March 9, 1907.] FOREST AND STREAM. 3 g 3 
British Letter. 
In what we used to call the halcyon days of 
yacht racing, this would have been the time of 
year when all the big racing ships were stretch¬ 
ing their canvas in the Mediterranean. What 
J a season it was in 1895 when King Edward, then 
Prince of Wales, raced Britannia on the Riviera 
against her famous rival Ailsa, belonging to Mr. 
Barclay Walker! Then the interest in the sail¬ 
ing reached its height, and everything at Nice 
was organized in an essentially sportsmanlike 
manner, and the arrangements were framed and 
the prizes were given on a princely scale by 
Mr. James Gordon Bennett and Baron A. 
Rothschild. The big cutters competed in the 
first class, and the same distinguished patrons 
of the matches presented valuable trophies for 
the smaller craft which included the fastest rac¬ 
ing boats in England and France at that time. 
To make matters more amusing—for it was 
merely with a desire to add to the fun of the 
fair—Mr. Gordon Bennett gave a £500 cup for 
a race for steam yachts in which the late Mr. 
Harry McCalmont’s steam yacht Giralda, now 
belonging to the King of Spain, steamed over 
the course: at a rate of 22 knots. However, the 
glories of the Mediterranean season have long 
since departed, and although along the Riviera 
in February, March and early April there may 
be myriads of motor launches humming hither 
and thither, these are but a feeble substitute for 
the great racing cutters of bygone years. 
Racing men here are by no means despondent, 
however, and in future seasons it is probable 
that the big sailing races in the Riviera will be 
revived. Of course the three cutters which race 
in English waters next summer—which are al¬ 
most as big as Ailsa and Britannia—cannot get 
ready for the Riviera this spring, but it is 
thought in the following season they will race 
on the Riviera. These vessels will be Nyria, 
Brynhild II. and White Heather II. Unfort¬ 
unately, French yachtsmen seldom build large 
yachts, and it is of course very much regretted— 
on our side of the Atlantic—that America has 
not the same rule of measurement as Europe, 
because this would induce American yachtsmen 
to build large cutters for the 23-metre (75.4 ft.) 
class, and bring them to Europe. Cowes and 
Kiel alone would prove sufficiently attractive 
to most owners, but with the sunny season on 
the south coast of France added, the yachting 
year would be most enjoyable. Whatever may 
be the opinion of the majority of yachtsmen 
I about the desirability of having the same rule 
of measurement in Europe and America for 
small craft, there is no doubt that it would be 
a great blessing for larger yachts. The men 
who own yachts—racing cutters from 60ft. to 
Soft, length—are always wealthy owners, if also 
they happen to Jiavc sufficient leisure, then the 
pleasure of racing is doubled if the sport be¬ 
tween England, America and the Continent can 
1 be made interchangeable. Added to the inter- 
l national sport there is the immense advantage of 
an international market. An American owner, 
if the international rating rule had been adopted 
in America, could buy any English built craft 
of the 23 or 19-metre classes, and an English- 
1 man might run over to America and pick up a 
design by Herreshoff, Gardner or any of the 
master minds of the U. S. A. But no! Here 
we are tied up with two brand new rules in 
America and Europe, each having the same 
avowed object, i. e., a wholesome and habitable 
yacht, but with such differences in the details 
of measurement and classification as to render 
international racing impossible—to say nothing 
of the market for the old boats being much re¬ 
stricted. 
I am afraid I must plead to a certain lack of 
knowledge of American yachting affairs, but in 
England we regard the organization of a one- 
design class as a slap-in-the-eye for the rating 
rule. T his bare assertion of course requires a 
little modification. It does not wholly apply to 
small classes, because small boats may be built 
to suit special local requirements. A one-design 
class also may be the outcome of sheer ignor¬ 
ance or stupidity on the part of a few owners 
who for some reason or another are persuaded 
that they cannot get the same amount of sport 
for their money by building to the existing rat¬ 
ing rule. If, however, there is no local reason 
why the type of boat produced by the existing 
rating rule is unsuitable, and if also we elim¬ 
inate the reason of mere obstinacy or pig¬ 
headedness for starting a one-design class, then 
it becomes undesirable that the foundation of 
such a class is a proof that men are not con¬ 
tent with the existing rating rule. The rating- 
rule must have failed somewhere. It does not 
produce the type desired. The men who start 
the one-design class are apparently able to say, 
“Your rule does not give us body, or cabins, or 
it compels me to have too light scantlings or 
too extreme dimensions, or I shall be outbuilt 
in a couple of seasons.” The general com¬ 
plaint is, “I cannot afford an open class yacht.” 
The number of paid hands employed, or the 
question of amateur helmsmen has nothing to 
do with the matter. Suitable restrictions to 
meet these points can be applied as well in an 
open, or rating rule, class as in a one-design 
class. Hence the question resolves itself, 
chiefly, in most classes, and. entirely in the 
larger classes, to one of suitability of the rating 
rule. 
Now this brings me to my point, or rather, 
I should say, leads me to my reason for indors¬ 
ing the agreement recently advanced in a leading 
article in Forest and Stream on the subject. 
The starting of so large a one-design class in 
America as a class of 57-footers, coming as it 
does on the top of the adoption of the universal 
rule, surely shows that your yachtsmen lack 
confidence in the latter. 
As I have said, I am not thoroughly versed in 
American yachting, but it seems to me unlikely 
that the men who have joined the new 57ft. class 
have done so because they cannot afford to build 
to a rating rule class of the same size. 
In a letter which was written by the New 
York Y. C. to the European International Con¬ 
ference and which was published in the London 
Times Jan. 27, 1906, Mr. W. B. Duncan and 
Mr. Cormack said: 
“Our conditions are such as to make the 
adoption of a common rule practically a. neces¬ 
sity. There are a great number of clubs. all 
along the Atlantic coast from Philadelphia to 
Maine. It is customary for a yacht to belong to 
two or more of them, and races arc constantly 
held in which the vessels of one club meet 
those belonging to another. From this cir¬ 
cumstance, as well as from the fact that varying 
rules of rating distinctly discourage the building 
of new vessels, it results that a uniform or com¬ 
mon rule of measurement in force among all 
'these clubs is not only a most desirable, but 
practically a necessary condition to the progress 
and development of the sport.” 
This powerful contention so admirably ex¬ 
pressed, however, appears to lack practical sup¬ 
port when on the face of it the leading yachts¬ 
men instead of building to the universal rule 
founded by the N. Y. Y. C. decide to start a 
one-design class of their own, and the view 
in England is that the foundation of the 57ft. 
one-design class is a strong proof of what I 
might almost call the unpopularity or even the 
failure of the universal rule. 
It is of course early yet to say definitely what 
form of yacht the new European rating rule 
will produce, but I have seen some of the new 
yachts which are building, and they certainly 
cannot be too highly praised, for they are 
thoroughly wholesome ships. They are craft 
which are capable of carrying a lot of sail, and 
as the rule is easy on sail, they will have a lot 
of canvas. The cutter building at Nicholson’s 
yard, Gosport, for Sir James Pender for the 
23-metre international class (75.4ft.) has more 
than 21 ft. beam. She is composite built—steel 
framing, planked with 2(4in. mahogany through 
out, and her scantlings are of course according 
to the new tables. She would work out nearly 
180 tons, Thames tonnage. A large area of mid¬ 
ship section, moderate draft, high freeboard and 
clean lines, with a very fair overhang and modi¬ 
fied pram bow that would take a sea comfort¬ 
ably, are among her spedial features. A similar 
vessel of 23 metres is being built on the Clyde 
by Fife. The dimensions of the pair vary very 
little. It is worthy of notice that the new in¬ 
ternational rating rule contains, in addition to 
the building restriction that all vessels must be 
classed according to the new class R at British 
or German Lloyds, or the Bureau Veritas of 
France, a very extensive clause relating to the 
cabin fittings. B. Heckstall Smith. 
A Bermuda Racer. 
There has just been received at the office of 
Cary, Smith and Ferris, naval architects, a^ 
handosemly finished model made by Mr. H. E. 
Boucher, model maker, of the 60ft. ocean-going 
power boat designed by thejn for Mr. Edward 
Stevens and now building at the ship yard of 
Purdy & Collison, City Island. 
The model, as the cut shows, is a very busi¬ 
ness-like craft, practically flush deck, of good 
generous freeboard, easy bilges and a great deal 
of deadrise to heels of frames. Her stern is 
drawn in quite narrow, and forward the water- 
lines are a little inclined to a hollow, the load 
line being about straight. 
Rolling checks are to be fitted to the bilges to 
reduce rolling. 
Everything about the model shows strength 
and simplicity. 
Her rig consists of two short masts with leg- 
of-mutton sails on them. 
MODEL OF THE NEW CARY SMITH AND FERRIS DESIGNED BERMUDA RACER. 
