Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/770

Rh 724 YACHTING &amp;lt; Corinne, &quot; &quot; Miranda, &quot; and Waterwitch ; &quot; the large cutters Kriemhilda,&quot; &quot;Vol au Vent,&quot; &quot;Formosa,&quot; &quot;Samama,&quot; and Vanduara;&quot; the 40-tonners &quot;Foxhound,&quot; &quot;Myosotis,&quot;and &quot;Norman;&quot; the 20-tonners &quot;Vanessa&quot; (Hatcher s master piece), &quot;Quickstep,&quot; &quot;Enriqueta,&quot; &quot;Louise,&quot; and &quot;Freda;&quot; and the yawls &quot;Florinda,&quot; &quot;Corisande,&quot; &quot;Jullanar,&quot; and &quot;Latona.&quot; Lead, the use of which commenced in 1846, was entirely used for ballast after 1870 and placed on the keel outside. Of races there was a plethora ; indeed no less than 400 matches took place in 1876, as against 63 matches in 1856, with classes for schooners and yawls, for large cutters, for 40-tonners, 20-tonners, and 10-ton- ners. The sport too was better regulated, and was con ducted on a uniform system : the Yacht-Racing Association, established in 1875, drew up a simple code of laws for the regulation of yacht races, which was accepted by the yacht clubs generally, though a previous attempt to introduce uniformity, made by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club in 1868, had failed. The Association adopted the rule for ascertaining the size or tonnage of yachts which had been for many years in force, known as the Thames rule ; but in 1879 they altered the plan of reckoning length from that taken on deck to that taken at the load water line, and two years later they adopted an entirely new system of calculation. Subsequently to these repeated changes yacht- racing gradually waned, the new measurement exercising a prejudicial effect on the sport, as it enabled vessels of ex treme length, depth, and narrowness, kept upright by enor mous masses of lead on the outside of the keel, to compete on equal terms with vessels of greater width and less depth, in other Avords, smaller yachts carrying an inferior area of sail. Of this type are the yawls &quot; Lorna &quot; and &quot; Wendur,&quot; the cutters &quot;May,&quot; &quot;Annasona,&quot; &quot;Sleuth-hound,&quot; &quot;Tara,&quot; and &quot; Marjorie,&quot; the most extreme of all being perhaps the 40-tonner &quot; Tara,&quot; which is six times as long as she is broad, and unusually deep, with a displacement of 75 tons, 38 tons of lead on her keel, and the sail spread of a 60-ton- ner like &quot; Neva.&quot; In 1884 two large 80-ton cutters of the above type were built for racing, viz., the &quot; Genesta &quot; on the Clyde and the &quot; Irex &quot; at Southampton. Having been successful in her first season, the former went to the United States in 1885 in quest of the America cup ; but she was beaten by a new yacht, called the &quot; Puritan,&quot; built for the purpose of defending it, with a moderate draught of 8 feet 3 inches of w r ater, considerable beam, and a deep centre-board. The defeat of the &quot; Genesta &quot; is not surprising when it is re collected that she drew 13 feet of water, had a displace ment or weight of 141, as against the &quot;Puritan s&quot; 106 tons, and a sail area of 7887 square feet to the American s 7982, a greater mass with less driving power ; but she did not leave the States empty-handed, as she won and brought back the Cape May and Brenton Reef challenge cups, though they were wrested from her by the &quot;Irex&quot; in the following year. The same thing happened to the &quot; Galatea,&quot; which was beaten by the &quot; Mayflower &quot; in 1886. In 1887 a uew cutter, called the &quot;Thistle,&quot; was built on the Clyde to try to win back the America cup ; but, although built very differently from the &quot; Genesta &quot; and &quot; Galatea,&quot; i.e., of a much greater width than modern English racing yachts generally, the &quot;Thistle,&quot; when matched with the new centre-board &quot; Volunteer,&quot; had no better fortune than her predecessors. These new American racing vessels are some thing ^ very different from the old flat -bottomed sloop &quot;Maria,&quot; with one head-sail and a trivial draught of water, inasmuch as they are lead -ballasted cutters with two head-sails and a draught of nearly 10 feet of water, with the additional advantage of a centre-board descend ing as much as 8 or 10 feet below the keel. In this connexion it is noteworthy that a prize won by a fixed-keel schooner should be defended by centre-board craft with a single mast. From 1887 an entirely new system of measurement for competitive sailing has been adopted in the United King dom, the old plan of measuring the hull having given way to the more rational one of taking the length on the water- line and the sail area of the vessel as the factors for rating. This leaves naval architects free to adopt a long and narrow or a short and &quot;beamy&quot; hull. Yacht - racing as at present conducted is simple and easily managed. A course is chosen by the committee of the club giving the prizes, averaging for first-class vessels 40 or 50 nautical miles in length, such as the old queen s course from Cowes eastward to the Nab lightship, back past Cowes to Lymington, and returning to the starting-post. The competitors, i.e., cutters, yawls, and schooners, cutters sailing at their full, yawls at four-fifths, and schooners at three-fourths of their tonnage or rating cruise about under way in readiness for crossing an imaginary line between the club-house or committee vessel and a mark-boat, which forms the starting as well as winning place, on the signal being given. No time is allowed at the start, but only at the finish, and conse quently there is a good deal of manoeuvring to get across the line first and to windward. The yachts make the best of their way on wards, running if the wind is abaft them, reaching if it is on the beam, and close-hauled if it is foul, the greatest skill being shown in cross-tacking and getting the weather-gauge. When close-hauled and reaching, the ordinary fore-and-aft sail (see SAIL, SEAMANSHIP, and SHIPBUILDING) is used ; but when going free a large racing sail called a spinnaker is set on a long boom projecting from the foot of the mast at right angles to the vessel. This sail, which is a tri angular one, extends from the topmasthead to the deck, on the opposite side to that occupied by the main boom, though occa sionally shifted to the bowsprit end. After leaving all the marks on the port or starboard hand, as may be directed in their instruc tions, the competing yachts arrive at the winning-place generally in single file, the moment at which each competitor passes the line being noted by a time-keeper. It is then ascertained whether any and which vessel has saved her time allowance, which varies ac cording to the length of the course, arid the first which has done so is declared to have won. The amount of prize money gained by the most successful vessel of the season almost always a cutter generally exceeds 1000 sovereigns, exclusive of cups or plate. The expense of racing is enormous ; in the case of an 80 or 100-ton cutter it amounts to fully 2000 or 3000 a year. The cost of cruising is of course not so great, the wages of non-racing crews (which are much smaller in number) being less, and averages perhaps 10 a ton. There are not such frequent renewals of sails ; there are not so many breakages of spars, no entrance fees, and no &quot; winning money &quot; to pay the crew, nor any of the thousand and one extras which go to swell the yearly account of the racing owner. Racing yachts make good cruisers if their spars are shortened and their wings clipped ; and it is a very common practice to turn an ex-racing cutter into a yawl, by shortening her boom and adding a mizzen- mast and mizzen-sail to her counter. The yawl rig is comfortable for cruising, but not so successful for racing as the cutter. The speed of yachts varies according to their length, and this is one reason why an allowance in time should be given by a large yacht to a smaller one. As instances of pace it is on record that the &quot;Arrow&quot; in 1858 sailed 45 knots in 4 h. 19 m., and 50 knots in 1872 in 4 h. 40 m. In the latter year the &quot;Kriemhilda&quot; did 50 knots in 4 h. 37 m., while the &quot; Marjorie &quot; did the same distance in 4 h. 26 m., and the &quot;Samrena&quot; in 4 h. 15 m. in 1883 ; the &quot; Lorna&quot; (yawl) in 4 h. 14 m., and the &quot; Irex&quot; in 4 h. 7 min., both in 1885, all these distances being sailed inside the Isle of Wight, irrespect ive of the state of the tide. A greater pace has been developed by schooners in bursts of speed with a fair tide and half a gale of wind behind them, but in racing inside the Isle of Wight the &quot;Egeria&quot; in 1870 did 50 knots in 4 h. 27 m., the &quot;Olga&quot;in 4 h. 25 m. in 1875, the &quot;Enchantress&quot; in 4 h. 18 m. in 1879. which is not so quick as the cutters. As to the number of yachts now afloat, cruisers as well as racers, the British yacht fleet, which in 1850 consisted of 500 sailing and 3 steam vessels, now numbers 2209 sailing yachts, of 64,051 tons, and 700 screw steam yachts, of 68,667 tons, or a gross total of 2909 yachts, of 132,718 tons in round numbers 3000 yachts, allowing for small craft not included in the above total. They are con structed of wood, iron, or steel this last gradually coming to the front in the pleasure fleet as well as in the mercantile marine and royal navy. Next to Great Britain the United States possesses the largest number afloat, amounting to nearly if not quite 1200 yachts ; and, if to the foregoing are added the yachts of other countries included in Lloyd s list, a grand total of upwards of 5000 is reached. AVhile the taste for sailing vessels has made marked strides since 1850, that for steam yachts has made still more extraordinary