402 
FOREST AND STREAM 
IMay 14, 1904. 
The Kingstown Water Wags. 
BY THOMAS B. MIDDLETON^ PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
This club claims the honor of having conceived and 
launched "the one-design class" of racing. 
The one-design idea, which has now been so largely 
adopted for yacht racing purposes, was, on the other 
hand, the origin of "The Water Wags," and they have 
ever since devoted all their energies to the promotion 
of that division of racing. 
It came about in this way. In the year 1887 "the 
plank-on-edge type" had well nigh brought yacht racing 
in the open classes to as low an ebb as it is to-day. 
The type had become so pronounced that it was 
almost as easy to sit astride a five-tonner as a dray 
horse, the consequence being that as soon as a boat 
was beaten in a race she fell ninety per cent in value, 
and, except for her lead keel, was not worth the cost 
of breaking up. Only very rich men would consequently 
build, and the racing got very sick. 
The Yacht Racing Association then called their ex- 
perts together to see what was wrong, but they either 
did not see or would not recognize the real cause of 
the disease, and they tried to bolster up the patient by 
a radical change in the measurements. This had the 
effect of taking the plank off its edge and putting it on 
its side. It produced a fairly healthy boat for a few 
years and the sick lady got well enough to be able to 
get up and let her bed be made and to even make a fair 
show at the regattas for several seasons, but the in- 
genuity of the designers soon exaggerated the new boat 
into a skimming dish wiih a deep keel and interior taken 
up with braces and cross qirders, carrying an enormous 
sail area and costing a foitune. 
This type of craft was of no use except for racing 
(there was not head room to stand up in even a twenty- 
tonner of the ultra type), so that the depreciation of 
capital upon defeat soon rose to the old rate of eighty- 
five or ninety per cent. And those costly machines, 
plus golf plus motor cars, have thrown the poor lady 
into such a relapse that it looks very like as if she was 
about to relinquish the briny to h^r younger sister, 
who now has her hair up, is a great favorite, and has 
waltzed right around the globe. 
The writer of these lines was confident his diagnosis 
of the elder sister's complaint in 1887 was correct, and 
A Water Wag Under Sail. 
that the Yacht Racing Association was -at sea on the 
point, and to prove it he determined to try his remedy. 
He accordingly selected the smallest possible sailing 
boat — a 13ft. dinghy of a useful and pretty double-bowed 
Scotch model, with a good beam (4ft. loin.), carrying a 
well-cut lug by Lapthorn of 75 square feet — and induced 
six or eight other men to build boats similar in every 
respect. The original boats were mostly built by Mc- 
Allister, of Dunbarton, N. B., though subsequently 
many other yards turned them out. They cost at that 
time about £14 or £15, being strongly built of yellow 
pine with teak fittings, and gave capital sport, the con- 
tests being very close and entirely one of skill in man- 
agement, and after three or four seasons racing the 
owner, if he wished to sell his boat, got his money back. 
In proof of this, the writer's boat, the Eva — the first 
water wag ever built— sold last year for more money 
than she originally cost, after sixteen years' work. 
The water wags were a success from the first; there 
are twenty-four boats on the racing list this year, be- 
sides many old ones in commission round the coast. 
(Fourteen boats came to the line on the i6th inst., the 
first race of this season, and seventeen on the 23d 
inst.) They have gone out to Japan, Hong Kong, the 
Persian Gulf, Buenos Ayres, Africa, and many other 
foreign stations. 
"One-design" classes have also been organized in 
nearly all British waters. There are many of different 
sizes in the Solent and along the south coast of England. 
The Clyde, in Scotland, also possesses many, the largest 
running up to twenty tons. Belfast Lough, Ireland, 
also has its classes, and the Dublin waters started no 
less than seven classes besides the original water wag 
class — all healthy, good, models, that make useful boats 
when not racing; the 25ft. water-line class being a par- 
ticularly nice model of a cutter of about six tons, with 
standing head room in the cabin. They make delight- 
ful cruisers for two or three and a hand, will go through 
any weather, cost between £250 and £300, and do not 
depreciate ten per cent when sold second hand. His Ex- 
cellency the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland built one 
last year and raced her through the season. All the 
races are very keenly contested, the boats being always 
close together, and every little advantage must be se- 
cured to win. 
Of course, the one-design idea being so successful, 
could not expect to escape criticisjn and hostility i^m 
ipany quarters. First, the designers felt sore that one 
#sign sbpuW suffice for a 9la§'§ pot^ "wprQv^" 
on, but the one-design classes have become so numer- 
out that they have got almost as many orders from them 
as they have got for the last few years for boats in the 
open classes. » 
Then, again, men with money have their knife in the 
'one design, because it makes the man with moderate 
means equal to him. They say they would not be 
Just after the start. 
bothered racing in a class where every detail is tied 
down and there is no room for "improvement," which 
means altering a healthy model into a racing machine. 
What Mr. Croesus wants is to know that his money has 
secured for him a ship that, before she leaves her moor- 
ings, everyone knows for a certainty that she will get 
into first place and stay there. That he will head the 
procession and look back at the poor beggars that 
cannot afford to out-build him, and that if anyone 
should, he will build a more advanced machine that 
will beat the boat that had the audacity to beat him. 
But is that true sport? Is it as true sport as a race 
where all the fleet go out like a flock of birds and where 
Water Wags Racing in Kingstown Harbor. 
only the best seamen will get his boat to the front and 
where, when he gets it there, will have its opponents 
hanging on its quarters ready to snatch its place if the 
smallest error is made in the sailing, and when intense 
excitement is kept up till the end of the race and no 
skipper is sure of the prize till the gun goes? 
The Water Wags have no abode in the shape of a 
club house. They meet where and when they list, and 
all the funds go to prizes. Their affairs are managed by 
a captain, committee and honorary secretary and treas- 
urer, all elected annually and selected from the keen- 
est racers and most serviceable men to the club. They 
■ A Water Wag on the Beach. 
are republican or democratic in their ideas. Social 
position, politics or religion are inadmissible considera- 
tions. They simply confine themselves to their object: 
"The promotion of amateur seamanship and raciiig in 
safe' and useful boats that are similar a;s regards size, 
linf s 'and s^il ^^^i aod whfre th^ coot&st snail be Oflo 
of skill." (It would be better for Ireland if her public 
bodies acted on the same lines and confined themselves 
to the objects for which they were formed.) Good 
fellowship and honorable sportsmanship are the prin- 
cipal qualifications for membership. The Water Wags 
do not go in for gilded figure-heads, judging from their 
president, re-elected for many years. Their burgee is 
red white red horizontal, with the red ensign. For sev- 
eral years they have held a very successful function in the 
shape of a smoking concert, at which many good photo- 
graphs taken during the season are thrown on a screen, 
and they sometimes have an excursion in fleet for 
lunch in some bay or on some island. 
The water wags have the name among land-lubbers 
of being dangerous boats. In unskilled hands they will, 
no doubt, upset in a squall, as any other 13ft. unballasted 
boat with 75 square feet of sail over will do, but they 
have the grand quality of not going to the bottom and 
leaving the crew to swim for it. All the crew has to 
do is to remain quiet till help comes, and even non- 
swimmers get out all right. There have been many 
upsets during the sixteen years' racing. On the first 
race of 1903, during a fierce squall, four of the boats 
were over at the same time, but all crews were picked 
up and the boats righted within twenty minutes. It is 
not a good thing to boast, hut the water wags have 
never lost a man, and when it is considered that- an 
average of eleven boats starting with two men on 
board in an average of forty races in the season, giving 
nearly 15,000 times men have risked their lives racing 
in these boats since they came into existence, besides 
a greater number of times when not racing, water wag- 
ging compares very favorable with other modes of 
ending one's existence. 
Although this is an account of the club,_ and not of 
the members, it would not be complete without some 
mention of those members who have done most to 
make the club a success. Foremost among these is the 
former Honorable Secretary Mr. John B. Stephens, 
who took over his arduous duties when the club was at 
a low ebb and worked it up to a spring tide level, in- 
augurating and working with great success the smok- 
ing concerts which bring the members together in 
the off season. Mr. G. A. Newson, the present hotior- 
able secretary, has brought the club to a record pitch 
of perfection. Mr. J. H. Hargrave, ex-captain, brought 
untiring skill and energy into the working of the de- 
Sr\ 
'f 
"Neck-and-Neck." 
tails of the club, and is the father of the square-sterned 
boat, introduced some years ago in place of the double- 
bowed m9de! originally adopted. Mr. J. J. Lynch, cap- 
tain for 1903, furthered the popularity of the club and 
arranged a most successful expedition to the Shannon, 
where the boats at the local regattas there created much 
interest. Mr. Luis Meldon, one of the most success- 
ful, if not the most successful wag racer, while he was 
at it, is one of those universal geniuses who shine at 
whatever they take up. He is also a most successful 
amateur photographer, and most of the photographs 
of wags illustrating this article are by him. 
The Water Wags being inaugurated in the year of 
the late Queen Victoria's first jubilee (1887) they 
possess a jubilee cup which is held each year by the 
most successful boat, and, though the metallic value 
of it is not much, it is increasing every year in intrinsic 
value, as it carries the names of the holders from the 
first year, several of whom have departed to sail in 
higher latitudes, and it is hoped that eventually it will 
be included among the nation's trophies. 
Perhaps at some future date American and British or 
Irish amateurs will arrange a. national seamanship 
apart from yacht building, in which event they could 
not do better than adopt the one-design class of boats 
for the contest, and in two boats identical in every re- 
spect, built side by side, either in America or England, 
the crews could race the best out of five races, changing 
boats for each race. As a seamanship championship 
it would be very interesting: It could be contested in 
inexpensive and useful boats that would sell well after 
the race. 
As a primer school for amateur yachtsmen there is 
no better than the water wags, as all the. rudiments of 
fore and aft sailing, rules of racing, and much general 
nautical knowledge are acquired in those small open 
boats, which knowledge comes in very useful as the 
yachtsmen rise up into larger classes, as they invariably 
do. 
Kingstown, Ireland. 
Houseboat Roxana to be Lengthened. — The stee^ 
houseboat Roxana, owned by Mr. John W. Gates, is now 
at Morris Heights, where she will undergo extensive: 
alterations. The yacht will be cut in two amidships andl 
15ft. will be added. The deck house will also be length- 
ened, and when finished will contain a statesoom and a' 
bath for the ov^f^er. The work will 1^ rus^g<j», and the 
yacht will b§ in iggg^ASiiQU on June i. _^ „_ - 
