Some News and a Little Gossip. 
There is a possibility of Westward and Elena, 
Commodore Plant’s new schooner, racing in 
these waters after all. Yachtsmen generally 
and Commodore Plant in particular were much 
disappointed when the announcement was made 
that the illness of Alex. S. Cochran, the owner 
of Westward, would not permit him to race his 
vacht this summer. It was known that West¬ 
ward was for sale, and there has been much talk 
among New York Y. C. members about pur¬ 
chasing the yacht and bringing her to these 
waters. While nothing definite has yet been 
done, it is stated that a member of the club is 
seriously thinking of purchasing Westward and 
so helping to make the coming season a very 
brilliant one. Commodore Plant has tried sev¬ 
eral times to have some good racing. He has 
built the Ingomar, Shimna and now Elena, and 
each time he has found that there is nothing to 
race against. 
The annual meeting of the Yacht Racing As¬ 
sociation of Long Island Sound will be held 
at the Hotel Astor on Thursday, March 18. At 
this meeting the schedule will be adopted A 
tentative one has been drawn and submitted to 
the delegates, so that agreeing on it should not 
be a troublesome matter. Officers, too, will be 
elected. Stuyvesant Wainwright of the Ameri¬ 
can Y C., has been renominated as President, 
James 'W. Alker, of the Manhasset Bay Y. C., 
will- again serve as Secretary, and Victor I. 
Cumnock, of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. 
C, will be Treasurer. The nominees for mem¬ 
bers of the Executive Committee are W. Butler 
Duncan, Jr., Charles P. Tower, H. A. Jackson, 
Jr., and E. Burton Hart. 
Recently formed and incorporated under the 
law's of New Jersey, the Farragut Sportsman s 
Association last week held their first annual 
election of officers. Their membership numbers 
125 persons. Those chosen to serve for the 
ensuing year were Charles Elmer Smith Presi¬ 
dent; S. H. Wharton, Commodore; Walter 
Law’ Captain; Frederick von Nieda, Recording 
Secretary; Harold A. Renner, Financial Secre¬ 
tary, and S. P. Hallowed, Treasurer. 
The combined fleet of sail and power boats 
of the association numbers upwards of 75 craft, 
and is in charge of expert motor and sail boat 
navigators. Every Saturday during the coming 
season will mark some sort of event at Bear s 
Landing, Camden, where the association has 
leased a specially adapted and equipped prop- 
erty, and where, during the balance of the 
winter, sociability will have full sway. 
The Eastern Y. C. and the Kaiserlicher Y. C. 
have agreed that white cedar is not to be used 
in future in the construction of boats of the 
Sonder type intended for international racing. 
This agreement does not, however, extend to 
boats already built or under construction. One 
of the three American boats selected to go to 
Kiel next month, Cima, is planked with white 
cedar; Beaver is planked with red cedar, and 
Bibelot with mahogany. The agreement follows 
what Eastern yachtsmen consider a very sports¬ 
manlike attitude on the part of the Germans in 
not seeking to make an issue of the construc¬ 
tion clause in the international agreement signed 
five years ago. 
Against the hubbly waters of Kiel Harbor 
the Germans found that strong planking was 
necessary to stand the battering, so most of the 
Sonder yachts are built of red cedar or ma¬ 
hogany. But the Americans, accustomed to 
smooth seas off Marblehead, sought the lightest 
of wood, and by using white cedar were able to 
bring the weight of their yachts close to the 
minimum limit of 4,030 pounds. The Spanish 
yachts, which came to Marblehead last August, 
were nearly a thousand pounds heavier than 
the American boats, and stood very little show 
in light weather. 
The international agreement states that the 
Sonder yachts shall be built of cedar or heavier 
wood. The Germans admitted that white cedar 
was real cedar, but that they never had any 
intention of building their yachts of such ma¬ 
terial, principally because of its poor quality, 
its lack of rigidity and of its porous nature. 
Five Sonders are being built for this year’s 
racing, three are from designs by W. Starling 
Burgess, one by Bowes & Mower, and one by 
E. A. Boardman. 
Badger, built by the W. Starling Burgess Co. 
for C. H. W. Foster, was launched at Marble¬ 
head, the first of January. This boat was built 
from the molds of Beaver, Mr. Foster’s suc¬ 
cessful racer of last year, which will be one of 
the American team at the Kiel races next June. 
The other two boats. Ellen II., owned by C. P. 
Curtis, and the Loring racer, are almost sister 
boats. The same molds, except for the three 
after frames were used in building the boats. 
Both are slightly finer than Beaver or Badger 
and a little longer over all. All three boats are 
planked with mahogany and will be finished 
bright. Ellen II., like Badger, is completed, 
while the Loring boat will be finished this week. 
The Bowes & Mower Sonder racer for H. M. 
Sears, is building at the David Fenton Co.’s 
yard at Manchester. This boat is expected to 
be an improved Cima and Joyette, and in the 
shop looks very much like the Burgess boats. 
She is planked with cedar and nearly finished. 
The other Sonder racer is the Boardman- 
designed boat building for Clif. A. Wood, of 
the Corinthian Y. C., by Lawley, at Neponset. 
The Wood boat is designed after Charles 
Francis Adams 2d’s champion of 1910, Harpoon. 
New York Y. C. Schedule. 
After experimenting with regattas through 
the Sound and others sailed off Newport, the 
New York Y. C. is coming nearer home for 
its racing this coming summer. It is many 
vears since the regattas of this club attracted 
big fleets, and although all sorts of schemes 
have been tried, not one has been successful. 
Last year there were three starters in a three 
days’ series sailed off Newport. 
The regattas of this club are closed events, 
open only to members of the club. Years ago 
there were many members who took such an 
interest in yacht racing that the club’s regattas 
were always successful. Things have changed 
since then. Racing yachts are costly playthings, 
much more costly than they used to be. It takes 
a large purse to maintain a first-class racing 
schooner or sloop, and as the cost of running 
these vessels increased, those who loved the 
sport took to racing smaller boats. The New 
York Y. C. does not recognize a vessel smaller 
than a 30-footer, and consequently with the 
large yachts disappearing, there has been a 
marked falling off in its races. 
The regatta committee this year, H. de B. 
Parsons, C. Sherman Hoyt and L. Vaughan 
Clark, has arranged a tentative schedule. This 
shows that except for the cruise Newport will 
not figure in the racing. There will be re¬ 
gattas on the Sound off Glen Cove and Hunt¬ 
ington. This season will open and close with 
races off the Glen Cove station, and in July 
the New York Y. C. series, which last year 
was sailed off Newport, will. be sailed off 
Huntington. The Sound there is wide, so that 
an ideal course can be had, not as good as off 
Sandy Hook or Newport, but ideal for present- 
day yachting, and at that season of the year 
a fair breeze should prevail. The yachts usually 
make their cruising on the Sound in July, and 
the committee hopes that those members who 
have yachts will help them in their efforts to 
revive racing in the club. 
The season of the club will open with the 
regatta for the spring cups sailed off Glen 
Cove on June 22. The series off Huntington 
will begin on July 6 with a regatta for the 
Sound cups. The Huntington cups will be 
sailed for on July 7, and the annual regatta and 
the Bennett cup races will be sailed on July 8. 
The fleet will rendezvous for the annual 
cruise on August 3. The port has. not yet been 
selected. The season will end with races for 
the autumn cups to be sailed off Glen Cove on 
Sept. 7 - 
Beverly Y. C. May Move. 
The “head” of Buzzard’s Bay, famous for 
generations as an ideal yachting ground, a lo¬ 
cality where memorable regattas have been 
fought out, is likely to be transformed into a 
fairway for commerce with the opening of the 
Cape Cod Canal, says the Boston Herald. So 
great are the changes likely to develop off 
Wing’s Neck, where is situated the home of the 
Beverly Y. C., that members are seriously con¬ 
sidering a new site for their station or a merger 
with the Sippican Y. C. at Marion. 
Canal traffic—and the advent of such traffic 
is but a season or two distant—will sweep over 
the bay close to Wing’s Neck, and courses that 
have been in use these many years will lie in the 
tangle of shipping that is regarded as inevitable. 
Tows, stretching nearly a mile from tug to 
sternmost barge, will monopolize deep water 
not far from the entrance to the dredge channel 
which begins southward of the neck, and the 
deep water beyond Bird Island will serve as an 
anchorage ground or approach to the canal, 
where commerce carriers must maneuver be¬ 
fore undertaking the six-mile ditch passage to 
Massachusetts Bay. 
The situation that confronts the Beverly Y. 
C. is disquieting, but there is ample time in which 
to devise a way out of the new hampering con¬ 
ditions that must of necessity arise in oppo¬ 
sition to a yacht rendezvous in a vessel fairway. 
Should the club remove its racing ground. to 
the westerly side of the bay and, perhaps, joint¬ 
ly use the courses now established in those 
waters, the distance from Wing’s Neck to the 
starting line will not be prohibitive. With the 
southwest breezes that prevail during the sum¬ 
mer with the tenacity of the proverbial trades, 
racing boats can quickly make the flight from the 
Cataumet shore to the other side and the same 
favorable wind will as easily bring them home. 
Yachts Change Hands. 
The following transfers of yachts are re¬ 
ported through the Hollis Burgess Yacht 
Agency: 
The 6o-foot motor boat Nautilus, sold by 
Marcellus Coggan, of Boston, to Judge Louis 
M. Clark, a prominent member of the Boston 
and Eastern yacht clubs. 
The 25-foot auxiliary yawl Cavalier, owned by 
Harold Robbins, sold to F. P. Valentine. 
The 25-foot auxiliary yawl A 1 Bawa, owned by 
Tucker Daland, of Brookline, Mass., sold to 
Chas. H. Johnson, a prominent member of the 
Corinthian Y. C., Marblehead. 
The 21-foot knockabout Carmen, owned by 
Chas. H. Johnson, is sold to a prominent 
Rhode Island yachtsman. 
These are reported by Frank Bowne Jones:. 
The 85-foot steel gasolene cruiser Corinthia, 
sold by J. A. Mollenhauer to L. D. Shoenberg. 
Corinthia is cruising South. 
The schooner yacht Loyal, sold by C. L. 
Dimon to George B. Campbell. Loyal will be 
