Oct. 20, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
623 
TWO NEW RACERS. 
Much interest centers in the announcement re¬ 
cently made that two one-design racing boats 
have been ordered. The owners of these boats 
invited other prospective owners to join them. 
The new boats are to be of composite construc¬ 
tion and have good accommodations, though they 
are avowedly racers. The success last season 
of the sloop Effort in racing, as well as cruis¬ 
ing, seems to point to her as a fine example of 
that size of boat, and one that might be a splen¬ 
did nucleus for a class, which would afford the 
best of racing. 
Effort's rating is 60.10; that of the new boats 
57. Thus to- make Effort come in the class would 
necessitate a reduction in length of 5 per cent., 
breadth and depth 3 per cent., and 4 per cent, in 
height and length of sail plan. Conversely, no 
appreciable difference could be found in increas¬ 
ing the new boats to a rating of 60., which, were 
no others to be built to the class thafi the two- 
boats already ordered, would make the number 
of competitors three. 
The point of the whole business is that, to in¬ 
troduce- many classes varying but little in meas¬ 
urement does not produce good racing, as the 
classes do not fill. Lack of competition has 
knifed many a season’s racing. The spirit of 
sport is the only one that should prevail. It is 
only when yachtsmen begin to think less par¬ 
ticularly and more generally about the welfare 
of the sport that we shall have bigger classes 
numerically and keener competition. We are 
perfectly aware that there may be many rea¬ 
sons that are altogether good concerning the size 
of the new boats. However, there is a feeling, 
fairly well held, that unless one can build up he 
should do nothing obstructive, as there are so 
many who, not finding things to their liking, 
proceed to blacken and destroy. Yachting relies 
to-day, as it always has, on an ideal, on the pur¬ 
suit of the sport for its own sake, and on a desire 
for its promotion which will foster and encourage 
the art, which is one of the finest in developing the 
best qualities among men. 
We reprint from the October number of the 
London Yachting Monthly a comment upon an 
editorial which appeared in the Forest and 
Stream on Sept. 8. It is interesting, both in 
view of our remarks and gives a view of Eng¬ 
lish yachting, perhaps not much realized at 
home: 
“An American contemporary raises the ques¬ 
tion, ‘Should owners sail their own boats?’ 
Assuming, probably, that the question does not 
apply on the other side of the Atlantic to the 
smaller size of boat, the larger craft only are 
dealth with. Here with us it is otherwise, and 
down to the smallest boat the paid hand is very 
much in evidence. In racing matters it is still 
worse, and, although the trend of later years 
has been in the right direction, we are still 
lamentably _ short of amateur crews. In this 
respect racing might be of the greatest service. 
Now it is known to all that it is not so much 
the boat as the man who sails her, yet in spite 
of this fact the important factor remains un¬ 
known and unrewarded. The man who takes 
pleasure in flags he never won is of little service 
to any sporting community. We are strongly 
of ■ opinion that a small racing boat should be 
steered by her owner, or, when that is not pos¬ 
sible, by some one who is mentioned as having 
been in charge. We have great admiration for 
the owner who is content to be an ‘also ran’ 
rather than sacrifice his own pleasure to the 
hollow victory won for him. He plays the 
game, and of any flags which may fall to his 
lot he may justly be proud. It will avail 11s little 
if we spend a hundred years in evolving the 
ideal yacht if we have then no men to sail in it. 
Small-boat racing should be a school for 
amateurs, but we can hardly see how it will be 
so long as the chief factors in a race are not 
recognized to be the man and the boat, not the 
latter and her owner. On this account also it 
is almost impossible to arrive at the true form 
of the greater number of our small yachts. Ac¬ 
tion in this matter might mean the loss of a few 
owners, but it would lead to a large increment 
in the ranks of boat sailers, and that must be 
the primary consideration of ‘beneficent govern¬ 
ment.’ ” 
Boston Letter. 
In taking the sloop Little Rhody, winner of 
the Lipton cup in the race from New York to- 
Marblehead via Nantucket shoals, from Marble¬ 
head to Bristol, R. I., last week, her amateur 
crew.experienced a voyage replete with incident. 
They were Charles F. Tillinghast and Rayner 
Wheaton, of Providence, and John G. Alden and 
John W. Olmstead, of Boston. After beating 
down the Cape to a point beyond Nausett harbor, 
the wind and sea rising until a four-reefed main¬ 
sail overpowered their craft, they decided to run 
back. Unable to- beat from Wood End in to 
Provincetown, and deterred from anchoring in 
the lee of the beach, by the possibility of a shift 
of wind, they ran off for Gloucester. But when 
twelve or fifteen miles N.N.W. of Race Point 
they were caught in a 50-mile blow from N. by W. 
They thereupon ran before it for Provincetown 
in company with .a large fleet of fishing and 
coasting schooners. Little Rhody’s crew lost 
their tender and saw the reefed mainsail and 
foresail of a coaster blown from the bolt ropes. 
The tender was picked up by life savers and re¬ 
turned. 
Mr. Olmstead was obliged to leave the boat at 
Provincetown, but his three companions con¬ 
tinued their cruise. Beating down the back of 
the Cape in thick weather they in some manner 
went astray, and passing outside of Pollock Rip 
sighted the lightship on Great Round Shoal 
before getting back to their course. They made 
a wonderfully fast run through Nantucket Sound 
with a favoring tide and, passing through Woods 
Hole, finally made a harbor in Cuttyhunk Roads. 
Being warned to leave there by the life savers 
they ran for Brenton’s Reef before a strong S.E. 
wind through a very high sea which they esti¬ 
mated to be at least fifteen feet from hollow to 
crest. Off Sakonnet river they were forced to 
seek shelter and running two miles up that stream 
anchored within 200 yards of the shore. But 
although in a lee the sea was so sloppy even 
there that Little Rhody plunged bows under. 
There they experienced a remarkably severe rain 
storm with a wonderful electric display. After 
which they ran up the river and beat over to 
Bristol. 
During the worst portions of the trip the cock¬ 
pit was knee-deep with water and occasional 
seas swept the craft from bow to stern. That 
she finished the trip without mishap was largely 
due to the equipment of new sails, new running 
rigging, and stout spars and to the fact that the 
sill to the companionway is above the level of 
the deck. Then too Little Rhody, although es¬ 
sentially of a racing model, is very heavily built 
and in a most thorough manner. All these ele¬ 
ments would, however, have been unavailing, I 
am sure, without skillful handling which the try¬ 
ing experiences served but to- accentuate. 
The meeting of the Eighteen Foot Knockabout 
Association, on the ninth instant, was one of 
great enthusiasm. Dr. Fred Gay, of the sloop 
Sunshine, has promised a magnificent silver cup 
for next summer’s championship, and it is hoped 
that this trophy will be an incentive for a more 
generally, and more keenly, contested class series. 
Mr. A. W. Finlay, owner of this year’s cham¬ 
pion, Dorc-hen, and My. Fred Bogardus, owner 
of Omar I'll., announced that they will build 
new boats for the class. There was some dis¬ 
cussion in regard to handicapping the center- 
board boats in some way, but this did not meet 
with general favor and will not be undertaken. 
Restrictions will be adopted, however, to mini¬ 
mize such expenses as that of oot-leading the 
boats. And such restrictions, if properly worked 
out, will do far more to revive the class than 
will the most expensive trophies. 
Boston yachtsmen look forward with interest 
to the coming visit o-f Sir Thomas Lipton, who- 
is to spend a day or two here early in November 
or the latter part of this month. He comes by 
invitation of the mayor and aldermen, and while 
we have not hitherto considered them as closely 
affiliated with yachting we are forced to recog¬ 
nize on second thought that politicians, like 
yachtsmen, trim their sails to every favoring 
breeze. So we overlook the cause in the result 
and propose to make the visit of Sir Thomas a 
noteworthy occasion. 
The new owner of the 46ft. Alga, whose sale 
was announced some weeks ago, is Mr. W. Star¬ 
ling Burgess, the designer of Orestes. It is 
thought that in making an auxiliary of Alga he 
will follow the same general scheme as that which 
he adopted in the case of converting the old 
cutter Edith. 
Mr. Harold J. Glidden, of the Hingham Y. C., 
has purchased the 22-footer Sanderling of Walter 
S. Burgess, Esq., secretary of the Boston Y. C., 
giving in part payment his 17ft. sloop Clara, twice 
the champion of her class in the Hingham Y. C. 
Sanderling was designed by W. B. Stearns and 
built by the Marblehead Yacht Yard in 1900, and 
raced this year with some success in class Q. 
Norman L. Skene, Esq., the designer of the 
schooner yacht Black Flawk, and many other very 
interesting and capable boats, has withdrawn 
from the active practice of his profession to accept 
a position as head of the engineering department 
of the A. S .Mo-rss Co. He has a splendid techni¬ 
cal education, and his writings on technical sub¬ 
jects have been not only accurate, but most read¬ 
able, winning for him a host of well wishers 
who hope and expect to see him make a success 
in his new position. It is also to be hoped that 
he will find time in his spare moments to con¬ 
tinue his designing, especially in the power boat 
field where his originality has won deserved com¬ 
mendation. William Lambert Barnard. 
\ 
The steam yacht Aphrodite, Col. Oliver H. 
Payne, New York Y. C., arrived home last week 
from a five months’ European cruise. Col. 
Payne’s guests included Col. LaTrope. Mr. T. R. 
Hanna, Dr. Lewis A. Stimson and Miss Stim- 
son, who it will be remembered sailed on board 
the Fleur de Lis in the Emperor’s cup race from 
New York to the needles. Aphrodite cruised in 
the Mediterranean, then proceeded to Cowes, from 
there to the Baltic, and after returning to- Eng¬ 
land, Col. Payne and his guests left the vessel 
for some shooting in Scotland. Rejoining the 
vacht at London the party proceeded to New 
York. 
