April 6 , 1907 1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
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(Continued from page 461 ) 
The continual tightening up 
of a yacht’s shrouds is 
very harmful. No boat 
should be bound up ab¬ 
solutely rigid. A little 
slack, just enough so the 
fiber of the wood in the 
mast is strained a little, 
giving a slight flexibility 
to the whole rig, gives 
more spring and life to a 
boat’s actions. The 
tight lacing shrouds should not be 
hove tight as fiddle 
strings any more than a woman should be laced 
unnaturally. Besides, no boat ever built can 
stand the terrific leverage such a strain brings 
on the keel. 
You might just as well put a screw-jack from 
deck to keel inside the boat and pry her apart. 
The result of such shroud tightening sends boats 
to the yacht yards every year. They leak, and 
the owner wants it stopped, yet they will go 
out next race and again heave the mast down 
through her. 
Slack rigging may strain a mast, but it will 
not strain the hull. 
On a 30ft. boat with the 
shrouds about 9m. apart, they 
should be almost slack enough to 
pinch them together by hand. 
There are many who will dispute 
this; but you will find they are 
the ones whose boats are going 
to the yards continually for re¬ 
pairs. Look under the deck 
beams at the mast and see if the 
bulkheads have pulled away from 
the beams, if so, you will know 
the keel has been hove down by 
the mast, or the deck sprung up, 
and upon examining the gar- 
board seam—the seam where the 
lowest plank notches into the 
keel—you will find the putty all 
broken or even washed completely out. An¬ 
other place where this is apparent is in the 
seams of the planking, around where the shrouds 
make fast. Very often this will be the only 
place where the seams show rough. 
But to come back to the hull 
of the boat, let us take up the 
“nail sick” boats. This form 
of disease is due to two causes 
generally. One is due to poor 
workmanship originally; the 
other due to venerable old age, 
and is no discredit to her 
builder. The first is more 
numerous now than formerly. 
Years ago, when men prided 
themselves on, and their family 
name and reputation was to be 
upheld by their work, every 
plank and timber was accurately fitted and just 
as accurately fastened. 
There was no hurry, no rushing and conse¬ 
quently no skimping of the job. You could not 
make an old timer try to race against time. 
There were no $49.49 boats in those days. But 
to-day, where cheaoness is the first requisite, 
people try to build a thousand-doliar craft for 
six hundred; and some builder gives them six 
hundred dollars’ worth which they imagine, be¬ 
cause they get the size boat they want, is a 
thousand-doliar craft. What happens? 
SICK NAIL 
Shrouds should 
be slack enough 
to almost pinch 
together. 
The craft is hurriedly 
framed of steam bent 
timber, which is all 
right if properly done. 
But some don’t do it 
properly, with the re¬ 
sult that when the 
plank is fitted on one 
frame requires padding 
out with a shim of 
thin wood, another 
has to be cut half Seams roughed up under 
dubbed off away on shrouds, 
account of being too 
full. That is sin number one. _ A steam bent 
frame should be twisted so it is fair and re¬ 
quired no cutting away or else bent of heavier 
st”ff and beveled off before being put in. 
Such sins generally occur also down near the 
keel at forward and after ends, just where good 
fastenings for the plank are most needed. 
Sin number two is the way such cheap boats 
are planked. You all know how perfectly the 
staves of a wine cask fit and how flimsy and 
imperfectly the same are on a cheap lime barrel. 
Well, that is about the difference there is be¬ 
tween the properly and improperly planked boat. 
In the lime barrel' the staves are bent imperfectly, 
one being in, the next out. On the cheap built 
boat, generally built of wide plank, you will find 
the plank touches the frame in the middle of the 
plank, the edges being an eighth of an inch off 
the frames, due to the round of the side or 
bilge. 
Such a plank cannot be nailed solid as it does 
not touch the frame where the nails go through. 
That is a “sick nail” and every one like it is 
a “sick nail” and in a little while such fasten¬ 
ings work loose in the plank and the boat leaks, 
or as you might say becomes a “lime. barrel.” 
Another form of nail sick is where, in cheap 
boats, the nails are not bored for, but are clouted 
in as if the man were shingling a house, and 
the frames split as the nail wedges its way into 
them. That is another sick nail liable to pull 
out and let that plank start a leak. 
“Nail sick” m 
an old boat is 
due to' the wood 
losing its vital¬ 
ity through old 
age and becom¬ 
ing so soft as 
to allow the 
nails to draw 
through the 
wood, allowing 
he plank to work away from the frame and so 
;pill the caulking that keeps the seams tight and 
:ause a leak. 
In old time lapstrake 
•acht's boats this is more 
ipparent than in carvel 
milt boats, as the strain 
m the nails is greater 
ind the leaks become more 
ipparent. 
A leaky boat is an abomination whether she 
ip a mnfnr hnnt nr a sail hnat 
?lank ends like springboards. Nails 
can’t hold such planks. 
Frame split by nails. 
Cover Illustration. 
A truly nautical and picturesque scene of sea 
life is this old smack, manned by a crew of two, 
out on the broad open sea, standing off and on, 
looking for sword-fish. Yachtsmen who cruise 
often run across such interesting views, but as 
a rule it only makes, an impression on their 
individual minds. It is a piece of great good 
luck when such views are caught by a camera 
and reproduced for others to see. The man in 
the pulpit—as the iron cage is called in which 
the man on the end of the bowsprit stands—a 
hard-headed son of toil, would give a dis¬ 
dainful grunt and “Humph, pretty pitcher”; but 
those who never see such views look at it 
differently. What would better suit the man in 
the pulpit would be a glimpse of a shadowy 
fish in the blueish water below him, then his 
interest would be keen enough to suit the most 
ardent sportsman, for the harpooning of a 
sword-fish is keen sport, and to him a strike 
means good, hard dollars, worth far more than 
a mere “pitcher.” 
savage i8-footer. 
N. Y. Y. C. Club Amendments to Rules. 
Vice-Com. Arthur Curtiss James, in the 
absence of Com. Cornelius Vanderbilt, presided 
at the second general meeting of the New York 
Y. C. for the year held last night and Mr. 
Charles Lane Poor acted as secretary in the 
absence of Mr. G. A. Cormack. Twelve boats 
were represented. 
Professor William Hallock, the head of the 
department of physics’ in Columbia University, 
was elected measurer of the club in place of Mr. 
Charles Lane Poor, resigned. 
It was ordered that a cup be presented Mr. 
Henry Walters as a mark of esteem and ap¬ 
preciation of his services to the club as vice¬ 
commodore during the years 1903, 1904, 1905 
and 1906. The cup will be similar to that pre¬ 
sented former Com. Frederick G. Bourne short¬ 
ly after he retired from office. 
The club has received an invitation from the 
Royal Y. C. de Belgique to attend the races to 
be held at Ostend following the races at Kiel, 
and the hope is expressed that American boats 
will enter and compete for the prizes offered. 
Amendments to the constitution and by-laws, 
as passed at the first general meeting for the 
year, received the approval of the members. 
The following amendments to the racing rules 
were passed: 
Rule 2 —Certificates of Measurement. 
This rule was amended by adding in first 
paragraph, after the word “measurer,” line 5> 
the words, “or his assistants,” and by adding a 
third paragraph as follows: 
“An error in measurement discovered at any 
time prior to the close of the yachting season 
shall be corected and the results of that season’s 
races made to conform to the correct measure¬ 
ment.” 
Rule 7—Restrictions (cruising trim). 
Section 1 of this rule “Fittings” was amended 
by striking out all in the section following the 
word “fixtures,” line 2, and substituting there¬ 
for the following: “Suitable to the size of the 
yacht (davits and companion ladder excepted) 
shall be kept in place.” 
So that the section now reads: 
1. Fittings.—Cruising deck, cabin, galley and 
forecastle fittings and fixtures suitable to the 
size of the yacht (davits and accommodation 
ladder excepted) shall be kept in place. Davits 
and accommodation ladder shall be kept on 
board. 
Rule 13—Right of way. 
The paragraph under the heading of “Defi¬ 
nition of Mark” was amended by striking out 
the words “and is not a mark until the starting 
signal has been made, and does not involve any 
question of sea room.” 
So that the paragraph now reads: 
“(d) Mark. A mark is any vessel, boat, buoy 
or other objects used to indicate the course.” 
Mr. Geo. P. Granbery has purchased the fast 
25-footer Tanya and will bring her to New York. 
