129 
THE PRINCIPLE OF TWIN BOATS AND THEIR USEFULNESS. 
SAILINO AND ROWING TREBLE BOAT. 
== 
cr. 
r 
JLi 
h 1 
L_i 
Sir, — I beg tlirougb the medium of your 
valuable journal to show to the public one 
way by which the principle of twin-boats may 
be applied, if not to any extent of usefulness 
at least in making an addition to the recrea- 
tions of amateur’s in rowing and sailing, and, 
therefore recommended to those who are 
fond of both. 
The plan in question has for its object 
to unite sailing and rowing, in the most 
convenient manner, so that any person or 
club possessing a rowing-boat of any des- 
cription, from a twelve-oared galley to a 
wherry or skiff, may contrive to make a 
good sailing-boat, and still have her in rea- 
diness for use as a rowing-boat, perfectly 
unencumbered with masts, sails, ballast, 
&c. ; in fact, in the same state as if she 
had not been used for sailing. 
The proposed sketches will sufficiently 
elucidate my meaning, it being quite unne- 
cessary to determine upon the shape, size, or 
dimensions, of the twin-boats, which may 
be formed to suit all fancies, for the attain- 
ment of whatever good quality they may be 
required to possess. 
AA are the twin-boats, which may be of 
such capacities and distances asunder as 
may be judged proper for stability. B is 
the row-boat, which is placed in the centre 
between the others, and secured to the beams 
by screws passing through them into her 
gunwales, or by their passing through the 
beams with screw nuts, or any other simple 
and convenient method, thus forming a treble- 
boat. Although the central boat offers her- 
self conveniently enoughfor housingthe mast, 
I do not take advantage of it, beceuse it 
would be a hindrance to using the boat 
with dispatch ; besides, it is of little conse- 
quence, as owing to the great spread of the 
rigging, very little housing would be neces- 
sary, a wooden shock fixed to one of the 
beams, or a low thwart from one beam to the 
other, would answer every purpose. Fig. 2 
shows how she may be rigged as a cutter, 
for instance, and she is represented as sail- 
ing directly before the wind, with her bow- 
sprit, containing her fore-sail and jib spread 
over on the opposite side of her main-sail, 
which is made to revolve at its inner end C, 
fig. 1 ; and when the boat is sailing upon a 
wind, it is secured to the stern by a clamp, 
by which method the necessity of a square 
sail is avoided, a plan of this nature being 
manageable enough upon a small scale ; how- 
ever, as the rigging part has nothing to do 
with the first intention of the plan. I leave 
that entirely to the judgment of the amateur. 
After the above explanation, it will be 
readily imagined that the central boat is 
always in a state of readiness, and when 
it is considered that the largest class of yacht 
cutters cannot conveniently stow a large, 
galley, the convenience of the plan is obvi- 
ous ; by way of an example, I will suppose 
a club of gentlemen having a rowing galley, 
and being desirous of making a long excur- 
sion coastwise, or from one river to another, 
now instead of over-fatiguing themselves by 
rowing the whole of the distance, they might 
anchor the treble-boat in a place of security 
at the mouth of one river, and row up the 
other, which latter may be supposed to be 
too narrow for the treble-boat to work up, 
and the same i-easoning would hold good for 
those who possessed Thames, wherries, or 
small skiffs. As the twin-boats would be 
decked out and made water-tight, the sail- 
ing would be attended with the safety of a 
life-boat. When the treble-boats, too, were 
on such scale as, to exceed the length of 25 
feet, the twin-boats would then be capacious 
enough for the accommodation of sleeping- 
berths, — small cabins, as their owners might 
think fit, properly shut in with hatch-ways. 
I can recommend the plan the better from 
having fried it ; therefore, an observation or 
two, as to how she works, may not be amiss. 
The display of good judgement all depends 
upon the distance of the twin-boats from 
each other, together with their capacities 
suiting whatever weight of mast, rigging, 
and quantity ofconvass it is proposed to give 
the boat. 
Should the twin -boats be of small capaci- 
ties and too far asunder, the longitudinal 
stability or liability to turn over in sailing 
before the. wind may be less than the lateral, 
or that required in sailing upon a wind ; this 
is the point in which the stability differs so 
widely from single boats. I have read in 
some publication that it would be next to 
impossible for a twin-boat to be upset, but 
that is a fallacy, as any vessel maybe masted 
and rigged in proportion to her stability, 
which I have learnt by experience for having 
so masted my treble-boat, as to oblige me to 
take in reefs when other vessels did, I was 
once all but upset ; the lee boat was appa- 
rently entirely submerged, audit is clear that 
the maximum of stability must be in that 
