Page:Yachting wrinkles; a practical and historical handbook of valuable information for the racing and cruising yachtsman (IA yachtingwrinkles00keneiala).pdf/51

 "Progress in Yachting and Yacht Building," delivered early in 1881, said:

"As prophecy nowadays seems to be one of the branches of naval architecture, and we have been told by Sir E. J. Reed and others what kind of ships the next generation are to have, I am anxious to keep abreast of the age, and herewith present you with the outline specification of a 10-tonner for the season 2000. You see I keep myself pretty safe, as but few of us will be alive to see her sail. The dimensions I won't venture on. Some yachting authorities assert that you have only to make the boat long enough and heavy enough, to beat all existing racing craft; and it seems strange that, with this knowledge in their possession, they should not only have had sufficient self-denial to resist the building of certain successes, but have even gone the length of turning out duffers of normal dimensions. I think there is just a little more in it than that, and can't believe that a 10-tonner 80 feet long could ever be a success.

"We have not exhausted the possibilities of form yet, and really know very little more about it than Solomon did when he confessed his inability to understand 'the way of a ship on the sea;' and when we do arrive at perfection in shape, we can set to, then, to look out for better material.

"The frames and beams, then, of my ideal ship shall be of aluminum, the