FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 20, 1909. 
306 
Foreign Built Yachts. 
The article printed in Forest and Stream a 
few weeks ago about foreign built yachts seems 
to have stirred up the British papers. The 
Yachtsman and the Yachting World have copied 
the article and to a certain extent have tried to 
justify the action of wealthy Americans going 
to Great Britain for their yachts, but in doing 
so they have strengthened the arguments made 
by ship builders here in favor of there being a 
duty on such vessels. 
The Yachtsman declared that the reason why 
Americans went to Great Britain was because de¬ 
signers here had to have the experience and 
could not turn out yachts as good as British de¬ 
signers could. The Yachtsman seems to have 
forgotten that Cassandra, owned by Commodore 
Roy L. Rainey, was built from designs by Clin¬ 
ton H. Crane and that Mr. Crane went abroad 
himself to superintend the yacht’s construction. 
Other yachts have been built abroad from 
American designs and have been good boats, 
too. Cassandra after she came to this side went 
to a ship yard to have her joiner work finished 
and many changes have since been made in the 
interior of the yacht and in the engines. 
The Yachtsman, in its latest editions to hand, 
says: 
“Our New York contemporarj'. Forest and 
Stream, devotes a very large amount of the 
space available in its last issue to hand to a 
bitter complaint anent the custom of wealthy 
citizens placing their orders for expensive steam 
yachts with British designers and builders. This 
has long been a sore point in the States, but 
Forest and Stream touches the fringe of the 
subject when it suggests that it is mainly a 
question of Free Trade vs. Protection. For, 
though there is every reason to think that even 
a multi-millionaire is wise enough to deal in 
the cheapest market, it is by no means_ likely that 
he would be so foolish as to do so if he were 
not assured of getting a superfine article. It 
may be pointed out that steam yachts of large 
size can be built very much more cheaply in 
other European countries than in the British 
Islands. The truth is that American designers 
lack the experience necessary to turn out a per¬ 
fect yacht, and that builders in the States are 
apt to quote wonderfully high prices when called 
upon to do specially fine work, 
“The following quotation from Forest and 
Stream will serve to indicate where the shoe 
pinches. Corsair, we may mention, is a ten-year- 
old vessel, designed by G. Beavor Webb, who 
(after designing the cup challengers Genesta and 
Galatea) settled in America and became a 
naturalized citizen. Corsair is a pretty yacht, 
and bears the stamp of British design all over. 
Niagara is a splendidly fitted and comfortable 
vessel, but she cannot be said to be very taking 
in appearance, and she fell some two knots short 
of her contract speed.” 
In its next week’s issue it said; 
“The extract which we reprinted from Forest 
AND Stream last week under the above title 
seems to have excited considerable interest 
among our readers. That the law passed a few 
years ago with the object of preventing Ameri¬ 
can owners from building in this (or any other) 
‘foreign’ country was futile is very well known, 
but we have heard its futility explained by a 
citizen of the United States in the following man¬ 
ner: ‘It’s what we call a “hay-seed” law. It 
was never meant to be any good, and it was only 
passed to please the people of the inland States. 
That’s why we call it a “hay-seed” law.’ How¬ 
ever this may be, the suggestion of an ad valorem 
tax of 40 per cent, on foreign-built yachts is a 
very fair measure of the difference existing be¬ 
tween the quality of the British and American 
article at the present time. Some owners might 
even prefer to become naturalized British sub¬ 
jects! Of several letters which we have received 
on this subject the following seems to deal with 
the subject most fully: 
“ ‘Forest and Stream makes a strange error 
in its article on this subject. It says, referring 
to foreign-built yachts: “These foreign yachts 
have American register; they have all the privi¬ 
leges of vessels built in this country, and they 
fly the American yacht ensign.” This is not so; 
they have no American register; namely, they 
are not American yachts. They have not, at 
least they are not supposed to have, all the privi¬ 
leges of United States built yachts. Perhaps this 
does not amount to much. The foreign-built 
yachts fly the American yacht ensign. But so 
does Erin, for instance. Any yachtsman who 
is a member of an American yacht club can fly 
the 3'acht ensign. If Forest and Stream had 
said that foreign-built yachts fly the American 
ensign it would have been more to the point. 
Legally, they are not entitled to do this, but the 
law is more honored in the breach than in the 
observance. What exactly are privileges of 
American-built yachts is a difficult matter to find 
out. The point about the flag, before mentioned, 
is one; the others are evidently of like import¬ 
ance, as the following may show: A San Fran¬ 
cisco ship owner had a number of boats built 
on the ( 31 yde a few years ago. He had some 
of them registered in Glasgow and some in Van¬ 
couver, B. C. The privileges consequent upon 
his boats being registered in the State were not 
worth the difference in the contract price of the 
boats.’ ” 
The Erin always never carried the American 
flag except at the fore while in these waters, and 
Sir Thomas Lipton, being a British subject, could 
fly only the British flag. 
Yachting in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., Feb. 13. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The annual meeting and election 
of officers of the Corinthian Y. C. was held a 
few evenings ago at the Argonaut Hotel, and in 
spite of the inclement weather a large number 
of members were present. The ticket as named 
by the nominating committee as usual was 
elected without any opposition. W. F. Stone was 
re-elected commodore, W. J. Hogg was elected 
vice-commodore, succeeding W. A. Stringer, and 
John Keefe, as usual, was re-elected port cap¬ 
tain. The board of directors for the following 
year consist of the above named officers and the 
following additional: Dr. L. J. McMahon, C. F. 
Morel, Peter Lamb and P. J. Gallagher. At the 
conclusion of the meeting the directors met and 
re-elected Dr. L. J. McMahon. Secretary, and 
C. F. Morel, Treasurer. T. J. Kavanaugh, Doug¬ 
las Erskine and William Barlage were appointed 
to act as a regatta committee. The reports 
covering last year’s work were read and the club 
was shown to be in a flourishing shape in every 
way, and prospects for the coming year are 
even more favorable than those of last year. 
There was considerable discussion in regard to 
the new club house which the Corinthians con¬ 
template building on their land at Tiburon, but 
nothing definite was decided upon at the meet¬ 
ing. The commodore was empowered to name 
a committee of three to act as a ways and means 
committee and these will render a report at the 
next meeting. John Flammersmith presented the 
club with a beautiful trophy to be contested for 
and this was turned over to the regatta commit¬ 
tee. The cup must be won three times before 
it goes into the permanent possession of the 
successful owner. 
The Pacific Association of Amateur Oarsmen 
held their annual meeting in San Francisco late 
in January and after the election of officers 
formed plans for the big events that are sched¬ 
uled to take place here this season. The fol¬ 
lowing officers were elected: President, John 
H. von Staden. Ariel Rowing Club; Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, Dr. T. (j. McConkey, San Diego Rowing 
Club: Secretary. Alexander G. Bell, Alameda 
Rowing Club; Treasurer, Joseph Lewis, Ariel 
Rowing Club. An interclub regatta will be held 
under the auspices of the association during the 
month of April in which all of the local clubs 
will participate. Arrangements are now being 
made for a grand championship regatta to be 
held on San Francisco Bay during the fete of 
Portola which is to take place in October. 
Champion scullers and crews will be brought 
from all the large cities on the coast and prob¬ 
ably from the East. The board of harbor com¬ 
missioners are in favor of holding this regatta 
and will arrange for a course suitable for hold¬ 
ing the races. This will be the first time that 
the San Francisco crews and scullers will have 
the opportunity to compete with outsiders on 
their own waters. The association decided to 
make a vigorous fight in favor of the proposed 
water park for San Francisco and will be pres¬ 
ent in a body at the future meetings of the 
Aquatic Association, recently formed by repre¬ 
sentatives of yachting, swimming, rowing and 
other organizations interested in aquatic sports. 
The object of the Aquatic Association is to have 
some portion of the bay shore set off for a 
pleasure park, to have erected a pier or board 
walk, and to provide for other attractions for 
the public. Architect Burnham suggested two 
such parks for the reconstruction of San Fran¬ 
cisco. but no action was ever taken by the au¬ 
thorities on the suggestion. A. P. B. 
Annual Motor Boat Show. 
The annual exhibition of motor boats, engines 
and accessories opened last Monday in the Madi¬ 
son Square Garden and the show will end next 
Tuesday. The show was held under the auspices 
of the Manufacturers of Boat and Engine Build¬ 
ers and it was a greater success than ever. 
There were more than 200 exhibitors and these 
came from all parts of the country, the West 
being particularly well represented. 
One good feature of the exhibition show'ed 
that freak boats are not popular. There were 
many crafts that a few years ago would have 
been classed among the racing type, but de¬ 
signers and builders have improved the type of 
these boats so much that a craft can make 
from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour. They 
are really serviceable, comfortable boats, with¬ 
out freakish ideas in their models, and good for 
afternoon outings, carrying sometimes as many 
as- ten passengers. The cruisjng cabin yacht, 
too. has been improved in model and now is 
quite an attractive looking craft. These boats 
attracted well at the exhibition, and exhibitors 
said that they had taken many orders for boats 
that would be delivered before the opening of 
the season. 
Among the engines were small motors of one- 
half horsepower that were capable of running 
a canoe or a dory, and from that size they grew 
to the big 300 horsepow’er used in the fast boats 
and in the larger of the cruising type. 
Great strides have been made in the American 
motor boat industry. The success of such craft 
as the two Dixies, the Standard and others of 
the racing type, the doings of the cruising boats, 
and the reliability of the motors have attracted 
attention all over the world, and builders are 
now doing quite a large export business; and 
now that two boats have been entered for the 
races at Monaco, it is expected that the trade 
will receive quite a big boom. 
A. C. A. Membership. 
NEW MEMBERS PROPOSED. 
Atlantic Division.—Arthur P. Gewehr, 1002 
Washington street, Hoboken, N. J., by Theodore 
J. Cornu. 
Central Division.—Fred C. Hanker, 508 Jean¬ 
nette street, Wilkinsburg, Pa., by C. W. Reamer. 
Western Division.—Mitchell F. Jamar, Jr., 
Duluth, Minn., by J. E. Dixon. 
NEW MEMBERS ELECTED. 
Atlantic Division.—5656, Victor H. Cromwell, 
32 Fairfield Road, Yonkers, N. Y. 
Central Division.—5652, Wayne Rawley, 521 
Preble avenue, N. S., Pittsburg, Pa.; 5653, 
Patrick H. Donovan, iii Maple avenue. Edge- 
wood Park, Swissvale Station, Pittsburg, Pa.; 
5654, James H. McCrady, Jr., 319 Swissvale 
avenue, Edgewood Park, _ Pa.; 5655, George 
Westinghouse, Jr., Wilmerding, Pa. 
Eastern Division.—5651, Willard B. Anthony, 
12 Carter street. Providence, R. 1 . 
MEMBER TR.^NSFERRED. 
4723, James H. Darrah, care of Travelers^ Ins. 
Co., Minneapolis, Minn., from Atlantic Division 
to Western Division. 
