. 
They were over-canvased for everything save the 
lightest airs. 
Their ballast was but 300 pounds, and was carried 
inside. It consisted of small stones and shale, which 
is a popular form of ballast on Cape Cod, as everyone 
who has ever seen a good old-fashioned Cape "Cat" 
knows. This ballast was of value principally for trim- 
ming purposes, as the boats depended for their sta- 
bility almost entirely on their great beam and flat floor. 
The boats started of¥ with a schedule of two races 
per week, and much sport should have resulted. But 
Herreshofif 15-footer Spider. 
the wrong spirit prevailed, and when one skipper suc- 
ceeded in winning several straight races, the others 
invented protest after protest and finally quit racing 
altogether in a fit of sulks. 
The best known of the one-design 15ft. classes is 
probably that of the Beverly Y. C. Designed and 
built by Herreshoff, these boats have the appearance 
of being small editions of Columbia. Their bow over- 
hang is long, strikingly high and fairly sharp. Al- 
though of the centerboard type, they are narrower than 
any of the other one-design class boats, having but 
Sft. loin. extreme breadth. Their draft of 2ft. 3in. is 
also less than any of the others save the Crosby boats. 
Buzzard's Bay is rather more turbulent than any 
other sheet of water on the New England coast. The 
prevalent wind is S.W. and blows straight up the bay. 
The tides run very strong, and when going out against 
the S.W. wind cause a nasty, choppy sea. This is ac- 
centuated by the fact that the winds of that locality 
average much greater weight than those at Lar<;hmont 
or Marblehead. ; 
Mr. Herreshoff took these things into consideration 
in designing the class and produced a boat admirably 
adapted to the local conditions. The class has afforded 
the keenest of racing every year since its conception 
and is still popular. It has done much to develop the 
sport in that locality and to breed new and able sailor 
men. Despite their diminutive size, they have pr6ved 
capable of journeying down to Padanarum and- over to 
Vineyard Haven. ^ - , 
In point of numbers, the most prominent class of this 
size is that organized by members of the Seawanhaka 
Corinthian Y. C, and built -in the winter of .1902—03, 
from the design of Mr. Clinton 'H. Crane. It was at 
first proposed to build a class under the rating rule, 
but it was feared that such boats would not be fast 
enough, so a one-design class was determined upon. 
In appearance the boats greatly resemble a 21ft. knock- 
about scaled down to JSft. They are very handsome, 
and this aside from their careful construction and 
beautiful finish. They are double-planked, which seems 
unnecessary for such small boats, and built of the 
most expensive materials, which also seems a subject 
of regret, as they would be just as serviceable if less 
expensive, and would at the same time be . more at- 
tractive to men with slender purses. However, as some 
twenty or more of them were built, this last objection 
may not be well founded. I understand that they cost 
$650 each, exclusive of sails and fittings. 
In design they are keel boats with more breadth than 
the Herreshoif boats, and less sail area, having but 
290 sq. ft. in jib and mainsail. They are quite full 
forward and aft, with slack bilges and ,a ,-;moderate 
Mattapoisett 15-footer Spindrift. 
amount of deadrise. The sections are saucer-like rather 
than U-shaped. 
Last winter was a great one for classes of this kind, 
for in addition to that of the Seawanhaka Corinthian 
Y. C, others were formed from designs by Mr. W. 
Starling Burgess and Mr. William H. Handr"Jr. The 
former designed a class for the Mattapoisett Y. C. 
which had the avowed intention of trimming the 
Herreshoff boats of the Beverly Y. C. This was a pity, 
because the primary object of one-design classes is to 
produce an admirable boat irrespective of other craft. 
Eleven boats were built for this class, and the design 
showed much careful thought, although in my opinion 
it was not one particularly well adapted to Buzzard's 
Bay waters. They have 7ft. 6in breadth or nearly 2ft. 
more than the Herreshoff boats, and just one-half 
their L.W.L. Their bilges are fairly hard and their 
floors flat. The sections showed a hollow garbqard, 
which serves to reduce the wetted surface. Although 
of the centerboard type, they drew 3ft., or 9in. more 
than the Herreshoff boats and only gin. less than - the 
Crane keel boats. The added breadth and greater draft 
made them much more powerful than their Herreshoff 
rivals and enabled, them to swing 350 sq. ft. of sail, 
when the Herreshoff boats were under double reefs. 
Under these conditions the boats proved to be fairly 
well matched (judging from such ..chance rneetings as 
the two types had; there was never any regular rriatch 
between representatives of the two designs). In light 
or moderate winds the boats of the "Mattapoisett Club 
were unable to compete with those of the Beverly 
Club; while in a light air and a lop pf a sea the latter 
could sail circles around the boats from Mattapoisett. 
The trouble was that the Mattapoisett boats were too 
powerful and too flat for the conditions with which 
they had ordinarily to cope. In' a breeze they de- 
veloped an excessive weather helm and became almost 
impossible to steer, even when still able .to carry their 
sail. They were built rather heavier than the Herres- 
hoff boats in every respect. As an instance of this 
their planking was 5^in. stuff, as against 3^in. planking 
of the Herreshoff boats. Their spars were also heavier 
—■needlessly so — but this was probably a blessing rather 
than a detriment, since the added weight aloft would 
tend to give them a list in light airs when they most 
needed it, and in heavy weather they would be able to 
carry their sail so much longer than the other i|- 
footers that the unnecessary weight aloft was not a 
harm, comparatively. It is to be noticed that these 
Burgess designed boats had considerably more .sail 
than any of the other 15ft. ones, with the exception 
of that designed by Crosby. To my mind they were 
not as handsome as the Herreshoff, Crane, or Hand 
products. These Mattapoisett boats made an unusual 
record by sailing in forty races last season. 
While it was not so announced, it is probable ?that 
Mr. Hand in designing a class for the New Bedford. Y. 
C. also had it in mind to defeat the Herreshoff bpats. 
His design, from which three boats were built, also 
Crosby 15-footer Roolet. 
went to more breadth and a flatter floor, more sail 
area, and less freeboard. He chose the keel type, but 
did not go to the extremes in dimensions that Mr. 
Burgess did, and his boats were as handsome little fel- 
lows as I have ever seen. The Hand and Crane boats 
are quite similar; but in almost every dimension, that 
of the former have a few more inches — to be exact, they 
have sin. more over all length, Sin. more deck breadth, 
6in. more waterline breadth, 100 pounds more ballast, 
and 26 sq. ft. more sail than the Cr^ne craft. 
In the few opportunities that arose for the Hand and 
Herreshoff boats to try conclusions, the former had 
rather the best of it. 
The successes of all these classes and their marked 
popularity was undoubtedly a factor in the recent 
adoption by the Massaclusetts Y. R. A. of a restricted 
15ft. class. But it is to be regretted that the task of 
drawing up the restrictions was left to a man whose 
long identification with the old 21ft. cabin class and the 
new 22ft. class has influenced his mind in favor of a 
rather undesirable type of boat. This influence is shown 
in the restrictions devised by him. They are clearly 
calculated to produce a small 22-footer rather than a 
model similar to that of the Herreshoff, Crane or Hand 
boats. The new boats will be unduly wide, high- 
powered and over-canvased. It would seem ■ as if in 
choosing the restrictions the very successful i8ft. knock- 
abouts would have been followed for ideas rather than 
the 22-footers. But such was not the case. The sail 
area is but 75 sq. ft. less than that allowed the 18- 
footers. In fact it is the direct proportion that 15 
Hand 15-footer. 
is to 18. Can it be possible that this rule framer 
thought that sail area should " vary directly as the 
waterline length? Such a theory would give a 90- 
footer but 2,250 sq. ft. of sail— 18 is to 90 as 450 is to 
2,250. It is to be noticed that 375 sq. ft. of sail area 
is 25 sq. ft., more than that allowed the Burgess isft. 
one-design class; 59 sq. ft. more than given Mr. Hand's 
boats, 55 sq. ft. more than the Herreshoff boats have 
and 95 sq. ft. more than the Crane boats swing. ■ 
Perhaps the most striking feature of these restric- 
tions is the rule, "Boats having a draft of more than 
2ft. 6in. without centerboard shall be considered keel 
boats." That either means that boats without center- 
boards are to be considered keel boats (which one 
would take to be the case without any rule to that 
^^t.<^t), or else it ^neans that ceqtert)oard boats dra^f^ 
