Brooke Heckstall-Smith

“ Nevertheless, owing to the expense of class racing, handicap racing thrived greatly during the period of the first and second Girth Rules. During these periods, too, the third style of yacht racing came into vogue, namely cruiser racing; either very fast cruisers were built specially for the purpose of handicap racing, or a number of yachts of exactly similar design were built specially to the owner’s orders for the purpose of racing in a class together. The fast handicap cruisers had the great advantage over class racers from 1896 up to 1906, inasmuch as they were much more strongly built. ”

“ The seaworthiness, speed, weatherliness and general handiness for racing purposes of the cutters of 1893 far exceeded all previous results. Yacht designing and building now became a science demanding the highest tax upon the skill and ingenuity of the naval architect. The cutter “Valkyrie II.” visited the United States in 1893, but Lord Dunraven’s vessel was beaten by the “Vigilant.” Curiously enough, when the crack Herreshoff cutters “Navahoe” and “Vigilant” visited the British Isles they were severely beaten by the British yachts. ”

“ The light scantling began to tell severely upon large yacht racing. Meanwhile, in the small classes, the Solent one-design class. South Coast one-design class, numerous Belfast one-design classes. Redwings, Whitewings and a host of others, show how an inexpensive form of cruiser racing had usurped the place of class racing and competitive designing. Many yachtsmen felt that if handicap racing and one-design racing were to usurp the place of the higher form of class racing the whole sport of yachting must soon deteriorate. ”

“ The “America,” thus exceptionally treated, entered and competed against fifteen other vessels. The three most dangerous competitors being put out through accidents, the “America” passed the winning-post 18 minutes ahead of the 47-ton cutter “Aurora,” and won the cup; but, even if the time allowance had not been waived, the American schooner yacht would still have won by fully a couple of minutes. The prize was given to the New York Yacht Club and constituted a challenge cup, called “the America's cup,” for the yachts of all nations, by the deed of gift of the owners of the winner. ”

“ This ingenious d measurement was evolved by Alfred Benzon, a Danish scientist and yachtsman. The rule, so far as the development of a full-bodied cabin yacht went, proved very successful. It had certain marked faults: the measurement of the girth at a fixed station caused a shallowness of keel at that particular spot, and there was no check upon the full pram bows, which when introduced into vessels of heavy displacement strained the ships terribly as they smashed into a heavy seaway. The new racing yachts generally, however, from 1896 onwards, proved worthy and fast vessels. ”

“ The “Thistle” was the first vessel built in Great Britain expressly for the match, and after her race in 1887 the types in fashion on both sides of the Atlantic rapidly converged, and deep-draught fin-keeled vessels with deep fins and light shallow hulls took the place of the former types of the shallow American sloops and deep-keeled wall-sided British cutters. In 1892 some splendid semi-fin-keeled cutters of the new pattern were built in the 40-rating class for the ordinary English coast regattas, and in 1893 the fin-keel type in England was even more successful. ”

“ With the advent of the length and sail area rule the Solent at once became the fashionable rendezvous for small racing yachts, and the craft known as the Solent classes, 5-raters, 21⁄2-raters, 1-raters and 1⁄2-raters, flourished greatly. ”

“ In form they did not differ vastly from the racers of their period, but in scantling of hull, fittings, bulwarks and rig they were more comfortable and better vessels than their class-racing sisters. It was obvious in the larger classes that many yacht-owners were not prepared to put up with the discomfort of the thin-skinned racers. ”

“ For all the best cruisers, even the “Valdora” and the ketches “Cariad I.” and “Cariad II.,” are but modified types evolved from the crack racers. Hence yachtsmen began to give careful attention —during the early period of the Second Linear Rating rule—to suggestions that in the future every class-racing yacht should be built according to a fixed table of scantlings, so that her hull should be as strong as a bona fide cruiser.
Yachts Built under the Second Linear Rating Rule.—Few large vessels were built expressly for racing under this rule ”

“ They were originally devised to afford amusement and sport to out-classed racers and cruisers, but they obviously did nothing to encourage owners to build very fast vessels, nor to stimulate improvement in design. When a handicap is allotted to each vessel according to her assumed speed, the slowest and most ill-designed craft should have an equal chance with the best. ”

“ Whilst Britain abandoned her narrow deep type, America soon also began to modify the old shallow centre-board sloop type, and so between 1887 and 1893 the rival types began to converge very rapidly, until the old idea of a race for the America’s cup being a test of a British type against an American type completely died out. ”

“ Plank-on-edge Type abandoned.—Prior to 1886 it had been the custom in Great Britain for several reasons to build the yachts deep, narrow, wall-sided, with very heavy lead keels and heavy displacement. The system of measurement had been a tonnage measurement, and under this system designers found, from the knowledge they had then attained from racing trials, that a narrow heavy vessel would beat a wider and lighter craft when both were measured by the tonnage rules. ”

“ It was obvious that had handicap racing and the one-design principle been seriously introduced in 1880 or 1886 and obtained a strong hold on yachtsmen such improved types as the modern cruisers of 1906 would never have been evolved. ”

“ Stevens then commissioned George Steers of New York, builder of the crack pilot schooners, to construct a racing schooner to visit England in the year of the great exhibition, and the result was the “America” of 170 tons. She crossed the Atlantic in the summer of 1851, but failed to compete for the Queen’s cup at Cowes in August, although the club for that occasion threw the prize open to all the world, as her owner declined to concede the usual time allowance for difference of size. ”

“ All the yachts in this class must be classed A1. In racing, yawls sail at their actual rating and schooners at 12% less than their actual rating. The other classes are the ten separate cutter classes, in which there is no time allowance whatever:—
Under the international rule the old trouble of ultra-light scantling in racing yachts has been completely abolished, for all yachts must be built under the survey and classed with one of the three classification societies—Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping, Germanischer Lloyd, or Bureau Veritas ”

“ It is naturally, however, the most expensive form, because only the most up-to-date and perfectly equipped vessels can keep in the first flight.
From time to time, chiefly from about the years 1884 and 1885 onwards, handicaps framed according to merits have been fashionable amongst yachtsmen. ”