Racing yacht

“ An exceptional year, alike in regard to weather and sport, for not within living memory has there been so fine a spring, summer and autumn, and there is no previous record of such a sequence of eventful and stirring racing. It is highly gratifying that sport so truly national in character as yacht racing enlisted more general interest during the past season than has ever previously been the case; in fact, it can further be said that the doings of the 'Britannia,' 'Valkyrie,' 'Satanita,' 'Calluna,' 'Navahoe,' and 'Iverna' arrested world-wide attention. ”

“ It positively becomes the question whether racing sails and racing hulls may not, in speed even, give results almost as satisfactory as steam, and in many other matters results far more favourable.
Of course the model of the racing yacht would have to be altered for the vessel of 10,000 tons. Vessels must get their stability from beam and from the scientific adjustment of weights, not merely from depth of keel—the Channel would not be deep enough for a vessel that drew twenty fathoms; but this change of design need not affect their speed or their stability very much. ”

“ But this is not all; a new sport has been born—the racing of small yachts, for which the Thames is peculiarly unsuited. Steam yachting has caused this development of small yacht racing. Men who would otherwise have built or purchased large sailing yachts now prefer steam, and, although they may themselves race but little in any craft, their action has destroyed our fleet of large sailing yachts, and with it the market for outclassed racers of any considerable size. ”

“ There is one class of vessel, however, in which everything is sacrificed to speed, and that is in racing-yachts. Hence, in the design of a racing-yacht, the architect has most scope for considerations which bear chiefly upon the removal of all limitations to speed. A little examination, therefore, of the evolution of the modern racing-yacht shows how the principles we have endeavoured to explain have had full sway in determining the present form of such boats. ”

“ It is only indeed of late years that racing-yachts have had a new suit of sails each season; although, for the America's Cup contests, yachts during the last decade have been provided with almost as many spare racing-sails as a Newport belle is provided with frocks.
The fleet had another addition this year in the Bezan, a small yacht; length of keel, 34 feet; breadth, 14 feet; depth, 7 feet; draught, 3 feet 6 inches; she came from Holland and was given to the King by the Dutch, but exactly by whom, is not recorded. ”

“ Thus modern racing-yachts are not always built of wood, but very often of some metal, such as bronze, steel, or aluminium alloys, which admit of a very high polish. This hull-surface is burnished as much as possible before the race, to reduce to a minimum the skin friction. Then in the second place, the designer aims at fashioning the form of the bow of the yacht so as to reduce as much as possible its wave-making qualities. A fine type of modern yacht glides through [97] the water with hardly any perceptible bow wave at moderate speeds. ”

“ In about the year 1884 a club was formed for steam-yacht owners only, called the American Yacht Club, and for several years it offered prizes to be run for in Long Island Sound; but steam-yacht racing did not become popular, principally because of the danger of forcing machinery to its utmost limit of safety, and also the difficulty of classifying yachts of different size and power of engine. ”

“ Although the racing of steam yachts as a recognized sport has not made the progress that was at one time expected, yet the owner and crew of a crack vessel will take as much interest in her performance as those belonging to a sailing yacht, and hate to be passed quite as badly. ”

“ Sailing in a race affords excellent opportunity for noticing the other competing craft and admiring the goodly company assembled around. The big cutters are leading, and some of the forties astern. That 'Queen Mab' will hold her own with the best is a point upon which we feel happily confident, her racing flags being proof of her capacity—thirty-six is the number she showed at the end of the season. This yacht, as mentioned elsewhere, was built with a centreboard, but instead of a huge partition in the centre of the saloon, the board came under the main companion, and was quite unnoticeable. ”

“ The sight was beautiful in the extreme; for, independent of the racing-vessels, hundreds of other yachts were sailing about in every direction. The course also being round the Nab light, and a similar light-vessel moored at the mouth of the Southampton Water, the racing-yachts were the whole time in sight of Ryde. The Royal Victoria Yacht Club-house was decorated with banners, and from a battery in front of it were fired the necessary signals and salutes, while several yachts anchored off the pier-head were also gayly-decked with flags. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Considering the sea that was running, and the amount of broken water that was throwing itself about, this last race is one to be long remembered and handed down in the annals of small-yacht racing; and now and hereafter, when racing and cruising men feel a tendency arising in them to croak and speak ill of the little yachts that were built under the old rule of measurement, let them call to mind their mighty deeds, their racing and their voyages under circumstances and in weather that would frighten many a 50-tonner into harbour and to her moorings. ”

“ In every age there have been men to whom sea-faring has been a recreation and a delight. Indeed, yachtsmen may be regarded as the patricians of the sea; free from its hardships and privations, though amenable to its written and unwritten laws, and participating in its dangers and delights. By degrees, yacht-racing has become the popular feature of yachting, though early history shows that yachts enjoyed a flourishing existence for nearly two centuries before racing came into fashion. ”

“ But beyond all this—the heartiness, the equality, the good feeling, the absorbing interest that attends yacht racing and yacht cruising—there are some very interesting questions that suggest themselves in connection with the great increase of speed lately developed by the new type of racing yachts. ”

“ When, therefore, we reflect that well into the last century, crack racing-yachts in England and America were ballasted with pig iron and iron ore, and in 1851 the America had iron ballast moulded to fit her floors and frames—at that time an extravagant novelty—and that only of late years lead ballast has come into general use as a modern improvement, we may well be cautious in accepting anything as new. It is interesting also to note Christopher Pett's anxiety with regard to the quality of canvas for the sails of the new yacht ”

“ We take it that the general yachting public require in a yacht: That she shall be safe in all conditions of wind and weather; that she shall combine the maximum of room on deck and below with the minimum of prime cost; and that she shall be driven as fast as may be with the least expenditure of labour—i.e. that she shall have a moderate and workable sail-area. Therefore, as but few men can afford to build for racing, and for racing only, and as the racer of to-day is the cruiser of a few years hence, any rating rule should by its limitations encourage such a wholesome type of vessel. ”

“ Her racing career lasted not much less than twenty years, and it was only the lead keels and the deep bodies given to the later yachts that brought it to a close. It is when looking back on such good old warriors as the 'Torment' and the 'Mosquito,' among the larger racers, that lovers of the sport whose incomes are limited must agree that the old days were good indeed. It was not necessary then to be the fortunate possessor of a new vessel each season to enable the lover of yacht racing to win prizes and keep well in with the flyers of the year. ”

“ Not on the principle that race-horses are kept, either, as every one knows there is no chance of a racing boat doing more than pay her own way at best, for the prizes are barely adequate to meet the expenses.
Yacht-racing makes quite a new interest in life. The clever mathematician can find a large field for his energies in the designing line, and the keen sailor a never-wearying delight in developing to the utmost the powers of the boat confided to him. ”

“ But, owing to the steel frame being considerably more expensive than timber, the composite build has never become popular until within the last few years, when the naturally weak shape of the modern yacht, the fact of all the lead being outside, and her enormous stability, have so increased the racking strains on the structure, that a merely wooden frame cannot be got to hold together without making the weight of the hull altogether prohibitive; and the composite racing yacht, for everything except very small vessels, seems likely to push all the others from the field. ”

“ The best school possible is actual racing, and when we present to our yachtsmen a racing list as long as that published in England, then we can hope to have captains and men fit to hold their own. The English may learn of the Americans how to design a yacht that will bear pushing to extreme speeds without making such a disturbance in the water as did 'Valkyrie.' They can also take lessons in staying the mast and masthead, and in proportioning the sizes of spars and standing rigging more closely to the labour assigned them. ”

“ This especially applies to small yacht races, the prizes for which are not a severe tax on a club's exchequer, and can therefore be given more frequently.
Owners were not slow to avail themselves of the sport offered, which on trial proved to possess many advantages over large yacht racing.
In small craft an owner is more his own master, and frequently steers and sails his own boat. Corinthian hands can form all or a large portion of the crew; ladies can take an active part; the sport is less costly and better fun than with (p. 224) large craft; there are more races ”

“ Before the days of outside lead, when pleasure craft shifted their racing for a cruising rig preparatory to a deep-water voyage, it was customary to raise the inside lead ballast by placing layers of cork beneath it, thus ensuring easy movements in a seaway. Racing yachts nowadays have all their weight outside, and this device for their relief cannot therefore be resorted to. When crossing the Atlantic, say for a race for the America's Cup, they are always in danger of getting caught in a gale of wind and an accompanying mountainous sea. ”

“ This incident took the form of a somewhat sudden proposal to get up a race for steam-yachts round the island, for a cup of the value of fifty guineas. Such a proposal was a little remarkable, from the fact that steam-yacht racing is a form of sport that is very rarely indulged in by Englishmen, at least in English waters; yet everything must necessarily have a beginning, and there was no especial reason why steam-yacht racing should not be one of those things, particularly as the idea appeared to be received with some enthusiasm by certain owners of such craft. ”

“ This international sport awakens such a widespread interest, serving, as it were, as a great national school in yachting and racing, that it is to be hoped as much facility as possible may be afforded the public for witnessing them; therefore, let all international races be held in New York waters, where they were in 1893, as that point is more accessible than any other to those interested. We in America must establish some school for the training of skippers and crews; there is not to-day a professional skipper in the country, nor a crew that is capable of sailing a yacht against the English. ”