International Race for 25-Footers. 
Shortly after the close of the yacht racing 
season the officers and some of the members 
of the Atlantic Y. C. got together and discussed 
plans for arranging for an international yacht 
race to be sailed next season. Several mem¬ 
bers promised to contribute to a fund to pur¬ 
chase a handsome cup, and Chairman Bouchee, 
of the regatta committee, at once cabled abroad, 
telling British yachtsmen that the Atlantic Y. 
C. would offer a cup for an international race 
in the 8-metre class for yachts built in accord¬ 
ance with the requirements .of the international 
or European rule of measurement. An 8-metre 
yacht measures about 25 feet on the waterline, 
and- is almost the same size and type as the 
Q class here, but there are certain requirements 
in the European rule that do not appear in the 
American rule. 
Just what will come of this offer is at present 
unknown. It is hoped that in the interest of 
good sport a race may be arranged. Several 
Lower Bay yachtsmen are ready to build yachts 
to defend the trophy should the British take up 
the challenge, but unfortunately the London 
Field, while it does not heartily support the 
suggestion of a race between British and Amer¬ 
ican yachtsmen for a race between small yachts, 
rather puts obstacles in the way of such a race 
being arranged, because it points out there is 
no official measurer of the International Yacht 
Racing Union in this country. The Field prints 
the cablegram of Mr. Boucher, which is as 
follows, and then comments: 
“ ‘Atlantic Y. C. offers valuable cup for race 8-meter 
"jss international rule, New York waters, season 
U)10. Will English yacht clubs consider challenging. If 
favorable consideration assured by reply before Nov. 15 
sufficient American boats will be built. Boucher chair¬ 
man regatta committee, 20 Fulton street.’ 
“Now while we are sure that all British 
yachtsmen will greatly appreciate Mr. Boucher’s 
kindness and the sportsmanlike offer of the At¬ 
lantic Y. C., we feel obliged to point out that 
the United States does not belong to the In- 
:ernationalu Yacht Racing Union. A yacht 
:annot win a prize in a race under the interna¬ 
tional rule unless she holds a certificate of rat- 
ng issued by a national authority affiliated to 
he I. Y. R. U. 
“This is a most important rule. Moreover, 
vhat is equally important is that the certificate 
if rating cannot be issued by the national 
luthority until the ‘R’ classification certificate 
las been received by the secretary of the 
rational authority. 
“As the United States is not affiliated to the 
inion there is no national authority in America 
vhich has the right to grant a certificate of 
ating, according to the international rule. 
“How, then, is it possible for the Atlantic Y. 
'• to build yachts for the 8-metre class and sail 
hem against British yachts? A breach of the 
ules would ipso facto occur at the outset. We 
hink this is a very great pity, but the fault lies 
ntirely with America and not with Europe, 
ecause the United States, or rather, its leading 
lub, the N. Y. Y. C., refused to send its dele- 
ates to the European international conference. 
‘If countries are affiliated to a union and 
ace under one code of rules and under the 
uidance of a properly recognized national 
uthority,. as is done in Europe, then interna- 
onal racing is most delightful and harmonious. 
If there is no recognized national authority 
ie sport immediately develops undesirable 
nases, such as one is accustomed fo associate 
ith the America’s cup. We make this state- 
ient with sincere regret; nevertheless it is a 
ct and represents the actual state of the inter- 
itional rule to which our distinguished corre- 
oondent refers in his cablegram. 
“The members of American clubs scarcely 
realize that under the international rules their 
clubs are not recognized by the national au¬ 
thorities affiliated to the I. Y. R. U. and 
(unless a member of the N. Y. Y. C. or A. Y. C. 
belongs also to some recognized club to qualify 
him) he may not enter or even take charge of 
any yacht in a race under the: international 
rules.” 
The Field’s criticism of the New York Y. C. 
not taking part in the international conference 
have nothing to do with the proposition to 
arrange an international race. It should not be 
necessary for the Atlantic Y. C. to belong to 
the European Union to arrange such a match 
even if the rules of the Atlantic Y. C. are 
different from those in use abroad. The At¬ 
lantic yachtsmen have invited the British to 
come here and race, and in offering to allow 
the European rule to govern have in a measure 
offset the handicap which a foreign yachtsman 
always incurs when racing in any waters except 
his home. Such a contest should be one of the 
best that could be arranged. It would be far 
better than the Sonder class races, because the 
8-metre yacht has to be of good type. 
The question of measurement is one that 
should very easily be arranged. There are 
measurers in this country who could pass on 
the yachts. Lloyds has agents here, and those 
agents could act as measurers, and in several 
ways this difficulty could be overcome. 
What the Atlantic yachtsmen aimed at was 
to arrange a good fair race between the yachts¬ 
men of the two countries, and it is the earnest 
hope of all who are interested in the sport that 
the race may be arranged. 
Plans of Sonder Class Yachtsmen. 
C. H. W. Foster, of Boston, has placed an 
order for a new yacht for the Sonder class with 
W. Starling Burgess, and work on the new 
yacht has been started. This will be the fourth 
Sonder yacht that Mr. Foster has built. In 
1906 he built Caramba from E. A. Boardman’s 
designs, and that yacht was one of the trio 
selected to defend the Roosevelt cup. The fol¬ 
lowing year he raced the Caramba and in 1908 
again went to E. A. Boardman for a new boat. 
This was the Bandit, the only boat built for the 
class that year. This year both Bandit and 
Caramba were entered in the trial races, and 
after the match for the Taft cup with the Ger¬ 
mans, Mr. Foster purchased Hevella from Otto 
Protzen. 
Just after the close of the 1 season’s racing 
Bandit was sold for racing at Buzzard’s Bay 
next season, and the report made that Mr. 
Foster would have a new boat for the 1910 
racing. 
At the Burgess plant, Marblehead, the Sonder 
class boat Wolf, owned by Caleb Loring, which 
was one of the American team in the match this 
year, is undergoing alterations toward improve¬ 
ment for next season. Demon, owned by Frank 
B. Crowninshield, also is being altered, while 
improvements in view of strengthening Lady, 
owned by Foss & Boardman, will probably be 
started soon. This boat in the heavy racing 
of last season went somewhat out of shape, and 
it is hoped that the construction of the boat 
can be improved, so that Lady will hold her 
form. 
Lawrence F. Percival, it is said, will have a 
boat built, but the designer has not yet been 
announced. Fred Lawley, it is said, is to have 
two or three new boats for this class, and Mr. 
Thomas, who last summer raced Bessie on 
Buzzard’s Bay, has placed an order with C. D. 
Mower for a new boat. Mr. Mower will prob¬ 
ably have another order in this class. 
One of the Lawley boats, it is said, will be 
for Charles Francis Adams, 2d, who sold 
Crooner after the international race to Otto 
Protzen, and that yacht is now in Germany. 
Sailing Craft on the Lakes. 
The chief interest on the Lakes, particularly 
on Lake Erie about Cleveland, just now is in 
the 18-foot class, and this interest was created 
because of the- inter-club races arranged and 
sailed, one of which was won by biayseed, and 
last year's by Dorchen. Another race will be 
sailed next summer in eastern waters, and 
efforts are being made to stimulate interest in 
the class, so that the sport may be continued. 
Robert E. Power, who worked hard to boom 
the 18-foot class at Cleveland, writing about the 
18-footers, says: 
“It is no secret that the outlook for sail 
yachting on the Great Lakes is not what some 
optimists would have us believe. The careful 
observer can see a change, a decided change, in 
conditions in the past decade. It may not be 
for the worse, but I doubt if it is for the better. 
I think Commodore Walter S. Russel, of the 
Detroit Country Club, expressed the tendency 
toward sail yachting hereabouts in a talk I had 
with him recently about the prospects of pro¬ 
moting a new class of universal rule boats on 
Lake Ste. Claire. 
“ ‘We had to give it up this season,’ he said, 
because our young men are automobile crazy. 
Vve have lots of timber for racing crews, but the 
minute we suggest that it takes work to put a 
yacht in condition they lose every shadow of 
interest. The love of it which we old fellows 
have always had, seems to be lost.’ 
“When a millionaire organization like the 
Country Club, with plenty of money to build 
boats and idle hundreds of young men to sail 
them, cannot secure Corinthians enough to man 
a few small craft, what hope is there for the 
isolated strugglers in the little towns? It 
seems, as Mr. Russel says, that the love of sail¬ 
ing is dying out. The man who begins boating 
now in more than nine cases out of ten buys 
gasolene, and his days afloat may be measured 
m Pints per horsepower hour. 
“Sail yachting on fresh water flourishes most 
off loronto and other ports along the north 
shore of Lake Ontario. The Canadians have 
retained their salt water heritage, and they 
jealously guard against the encroachments of 
easier forms of locomotion. I visited the Royal 
Canadian Y. C. this fall and was astonished to 
see in commission so piany of the big old- 
fashioned cruising sail yachts—which were well 
known twenty years ago. 
“On the American side of the Great Lakes, 
Erie and Ontario, especially, cruising sail yachts 
are so rare as to be considered oddities. In 
the swift march of time they have literally been 
left behind abandoned for want of men to 
sail’ them. When, occasionally, one is seen pok¬ 
ing along outside, she is laughingly referred to 
as a ‘workhouse!’ 
“The modern lake sailors are on the jib and 
mainsail sloops and about all their time is spent 
racing within hail of their home port. The 
Chicago waterfront still retains some semblance 
of topsail days, but the big boats of this class 
are mostly sad relics of glory long since gone. 
Chicago Y. C. has done much for the large 
sailing yacht by means of its annual long dis¬ 
tance race to Mackinac. The trip up Lake 
Michigan requires seamanship to a considerable 
degree, and hulls both swift and safe are neces¬ 
sary to successfully negotiate -the long stretch 
of open water. 
Betwixt and between we find some sailing 
sport at Rochester, mostly by past aspirants 
for the Canada’s cup. Buffalo has a mixed fleet 
of perhaps a score sizable sailers, while Cleve¬ 
land is pinning its hopes to the 18-footers. 
