Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/824

* YACHT. 700 YACHT. the water line, 7 feet 9 inches wide, and S feet 3 inches draught. She had an enormous displace- ment in proportion to her sail area, but she won seven races out of eight starts against smart American yachts. The influence of this yacht was great and last- ing, ilany yachts of similar design were built orimported. The Genesta and the Galatea, two British cutters of the extreme narrow design, came as challengers for the America's cup (1S85 and 188G). They were defeated by the centre- board sloops I'uritan and Moii/lon-cr, but their failure did not immediately injure the popularity of the 'knife-blade' model. In fact, after the fashion of the British model, the I'uritan and the Mayflower both carried lead on their keels, and both were of greater depth and displacement than the type American racer of previous years. The Volunteer, that defended the cup when the Thistle came (1887). was still deeper and of greater displacement, while the Defender, built to meet the America's cup challenger Valkyrie III. (1895), was much like the British type of the day. The Defender was designed by N. G. Herres- hoff, of Bristol, R. I. She used a keel instead of a centreboard to obtain lateral plane. She was 85.5 feet long on the water line, 23.25 wide, and 19.33 draught. She displaced 143 tons. Valkyrie III., designed by G. L. Watson, was 26.17 feet wide, to a water-line length of 88.9. She dis- placed 158 tons. Although her draught was 20 feet, the cross-section of her hull, exclusive of her fin-keel, was something like that of the American Vigilant. These facts are important because the Defender was designed to the narrow model through the influence which British cutters had had on American yachtsmen, while the Valkyrie was built to the wide model for two memorable reasons: it had become apparent that increase of sail area (or driving power) could be obtained more advantageous!}' by adding to the width of the hull than by increasing the cargo of lead on the keel ; the British Yacht Racing Association, see- ing the advantage of wide beam, had abolished (1880) the old rule of measurement altogether, and substituted the simple rule that considered the water-line length and sail area only — Rating = L X S -;- 6000. " This freed the liand of the British designer. jNleantime (1891) an epoch-making yacht ap- peared — the Oloriana, designed by N. G. Herres- liofT. The memorable features of her model in- clude a long overhang at each end, and a straight- line bow in place of the hollow vertical wedge. Where the America hail shown hollow lines the Gloriana had convex. The Gloriaiia started in eight races her first year and won them all. The Gloriana was 45.25 feet long on the water line and 70 over all. The advantages of overhangs at each end were: They added to the initial stability; lengthened the fore and aft lines of the hull, thereby refining the angle presented to the water, and thus the heaping up of water un- der the lee bow in windward work was avoided. As the raeer heeled, the overhangs were pressed into the water, thus leiigtbciiing the water line length, and increasing the lateral plane for wind- ward work. The absurd 'knife-blade' model had been slow- ly dying since the defeat of the Genesta. and the Galatea. With the advent of the Gloriana the illusion that a racer must necessarily have a sharp, vertical-wedge bow with liollow lines vanished. The Viyilant, built (1893) to meet the Valkyrie II., in races for the Ajiiecieu's cup, was the last of the big American centreboard racers. Centre- boards went out of fashion partly because that of the Viyilunt in one race could not be lowered — something often happening to centreboards — and I)artly because a linked was supposed to be a better device for giving lateral plane. The }'iyilant's centreboard had been heavily weighted in order to lower her centre of gravitj', but a fin-keel was found to all'ord an equally satisfactory lateral plane, while lowering the ballast still further than a weighted centreboard could. Both the Defender and the Valkyrie III. demonstrated the value of the fin-keel, and they confirmed the good opinion of overhangs that had been created by the Gloriana. As there was no tax on beam in the international races, the line of development which followed was inevitable. By successive steps through the Columbia and the Constitution, the model of the lieliance, built in 1903 to defend the America's cup, came as a natural growth. The Reliance was 25.58 feet broad to a water-line length of 89.9, an over-all length of 143, and a draught of 19.58. In smaller American racers these proportions have been carried much further. The Outlook, a Boston model, was 64 feet long over all to a water-line length of 21 feet, while her beam was 15 feet and her draught was 6 inches. She had the marvelous record of 13 knots an hour. British designers have not gone so far. They feel that a racer should also be a cruiser. The Hhamrock III., designed by William Fife, as the cliallenger of 1903, was avowedly of the cruiser, or "wholesome' type. Her hull had plenty of room for storing cargo, but she was defeated by margins wide enough to demonstrate beyond dis- pute that racers and cruisers are of two distinct classes, and that it is useless to try to pit the cruiser against the raeer. Yacht sails were once made to bag like a purse net. Xow they are made as flat as possible save for a slight hollow in the luff. Lug sails, that were common fifty years ago, have disappeared. So have square topsails set on 3'ards above the fore and aft sail of schooners, sloops, and cutters. Where the Maria set a single jib forward of the mast, modern racers carry three in moderate weather, save only when the wind is well aft. Then a single great tri- angle of canvas, the balloon jib, is spread. In- stead of a great square sail spread from a yard when running before the wind there is now a spinnaker, a triangle of canvas that extends from the topmast-head to the deck and out along a boom rigged bro.ad oil on either side. The Galatea spread 7387 feet of canvas by the rule of measurement; the Mayfloirer, 8824: the f^hamrock III. spread 14,337; and the Ueliance, in. 1 69. And neither of the racers of 1903 had as much displacement as the Galatea. Where the lliainnnd of 1873 carried 071 feet of canvas, the (In I look of 1903 carried 1800. In 1895, to jiromote the Iniilding of yachts fit for cruising — tlialnmryi — British yachtsmen adopted a measurement rule penalizing beam and