662 FOREST AND STREAM. [Oct. 27, 1906. 
Boston Letter. 
EXPERIENCE. 
Yachting is, at least on its professional side, 
full of idiosyncrasies. It would be a strange 
thing for two yachtsmen to agree entirely in the 
matter of boat, rig, construction, or any of the 
thousand and one things that go toward the 
composition of a yacht. 
For years we have heard the good old yarn, 
that if the architects did more sailing or. steaming 
in their vessels, they would not be the butt of 
so many aspersions upon their ability or their 
lack of observation. That is perfectly true. To 
know the sea is essential to good designing. 
And what is design, but that result of knowl¬ 
edge, blended with a ripe judgment and common 
sense? 
An example can be found in the many vessels 
used in various parts of the world for fishing. 
Their forms, sails and purpose vary with the 
locality. In most places where a type exists it 
has been handed down through generations, and 
the improvements have been very slight and 
gradual. These fishing vessels are meant for 
sea work and sea speed, and at most we look 
upon them as curiosities. If one were so fortu¬ 
nate as to see one of such type or many of them, 
beating for a harbor, in half a gale in the winter 
time, they still would be curiosities, but they 
would have earned their meed of respect. 
Bad weather affords the test of a boat’s qual¬ 
ities, and it is also good for the man. Yachting 
—in summer—the term suggests a sailing breeze 
under bright sun; but when a gale springs up, 
everybody is watching the hook, fearful of its 
dragging. 
During the past summer in bad weather a little 
vessel put out from a snug harbor and had a 
long day’s run ahead for her engine. Her 
designer was aboard. The weather gradually 
got worse—head sea, 10 to lift, in height, and 
running about 14 miles an hour; fairly stiff for 
a weight of 14 tons, 60ft. long. With the in¬ 
crease of the gale, the boat was put back and 
ran for it. Any one who knows such conditions 
will understand; but that is not the point. It 
was the conjunction of the man, his boat and 
bad weather. The value of such a. combination 
from a point of experience cannot be over¬ 
estimated. 
The value is in practical knowledge. Theo¬ 
retical study is but training and the preparation 
for the application of experience. 
Just here the value of long races appears. 
This value is the only and the best justi¬ 
fication long races have, of bringing out in the 
man and his boat, his and their best points, in 
the carrying forward of the knowledge of that 
ever-varying mistress—the Sea. 
The firm of Burgess & Packard have secured 
the services of Mr. W. F. Stevens, one of the 
best canoe builders in this country. Mr. Bur¬ 
gess reports that they have a number of racing 
canoes in course of construction at their planr 
in Marblehead. One of them, as previously re¬ 
ported, is for Mr. Ohlmeyer, of the New York 
Canoe Club. 
The Yacht Racing Association of Massa¬ 
chusetts when formed had for its incentive a 
desire to standardize the racing classes, abolish 
time allowance, codify the rules, harmonize 
racing dates, and create rules of measurement, 
or restrictions (call them what you will), that 
should produce fast but serviceable boats. In 
all of these things the Association was success¬ 
ful; despite the inevitable opposition to all new 
movements and the customary cry that vested 
interests, in the form of old boats, were being 
sacrificed. 
The classes provided by the Association were 
of two diverse types—one set were for unre¬ 
stricted. unlimited boats in which the waterline 
length was the single element of taxation; the 
other set were so drawn as to tax various ele- 
ifients of speed and, while allowing the greatest 
latitude in the selection of the different factors 
of stability and without favoring one type as 
against another, by compelling the use of good 
construction and prescribing a minimum amount 
of cabin room for each class, there resulted a 
serviceable, saleable boat whatever character¬ 
istic her designer might adopt in the search for 
speed. 
It is a highly significant fact that under, these 
circumstances the racing owners turned with 
almost absolute unaniminity to the restricted 
classes rather than to those which permitted the 
elements of speed, pure and unrestrained, to 
dominate all the other qualifications of a boat. 
That this was so should be an answer to all 
those old fogies who lament what they call a 
conspiracy to tax speed. The fact, as the history 
of the Association has shown, is that while our 
racing men desire the fastest boats possible, they 
first, last and always wish for boats as dis¬ 
tinguished from mere machines. 
The restrictions of the Association worked 
well for many years, but as time went on the 
ingenuity of our designers, the knowledge born 
of experience and experiment, the advance in 
methods of construction, disclosed the loop 
holes in those restrictions and products of the 
toboggan slide were made to fit the rules. When 
this came to pass the classes were on their 
death beds. Despite the speed attained, men 
would no longer build these boats. 
In the meantime, and before the final crash 
came,, the more conservative racing men sought 
a refuge from the impending catastrophy. As 
the Association offered them no remedy, they 
prescribed for themselves, formulated restric¬ 
tions for new classes, organized their own asso¬ 
ciations to govern those classes and then per¬ 
suaded the Y. R. A. to adopt those subsidiary 
associations en bloc. That the Y. R. A. did this 
was no sign of weakness—its object was to pro¬ 
mote racing. The time was not then ripe for a 
general revision of its rules and rather than see 
racing revert to the chaos that prevailed before 
its conception the Y. R. A. took these different 
associations to its bosom as they came along. 
This worked well until all the classes of the Y. 
R. A. had ceased to exist and the racing fleet 
was reduced to the boats of the different asso¬ 
ciations which the Y. R. A. had fostered. 
In the fall of 1903 the Y. R. A. formulated 
rules for new classes. But this reform was half¬ 
hearted and disconnected. It lacked the unity 
which had caused the former successes. Each 
of the new classes were governed by a different 
rule based upon widely divergent theories as to 
how best insure a desirable model. Instead of 
bringing all the classes back to one common 
base the effect was much the same as if several 
new under-associations had been created. The 
new classes failed to attract popularity. This 
was no doubt due in part to a new element— 
the universal rule, which was then being pro¬ 
mulgated. If the latter was going to be a suc¬ 
cess Massachusetts would do well to await that 
result unfettered by the construction of boats 
that must be at once discarded. 
And so the Y. R. A. struggled through the 
summers of 1904 and 1905, the prey of all its 
old critics and at the mercy,- so to speak, of its 
self,constituted foster children. In the fall ot 
1905 the universal rule was adopted, and had the 
sonderklasse not be6n unexpectedly sprung upon 
our racing world the Lipton cup for class Q 
might have produced a more general interest in 
the rule of American creation. But things have 
at last assumed a more roseate hue. 
At the annual meeting of the Y. R. A. held the 
eighteenth there was a general feeling of con¬ 
fidence in the future. A number of prominent 
men having at last seen the errors of the past, 
were able to confess those errors and assume an 
attitude favorable to further growth along the 
right lines. The consensus of opinion seemed 
to be that the universal rule is to be the means 
of salvation, but that steps should at once be 
taken to adopt scantling restrictions as a part 
of that rule. There can be no serious dispute 
over this proposition. Strong construction is an 
essential feature of any rule that is to have per¬ 
manency and with the Massachusetts clubs 
solidified on this point there should be no 
trouble in securing its adoption. Especially as 
the New York Y. C. and the other clubs in the 
vicinity of New York have always shown a 
praiseworthy desire to accept any beneficial 
amendments to the rule. 
In order to encourage racing among the older 
boats, the Y. R. A. took steps to adopt the 
inter-club classes, which are composed of boats 
in the South Boston. Columbia, Mosquito Fleet, 
Squantum, Wollaston, Winthrop and Quincy 
yacht clubs. These boats are to be enrolled in 
a separate sub-association which shall determine 
the racing measurements, etc., and which will 
be sanctioned by the Y. R. A. with but one con¬ 
dition—that new boats shall not be built to this 
association’s rules. 
The Hull O. D. C. 15ft. class is now so well 
under way that some particulars may be given. 
Messrs. Small Bros, have preliminary sketches 
which show a craft very similar ,to the Hingham 
O. D. C. 15-footers. But as the Hull boats are 
to be of the keel type, with 400 pounds of out¬ 
side ballast, their construction will, of necessity, 
be heavier and more expensive than that of their 
Hingham prototypes. The dimensions are: 
Length over all, 24ft.; load waterline, 15ft.; ex¬ 
treme breadth, 6ft. 6in.; extreme draft, 3ft. 11 in.; 
least freeboard, isEjin., and total sail area, 282 
sq. ft. They should be faster, more seaworthy 
and more weatherly than the Hingham boats, 
and should produce the keenest possible racing. 
Mr. Charles W. Cole is the moving spirit in this 
class. Others who have agreed to order boats 
are T. E. Jacobs who had so many successful 
summers with the 21ft. knockabout Jacobin; F. 
L. Dunne, who has sailed many races at Hull in 
the past on Lai; Alfred Douglass, vice-commo¬ 
dore of the Boston Y. C., who sailed Oriana 
and Biza in the 18ft. class; George H. Street, 
George G. Williams, C. B. Pratt and George 
W. Wightman, owners successively of Bonito, 
Bonitwo and Bonidrei. Other Hull yachtsmen 
who may join the class are W. Prescott Keyes, 
James R. Hooper, Clias E. Lauriat, Jr., and A. 
F. Hayden. 
The preparations for the entertainment of Sir 
Thomas Lipton on the occasion of his visit to 
Boston are giving rise to situations that are not 
devoid of humor. It seems that when Sir 
Thomas was feted in Chicago recently Boston’s 
Alderman Bell was present, and had the pleas¬ 
ure of meeting the Irish Baronet. With the true 
politician’s instinct for being a Johnny on the 
spot, the Alderman promptly invited Sir Thomas 
