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YACHT 
IN 


[JULY 20, 1907. 







New Rochelle Y. C. Stratford Shoal Race, 
\r 3:10 P. M. on Saturday, July 13, a fleet 
of about ten small yachts started from a line 
off Echo Bay on a race to and around Stratford 

Shoal Light, a distance in all of sixty-three miles. 
Tanya, Mr. George Granbery’s black sloop, 
took the lead at the line, crossing under the lea 
of Thelema and the yaw] Tamerlane. The wind 
was light, but fair, being about south, while the 
course lay east and the tide was running east 
on the first. of the ebb. 
\ll the catboats had temporary bawsprits rigged 
out to carry balloon jibs, and as soon as the 
wind would permit all sorts of topsails and bal- 
ooners were set. Phe majority of the boats 
worked over under the Long Island shore, but 
one or two, just to be opposite, bore away for 
he north shore following Spray’s example. The 
sreeze hardened after sunset and spinnakers were 
set by some, 
here was no committee boat at the heht when 
Tanya rounded, but one appeared soon after, and 
vy hailing them through a megaphone they recog 
which boat it was. Thelema led Tamer 
and then there aas quite a distance to the 
when this 
nized 
Ane 
next boat, and to make matters worse, 

rio rounded the light and started to beat home 
with a strong flood tide that had turned about 
8 o'clock, the wind died out so the other boats 

were a long time in getting to the ligh 
Tanya anchored in Southtown Bay to prevent 
the Sound until daylight, when an 
easterly wind gave her headway against the tide 
This inereased in weight the morning ad 
vanced, and the tide turning fair, quick time was 
drifting out 
as 
made to the home mark with spinnaker and an 
improvised topsail set. Thelema, and Tamerlane 
came down along the Conneticut shore, the 
former finishing forty miles after Tanya, Tamer- 
exactly an hour after. 
judges will have to consider several pro- 
before a decision can be rendered as to 
who wins. The conditions under which the 
trophy (the Dewar shield) was donated makes 
this action necessary. One clause in the deed 
says it shall only be raced for by cruising boats, 
no boats brilt to a one-design racing class, etc., 
shall be allowed. 
Another point is that the allowance 
seconds per foot per mile, and the race was sup- 
posed to be seventy miles, but in measuring it 
on a chart the race they actually sailed was found 
by the judges to be only sixty-three miles, 
On a finish so close this alone would throw 
the race, so who gets it lies now entirely with 
lane 
The 
tests 

is eieht 
the judges. Oh! happy judges—no one envies 
you, 
Topsails. 
Dip you ever notice how the topsail yard 
eradually, little by little, each year evoluted from 
the square sail of ancient times into the modern 
club topsail? 
We only have to go back to the nineteenth 
century to find the topsails perfectly square- 
headed. There is a set of old lithographs from 
paintings by the once famous marine artist I. 
G. Dutton, of England, that illustrates about the 
vears this change was taking place. 
In 1850 the old cutter Avalon is shown with 
the topsail yard set at the same angle as her 
eaff. It just clears the topmast stay to the bow- 
sprit, it 1s so square. 
Phen in 1852 the cutter Volante. with an ex- 
tremely lone bowsprit, large jib and rather short 
main boom has her topsail yard tetered up a 
little higher than the angle of the gaff or top 
mast stay. 
Thirteen. years intervene between that boat 
and Dagmar, 1865, whose yard shows quite an 
approach to the modern sail. 
When topsails were peaked up as high as 
this it produced such a high narrow sail it was 
hard to hold up there, so it was broadened by 
the addition another spar on its foot called 
the club. 
Marjorie in 1883 shows this sail, 
of 
and it 1s from 
this second spar the sail derives its name of 
“club topsail” because it has a club as we call it. 
The Enelish used to term their old sail a 
“spreet” topsail, and when the club, as we call 







T883—MARJORIE, 

it, was added, they termed the topsail a “jack 
yarder”’ because beside the yard it had a jack 
yard on the foot. 
Nowadays the yard goes straight up parallel 
to the topmast and is securely lashed fast to it 
when sailing. The club instead of lapping down 
behind the mainsail is run parallel to and just a 
little above the gaff. 
The Measuring of Yachts. 
THE occasional error discovered in racing cer- 
tifieates has led to considerable talk and in some 
cases hard feeling. Under the old time length 
and sail area rule any man, fairly accurate at 
fisures, could give a correct racing certificate, 
but to-day the job of measuring a yacht under 
the existing rule is one fit for an expert. 
The ordinary man, not familiar with yacht 
designing, and the fine points in taking off the 
lines of a yacht (which in itself-is a difficult 
job to do accurately even for a designer), would 
be all at sea, or at best, give what would amount 
to only a guess. My idea is this: That instead 
of each club electing its own measurer, which 
means about thirty different men, why not let 
the Yacht Racing Association, which handles the 
racing for all clubs under one head, select one 
man as the official measurer and pay him enough 
to let him devote his whole time to the job. It 
would cost but little, if any more, than it is now 
doing, and instead of one boat, rating near her 
proper figure, racing against another that is 
rated not so:near her proper figure, it would be | 
a great satisfaction and save Owners consider- 
able hard feeling and much argument to know 
that each boat was measured by one man com- 
petent to do so. I am not throwing stones at 
any one in particular, but to one who has fol- 
lowed the history of yachting for years back 
there are cases enough in memory to warrant the 
advaneement of this proposition. 
The trouble is in the complicated system of 
measurement adopted, and if this system is right 
then what is needed is a measurer capable of 
successfully carrying out that system. and that is 
work enough for one experienced man to devote 
his whole time to. And the sport of yachting 
will be benefited thereby. opal? 



Larchmont Race Week, July 20 to 27. 
LARCHMONT race week begins to-day, Satur- 
day, July 20, and runs for a week of almost solid 
racing. It is the one week in the year when the 
racing yachtsmen get enough of their favorite 
sport, and is eagerly looked forward to by all, 
for there is the greatest assembly of racers con- 
eregated here that week ever seen in one place 
during the year. Mr. Chas. P. Tower, chairman 
of the regatta committee, announces an unusual] 
large entry list. It is always a hundred or more, 






A New Yacht Club. 
MAMARONECK is to have a yacht club accord- 
ing to the incorporation papers filed with thy 
county clerk, to be known as the Orenta Ye C) 
The directors are Richard E. Carpenter, Josepl 
P, Meagher, Austin K. Griffin, Lewis Harding} 
the Rey. Frank German, P. E. Henderson anc 
Chas. F. Griffin. 





Mamaroneck Harbor is well adapted to the 
purpose, the shelter being far better for yacht 
than some of the other sound clubs, and it if 
hoped the new club- will grow and prosper. 

WEEKLY races are being sailed at Port Wash 
ineton by the one-design Mower boats built re 
cently by Emmons, of Swampscott, Mass. Th] 
boats are 2ift, over all, 15ft. waterline, rigge 
. with jib and mainsail. : 


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