May 27, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
823 
« 
J 
OLD TIME SLOOP DRIFTING BY FORT LAFAYETTE. 
T. C. Glen Coats, Designer. 
t 
Tiie news comes from the south of France 
that Mr. T. C. Glen Coats has won the Coupe 
de Monaco with his 6-meter yacht Cynthia. Mr. 
Glen Coats designed the vessel and sails her 
himself, and her success in the Mediterranean 
will be heartily welcomed by British yachtsmen, 
says the Field. The weather there has been 
very severe, and hard winds have prevailed. 
Probably this has favored Cynthia, as she is 
a good little vessel in a breeze, and last season 
she did well in Scotland and at Burnham-on- 
Crouch whenever it blew hard. Yachtsmen are 
at last beginning to realize the advantage of the 
International Rule, which makes it possible to 
take a boat from port to port at home and 
abroad and always find a class open to her. 
There have been ten competitors in the 6-meter 
class on the Riviera. 
The most delightful phase of yacht racing 
must be to design one’s own vessel and sail her 
in an open class with success; but of course this 
is a difficult thing to do in competition with 
yachts designed by the leading naval architects. 
Mr. Glen Coats, who is a son of Sir Thomas 
Glen Coats, studied yacht designing under Mr. 
Alfred Mylne, and now he is evidently able to 
design a yacht worthy of meeting the best of 
the 6-meter fleet. Not many amateurs have 
competed with great success in open Y. R. A. 
classes with boats of their own design, yet there 
have been a few who have done very well. In 
the early days of the Solent classes—and what 
sporting matches they were!—Colonel Bucknill 
built the Quinque 5-rater in 1890; Mr. G. F. 
Flemmich either led or was well up in a hot 
class of i-raters with the Mahatma, the famous 
boat which was the father or ancester of the 
scores of raters subsequently built by Sibbick 
at Cowes; then Mr. R. E. Froude—who, al¬ 
though he is of course a most distinguished 
naval architect in a branch of the profession 
which is concerned with things of more vital 
importance than luffing—has for many years en¬ 
joyed the sport as an amateur of designing and 
handling his own boats. His Jenny Wren was 
built twenty-six years ago. 
Perhaps the most remarkable feat in amateur 
yacht designing since the days when Bentall, 
the plow maker, designed Jullanar in the early 
seventies, was the modelling of the 20-rater 
Audrey by the Earl of Dunraven. She was a 
fin-keel 20-rater. Lord Dunraven conceived the 
idea of making a boat which had segments of 
circles for sections. He made a model of the 
boat in clay—we believe Mr. Summers, of Sum¬ 
mers and Paynes, at Southampton, has the 
original model made by his lordship, and that 
it can be seen in his office, but of this we are 
not sure. As he proceeded with the work he 
somewhat modified his original idea, but in 1894 
Audrey was built. She was, however, really a 
misfit to the rating, and had to be pulled to 
pieces and practically rebuilt on a smaller scale. 
The design of the boat, however, was in prin¬ 
ciple the same. Then Audrey came out afresh 
in 1895. We wish we could give more fully the 
details of the alterations that were made be¬ 
tween the seasons of 1894 and 1895 to this re¬ 
markable 20-rater, but we cannot pretend to 
state them with any degree of certainty. Any¬ 
how, when Audrey made her appearance in the 
New Thames match of May 17, 1895, and won 
it, beating Fife’s Luna and Inyoni and 
Stephanie, and when she won again in the Royal 
Thames race on the following day, and then 
beat everything in the race “Down Swin” from 
Southland to Harwich, and at Harwich regatta 
defeated the famous Yankee Niagara, the critics 
were very much surprised. 
It was most amusing. The know-alls, who 
had been ready to laugh at Lord Dunraven’s 
boat in 1894 as a cranky amateur design, were 
seeking for an excuse to show that Audrey of 
1895 could not have been designed by an 
amateur. At the end of the season of 1895 the 
Field, in reviewing the class of 20-raters, said: 
“Although, strictly speaking, Audrey was not 
a this year’s boat. Lord Dunraven had his vessel 
almost entirely reconstructed, to his own design, 
at Summers and Payne’s yard, Southampton. 
The conception of last year’s design was re¬ 
tained, but the displacement was largely reduced, 
and the lines carried out fore and aft, making 
her a much more shapely craft than hitherto; 
•the bulb was also suspended by a metal fin in¬ 
stead of a wooden one. The result of these ex¬ 
tensive alterations was highly creditable to her 
amateur designer, for in moderate weather Lord 
Dunraven’s little beauty was the most successful 
twenty of the year, and generally proved to be 
the most dangerous opponent of the American 
crack (i. e., Niagara—Herreshoff).” 
“Thalassa” gave the figure of merit of the 20- 
raters of 1895 by the late Colonel Smith’s 
formula as: 
Yacht. 
Designer. 
Firsts. 
rigure 
Starts, of Merit. 
Niagara. 
. 25 
46 
45.63 
Audrey. 
. 16 
32 
40.34 
Inyoni. 
. 15 
38 
32.49 
Zinita. 
6 
15 
28.70 
Isolde. 
. 3 
22 
10.45 
Stephanie.... 
. 3 
24 
9.70 
Eucharis. 
....Fife . 
9 . 
11 
7.60 
Luna. 
....Fife . 
2 
33 
4.90 
Vincta. 
. 0 
12 
0.00 
Dragon. 
. 0 
9 
0.00 
When the keenness of the 
competition 
in the 
season of 1895 hi this class is seriously con¬ 
sidered, it is only fair that history should place 
the performance of the Earl of Dunraven’s 
cutter among the most remarkable achievements 
in amateur yacht designing in the annals of 
yachting. 
Royal Cups Tell History. 
It is said—and with a good deal of truth— 
that in the list of the winners of King’s cups 
and Queen’s cups may be traced the whole 
history of yachting, according to the Field. 
The first vessel of great note to win a King’s 
cup was Mr. Joseph Weld’s cutter yacht Alarm, 
for she in 1838 won the last cup given by King 
William IV. This same vessel, lengthened and 
converted into a schooner of 248 tons, figures 
in the list as a Queen’s cup winner as late as 
the year 1861, still under Mr. Weld’s colors. 
Alarm was one of the vessels which was altered 
from the cod’s head cutter type to the hollow- 
bowed type which was introduced after the in¬ 
vasion of the schooner America in 1851. She 
therefore carries us through two periods of 
yachting history. Then from 1865 to 1875 some 
fine wholesome cutters and schooners won the 
Queen’s cup. Fiona, “the Fawn o’ Fairlie,” 
won it six times in this period, and Egeria, 
from 1865 to 1881, also won it six times. Then 
came the days of the lead-mines, or plank-on 
edge cutters, when Mr. John Jameson won six 
Queen’s cups between 1881 and 1888, with 
Samoena and Irex, and he got one more with 
the fiddle-headed champion Iverna in 1892. 
Since that date. Bona, which was built for the 
Duke d’Abruzzi, and was afterward bought by 
Mr. Peter Donaldson, won no fewer than seven 
royal prizes, the greatest number secured by 
any vessel, the Britannia having won six of 
Queen Victoria's cups. King Edward won more 
royal trophies than any yachtsman, securing the 
prize six times with Britannia, and on two 
previous occasions with Formosa and Hilde- 
garde. 
The smallest vessel which ever won a Queen’s 
cup was the io-tonner Ulerin, which won the 
Nore to Dover match of the Royal Thames Y. 
C. in 1885. The history of the royal trophy 
carries us down to the most modern vessels and 
the leading amateur yachtsmen of the present 
day, for in 1908 and 1909 the names of the 23- 
meter and 15-meter cutters White Heather, 
Shamrock, Brynhild, Ostara and Vanity were 
insrcibed on the honored roll. 
^ The cups now graciously given by King 
George for 1911, to go to the 19-meter class at 
the Royal Northern at Rothesay during the 
Clyde fortnight and to the A class at the In¬ 
ternational regatta at Spithead in August, will 
afford the greatest encouragement to the pas¬ 
time of yacht racing, as did the 174 trophies pre¬ 
sented by King William IV., Queen Victoria 
and King Edward, from the years 1834 to 1909. 
Five Yachts in Bermuda Race. 
The town of St. Georges, Bermuda, has 
offered the second prize in the race for sailing 
craft from Boston to Bermuda, which will be 
started by the Boston Y. C. Saturday, June 3. 
The city of Boston has offered the first prize, a 
trophy worth $500, provided there are six 
starters. There are now five yachts entered in 
the race, the last entry being the Bermuda pilot 
boat Chispa, which arrived here last week. 
Chispa is a Burgess boat, having been built in 
South Brooklyn in 1888, and was at one time a 
fast sailing yacht. She is 40 feet long, and if 
well handled should give a good account of her¬ 
self in the race. The other entries are Harold 
S. Vanderbilt’s schooner Vagrant, Seward V. 
Weed’s schooner Enchantress, Francis M. 
Whitehouse’s schooner Iris and P. L. Car¬ 
michael’s schooner Sunrise. It is probable that 
other yachts will be entered and in order to give 
the owners all the time possible to make their 
plans the committee has extended the time for 
closing the entries to May 22. 
J. E. Fletcher Buys Niagara IV. 
J. E. Fletcher, of Providence, has purchased 
the fast steam yacht Niagara IV., .which was 
formerly owned by Howard Gould. This yacht 
at one time was the fastest of the so-called 
private ferry boats and was used by her owner 
to carry him to and from the city and his sum¬ 
mer home at Sands Point. She raced against 
Tarantula and won. Niagara IV. is no feet 
long and 12 feet beam. She has twin screws 
and is driven by engines of 1,100 horsepower. 
The yacht is now at Nock’s yard, East Green¬ 
wich, getting ready for the season. 
