946 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June 13, 1908. 
and the Irene II., circled about among the 
yachts, receiving the congratulations and good 
wishes of all. 
On board the Ailsa Craig was Com. James 
Craig, owner; T. E. Ferris, partner of A. Cary 
Smith, the designer of the Craig; John Welch, 
navigator, who, as third mate of the Ss. Ber¬ 
mudian, has made the run over and over again; 
J. S. F. Kerr, of Bermuda; John Connell and 
his son, James Connell, who, with Mr. Craig, 
will look after the machinery; Capt. M. H. 
Tracy, Charles F. Chase, Harry Kane, able 
seaman, and a professional steward. 
Irene II. had aboard S. G. Granbery, owner, 
who will run the engine, assisted by John Hillea, 
a professional; Thomas F. Day, who will navi¬ 
gate Irene, with Walter M. Bieling as his as¬ 
sistant; Fred Thurber and William Kent, ama¬ 
teurs, and John Ennis, steward. 
There was a noticeable difference in size be¬ 
tween the two contestants, Ailsa Craig being 60ft. 
long, 10ft. beam and 5ft. 6in. draft, and equipped 
with a 6o-horsepower Craig engine. Irene IF is 
only 40ft. long, 10ft. beam and 3ft. draft; fitted 
with an 18-horsepower Standard engine. Ailsa 
Craig has to allow Irene II. 20I1. 23m. 24s. time 
allowance, as figured by the judges. So while 
it looked but little like a race the way the Ailsa 
Craig went past the Irene soon after the starting 
signal at 4:35, yet the little fellow may get to 
Bermuda in time to win. 
Three signals were given; a warning at 4:25, 
preparatory at 4:30 and start at 4 ; 35 - As the 
two launches dashed across the line 10s. and 30s. 
after the signal, with Irene II. leading, guns 
boomed and whistles of all tones chimed out a 
farewell greeting. Jingle bells sounded from 
all sides as the spectators started off full speed 
in pursuit of the racers. 
Ailsa Craig laid her course on a bee-line from 
Norton’s Point and soon disappeared, a red dot 
with a spot of white winking at her masthead 
as the white flag there caught the sun, and two 
whiskers of white flashing off each side as she 
bit into the seas dead on end against hen Irene 
II. rounded the point close, and with the 
Herald’s boat Owlet as convoy, went out the 
channel in the strong ebb tide a ways off Coney 
Island before laying her course after the Craig. 
It is a long, hard drive ahead for both boats, 
but Ailsa Craig has done it before, and can do 
it again; and even the Irene II. should make a 
good run at this time of the year over summer 
seas. Good luck to both! 
Capt. Slocum and the Spray. 
Looking at Spray as she lay alongside of the 
sand dock at 79th street and North River, the 
casual observer sees a very ordinary kind of a 
hull, but even he notices some odd features 
about the boat. The square stocky hull, stumpy 
masts, bowsprit and loose, scanty rigging. But 
to a man with salt in his veins what bits of de¬ 
tail there are about this marine tramp to tell 
stories. 
Take any old-time Connecticut oyster smack 
and you have Spray’s hull, apple-bowed, square- 
sterned and slab-sided. For convenience and 
ease of handling a jigger mast has been added 
outside her transom aft, supported by an arch 
beam that looks like the back of an old rock¬ 
ing chair magnified. A spar for a bumpkin 
sticks out aft, unsupported and unguyed. Just 
a spar with a wooden block through which a 
single whip for a sheet is rove. 
Her main boom is shortened so it ends at the 
stern clear of the jigger mast. Gaff she has 
none, but "a short wooden club takes its place 
to which the one and only one halliard is fast 
like a sharpy’s sail. There were a few hoops 
on the mast, but they had been discarded and 
in their place a wire jackstay was stretched up 
the after side of the mast, and the mainsail 
seized fast to jib hanks running on this wire. 
Forward, Spray’s wire bobstay had parted, but 
the stump spar held the strain. Her jibstay, 
too, had carried away and was pieced out with 
a piece of rope rove through the bowsprit end 
and set up with a single whip purchase under 
the bowsprit. It is astonishing what a small 
amount of iron work is found on Spray. Her 
bowsprit shrouds, for instance, come in through 
the bulwarks forward and are hitched about the 
bulwark stanchions. 
Somewhere in his travels, Captain Slocum has 
had bits of finely fitted teak fittings put on that 
show up in strong contrast to the rest of the 
boat. Spray is an interesting boat to sit and 
study over, and her captain is many times more 
interesting to talk to, being a man who sees as 
he goes and has the power of describing what 
he has seen in an entertaining way. 
Spray’s condition at present is due to the fact 
that on her way North with the two-ton piece 
of coral crated fast on deck amidships this trip, 
she ran into the tropical hurricane off Cape 
Hatteras that disabled so many large sailing 
craft. 
Captain Slocum’s next sensation promises to 
be a very interesting one from the yachtsman’s 
standpoint. When he has spent as much time 
along the coast as he intends to pass this sum¬ 
mer, stopping all along the Sound at New 
Rochelle, Oyster Bay, etc., he will try to arrange 
a race across the Atlantic for a small considera¬ 
tion or for glory alone between Spray and any 
yacht her length that can be induced to make 
the passage. He will sail Spray alone and per¬ 
mit his opponents to carry all the crew they 
care to. There, yachtsmen, is an ocean race for 
you. 
The New York thirties will sail their third 
yearly series of races on Long Island Sound this 
year. Last Saturday’s race is the first of the 
series. This series will consist of twenty races, 
and the committee appointed at a recent meet¬ 
ing of the owners to assume charge of the sea¬ 
son’s work is composed of Mr. J. W. Alker, Mr. 
G. C. Meyer and Mr. Clifford D. Mallory. The 
races will take place in the regattas of the fol¬ 
lowing clubs: 
June 6, Knickerbocker Y. C.; June 11, New 
York Y. C.; June 13, Manhasset Bay Y. C.; 
June 18, New York Y. C.; June 20, Larchmont 
Y. C.; June 27, Seawanhaka Y. C.; July 4, 
Larchmont Y. C.; July 11, New York Y. C.; 
July 18, Larchmont Y. C.; July 20, Larchmont 
Y. C.; July 22, Larchmont Y. C.; July 23, Larch¬ 
mont Y. C.; July 24, Larchmont Y. C.; July 25, 
Larchmont Y. C.; Aug. 1, Indian Harbor Y. 
C.; Sept. 5, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Y. C.; Sept. 
7, Larchmont Y. C.; Sept. 11, New York Y. C.; 
Sept. 12, Indian Harbor Y. C., and Sept. 19, 
Manhasset Bay Y. C.. 
The point system to be employed will be the 
same as that used by the Larchmont Y. C. dur¬ 
ing its race week of last year. Boats to qualify 
must sail in seventy-five per cent, of the races. 
»» * * 
Boston has now given the handicap system 
of racing yachts a trial and the report is very 
favorable, indeed. The Boston Globe says in 
part: 
“For the first time in Massachusetts- Bay the 
progressive handicap system of yacht racing al¬ 
lowance was tried in inter-club classes A, B and 
C, and proved conclusively that it is the only 
method by which yachts that have been outbuilt 
can be raced. Nine boats started in Class A, 
and according to corrected time six figures with¬ 
in four minutes; in Class B thirteen yachts 
crossed the line and nine figures on corrected 
time within eight minutes of each other.” 
They had better weather in Massachusetts 
waters on Decoration Day than that about New 
York. Seventy-one yachts started in nine 
classes with a nice easterly breeze and bright 
sky, but before the day was over the bad 
weather, fog and rain set in, but not soon 
enough to prevent the boys from having a race. 
« * * 
A new marine publication, known as The 
Master, Mate and Pilot, makes its appearance 
this month with publication offices at 21 State 
Street. It is full of newsy maritime stuff and 
has several very interesting views of the Lusi¬ 
tania and Mauretania. It is more of a deep¬ 
water and coastwise paper than a yachting sheet. 
How Races Usually Start. 
There is a story going the rounds of a man 
who was asked to sail on a schooner in one of 
these Mackinac races a few years ago. He took 
with him a box of poker chips and some cards. 
They worked him so hard on the way that he 
never went below except to eat and sleep. He 
lost ten pounds in weight, and when he left the 
boat at the island he took the gambling imple¬ 
ments out of his kit bag, threw them on the 
cabin table, and said, “No use for these things 
on this boat; what you ought to bring is a pick 
and shovel.” But he was in the race just the 
same the following year. Good amateurs for 
this race are hard to get. In fact, the best ones 
have all been engaged at this date for July 25, 
and if you want to see a busy spot run over to 
the Chicago Y. C. about 2 P. M. on that Satur¬ 
day and see the boys off. (They start at 3 P. M. 
this year.) Key West on the eve of the invasion 
of Cuba in 1898 is not a marker to it. In a 
launch which is fussily puffing around the har¬ 
bor, the regatta committee is asking this boat if 
they have finally gotten those two missing life 
preservers, telling that boat they cannot start 
unless they get their flare and fog horn on board 
mighty quick, and disqualifying a folding canvas 
boat that some over-smart captain is trying to 
pass off as a “serviceable dinghy.” 
Rowboats are rushing to and from between the 
club house and the fleet, burdened with groceries, 
grog and grouchy professionals. Why do these 
Swedes always get grouchy on occasions such as 
these when the owner himself is peevish enough 
for the whole crew because two of his best men 
have as usual not turned up when they were ex¬ 
pressly ordered to be on board, bag and bag¬ 
gage, at 1 P. M. ? They will show up all right, 
though full of apologies just when you have 
given them up, and are ready to haul your dinghy 
on deck. 
Finally the preparatory gun goes off, the big 
fleet streams majestically through the gap at 
three, the report of the last gun is heard, the 
boats head down the lake for a long fight 
through day and night, and the stay-at-homes 
sail back to the verandah to increase the bar re¬ 
ceipts and dope out which club house will have 
the honor of treasuring the Mackinac cup for 
another year. Bosun’s Mate. 
Canoeing . 
A. C. A. Fixtures. 
June 13-14.—Atlantic Division Cruise.—Rancocas Creek. 
July 10-24.—Western Division Camp.—Spring Lake, 
Grand Haven, Mich. 
July 11-19.—Atlantic Division Camp. — Plum Point, 
Cornwall-on-Hudson, N. Y. 
-.—Central Division Cruise and Camp.—Alle- 1 
gheny River. 
Aug. 7-21.—A. C. A. Camp.—Sugar Island, St. Lawrence 
River. 
Sept. 5-7.—Atlantic Division Camp.—Hermit Point, Hud¬ 
son River. 
- —.—Central Division Cruise and Camp.— 
Allegheny River. 
A. C. A. Membership. 
NEW MEMBERS PROPOSED. 
Atlantic Division.—Edward R. Rose, 949 
Berkeley Avenue, Trenton, N. J., by Wm. A. 
Furman; Howard B. Marsh, 23 South 9th Street, 
Newark, N. J., by George V. Strahan; Farnum 
F. Dorsey, 39 Cortlandt Street, New York city, 
by W. J. Flynn. 
Eastern Division.—Herbert L. Platts, Read¬ 
ing, Mass., by F. W. Houston. 
NEW MEMBERS ELECTED. 
Atlantic Division.—5527, Henry J. Wernst, no 
Fourth Avenue, Newark, N. J. 
Central Division.—5528, Horace B. Meacham, 
Warren, Pa. 
Eastern Division.—5526, Arthur G. Clark, An¬ 
dover, Mass. 
Western Division.—5525, James J. Hooker, 
216 East 3d Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
APPLICANT FOR REINSTATEMENT. 
Eastern Division.—Hugh J. Walker. 
