leewardly, and able to work to windward | fan-tail overhang, which ends in a mouldonly against long, easy swells; it is slow ed arch-board. The keel is a wide timin light airs, and in strong breezes its ber, more a part of the frame proper than greater speed is secured only under cer- a spinal column; the rabbet is near the tain conditions which are not normal even lower edge, and the lead ballast is bolted in American waters. As the centre-board vertically to and through the keel by is generally lowered, there is greater act- numerous gun-metal bolts of large diamual draught than with keel boats, and eter. The spars consist of a short mast, though the option of lifting it is an ad- stepped vertically, and at a distance from vantage, still its great depth and want of the bow of about four-tenths of the waterstructural support render it liable to be line; leading directly to the stem-head is twisted, often cause the trunk in which the forestay, and to prevent the mast from it works to be a fruitful source of leak- being pulled forward by the strain upon age, and always make it a possible ele- the head-sails, there is a runner or purchase ment of danger. The ballast is commonly which is set up taut by a tackle at a point iron, and the construction is cheap because about one-third of the distance from the it is poor. The sloop rig is not adapted to yachts of fair size, and in heavy weather is so dangerous as to demand large crews to control its unhandiness; the water retained upon the decks in heeling shows the type to have too little freeboard; in moderate seas its want of support, owing to a light displacement being bullied by large sails, so deadens the headway as to make the boat plunge and wallow; and in sailing free it is apt, even with the helm hard up, to luff up into the wind and to take seas on board which may cause it to founder. In wear a sloop is expensive, because the strains to which it is subjected by the pressure of large and lofty sail areas,

and by the great resistance which acts on a light, unskillfully constructed body, render it comparatively a short-lived type. However, after this usefulness as a yacht has departed, it is suited for more prosaic fishing and trading work..

The cutter type is found in a narrow boat which, with great length in proportion to beam, and great depth relatively to both, carries low down, inboard and on the keel, large amounts of lead ballast. The stem is straight, the stern-post rakes, and the draught of water forward is about one-half of that aft. Amidships the cutter is rather full and bold, with a low bilge, a fine long entrance, and a sharp run, this last curving into high quarters and narrowing in modern boats, as a rule, into a

RIG OF ENGLISH CUTTER.

mast to the stern-post. Both the bowsprit and topmast can be reefed or housed by simple mechanical contrivances, and as a general classification the spars are short and stout, the standing rigging is light and strong, and the running gear is heavy and well disposed. There are four working sails; first, a mainsail which is wide on the head, short on the luff or on the part which is made fast to the mast, and long on the foot-this last being secured to the boom only at the extremities, the canvas sweeping, when not distended, in a graceful curve below the spar; next there is a jib, which is hooked to a ring, called a traveller, and is hauled out to the bowsprit by a tackle, its head being hoisted by chain. halyards, and afterward set up taut by a

other class; and finally, a readiness at all times to meet any vicissitudes of wind and weather under racing or working rigs. The disadvantages of the cutter are-first, great cost; excessive heeling; large per

tackle; then comes a foresail, which is fitted with hanks to the fore-stay; and finally a large square-headed topsail, bent to a yard and set flying, the lower part of the luff being afterward laced to the foot of the topmast above the cap and to the doub-manent draught of water; and in moderate lings of the mast.

The advantages of the cutter are- -seagoing qualities of the highest order; speed in all winds and weather, and especially in light airs and in strong breezes; safety so pronounced, owing to the great range of stability, as to forbid capsizing; ability to work to windward under all condi

weather and seas, owing to a lack of initial stability until large angles are reached, diminished speed as compared with the sloop type. The life of a racing cutter is limited; and as it can not be very well utilized afterward for pilot or fishing boats, its value depreciates so fast that yachtsmen are deterred from building. The lead ballast employed is expensive, but the greater utilization of this metal for yachts makes this excessive factor of less importance in the comparative scale.

Compared with a sloop of the same size, the cutter has more room; indeed, measured by relative sail areas necessary to drive equal displacements, there is over forty per cent. advantage in favor of the cutter. The excessive beam of the sloop amidships does not add proportionately to the room, for there is a great waste in the shallow wings, and the centre-board is as a wall between friendly nations; the forecastle of the sloop is a den compared with the light, roomy quarters of the cutter, and in the run the shallow flat floor denies the state-room which is always found in the deep, narrow craft. This is a vexed question, and one upon which dispu tants will not agree; but it has been approached carefully, and after comparisons

and measurements there seems no doubt that, boat for boat, there is more available, effective room in the cutter than in the sloop. Whether this room gives increased comfort is purely a personal question, being vehemently asserted and denied by the partisans of each type, though, after all, this depends largely upon the character of the work expected of the yacht. The yachtsman who intends to limit his cruising to smooth water and to good weather will get room and comfort in a shallow boat with raised coach roof; but if he wishes to go outside and be prepared for any emergencies, his chances for comfort are better in the flush-decked, high free-boarded, well-ventilated deep boat.

Besides differences of type, there are marked differences of construction. cutter is generally built in the most substantial manner, because of the work the

A

yet an exact science, and that it is possible that the man who constructs upon mathematical principles may occasionally fail, still he is nearly sure to have his floating body and his paper ship agree, and to start at least equal with the other as to the chances for speed. Yet, with the peculiar antagonism in human nature to book-learning, the scientific man is generally berated as a theorizer, and the rule-of-thumb modeller is hailed effusively as one "who knows all about his business." Practice, even pure and simple, is to be honored, but crass ignorance of underlying principles is no more practice than house-build

designer promises it will do. It is constructed of hard wood, and fastened from keel to rail with copper bolts driven through and clinched. The outer underwater skin is coppered, and inboard it is so thoroughly finished that the boat is as tight as a bottle, and during its life needs few repairs. The rigging is especially noteworthy as compared with our flimsy outfit; there are special brands of steel wire for the shrouds and stays, and the setting up at the mast-heads and at the gunwales is such as to merit encomiums for the strength and the neatness obtained and the waste obviated. There are patent blocks and anchors, and every-ing is architecture; and if Quince the Joinwhere good wholesome iron-work. Fourteen sails constitute the canvas outfit, all of a grade of Irish linen which is lighter and stancher than the cotton duck we pride ourselves so much upon.

The defects in our construction are not due to American mechanics, but to the parsimony of owners and to the greed of builders, and it is a rare thing to find a yacht that will satisfy the demands made upon it. The average American boat is badly built, and is filled with cheap fastenings and defective iron-work; the rigging is unseamanlike and lubberly, and the numerous accidents met with in racing and cruising prove the necessity of the radical reforms which a few designers and builders are trying to institute.

Abroad, yachting is a more serious thing than with us, and it is only natural to expect that the problem has been attacked more earnestly there. The demands of general naval construction have resulted in giving England better ship-building yards and a larger corps of skilled naval architects than we have; for, with a few notable exceptions, our reliance has always rested upon men who bear the same relation to educated designers that herb doctors do to licentiates of the great schools. Sometimes the unlearned healer cures, and sometimes the trained physician kills, but if pallida Mors were heard galloping toward us, and we had a voice in the matter, is there a doubt that we would prefer science to "yarbs"? In the same way the man who whittles a model upon lines which his experience teaches, and not upon principles which his grasp of scientific facts asserts, may often obtain a first-class ship, but more often he may not; and, on the other hand, while it is admitted that naval architecture is not as

er happens to succeed where Michael Angelo fails, then is the smug carpenter praised unduly, and then too is the value of scientific thought belittled, notwithstanding that in fifty trials Quince is likely to be wrong forty-nine and a half times. If those who doubt science will apply the same tests they demand in their own professions, they will perhaps see how illogical their positions are. Every yachtsman knows how often boats when launched fail to take the lines laid down for them, and this even with craft designed by practical men with trained eyes and large experience. It is a matter of common rumor that a notable yacht when put in the water last season was sixteen inches out amidships and thirteen inches out forward, and that the unexpected dozen tons of extra ballast cost her owner over fifteen hundred dollars. Pure science no more than pure practice makes the ideal designer, but experience and capacity for accurate observation, coupled with mathematical skill, come nearest to the production of this genus. Not long since a very clever constructor cast aside as useless all but his formulæ and his draughting-board, but after a short experience he was found hard at work in his studio perfecting his ship from the drawing on paper and the shaded model in his hand. And this is as it should be.

In this narration of the actual facts as they exist in the two types there is much that will be denied by the partisans of the sloop, but theory bears out the results gained in practice, and if the scope and purpose of this article permitted, it would not be difficult to show mathematically that each system practically does exactly what theory says it must. If this be so, then the scientific designers are certainly the better equipped for the work in hand,

and however much preconceived ideas may conflict with principles, fair-minded men should at least give their exponents a dispassionate hearing.

water. In light weather there is not enough propelling force utilized to overcome the resistance of the boat, and in heavy weather the sail areas must be so This is hardly the place to enter into a much reduced, owing to a want of great discussion of scientific terms, but a few range of stability, and to the slight hold prevalent heresies may be stated. There the light-displacement craft has upon the is, for example, a common belief that a water, that all headway is speedily lost. body moving in water meets with a resist- Then, again, in light airs with low speed ance proportionate to its depth of immer- wave-making resistance does not exist, and sion. This is a fallacy. Depth has no ef- the main opposition to be overcome is fect upon resistance, nor has the increase skin friction; hence the greater the moof density in water ever influenced the mentum of a vessel in proportion to wetted speed of any ship, for the accretion is only surface, the better it will hold the speed one-twentieth at a depth of 6000 feet, that acquired, and in light winds, therefore, is, at a distance from the surface of over the successful boat should be sought not a mile. Nor is water more difficult to in the combination of the least weight and push aside as the depth increases, for wa- the smallest draught, but in the greatest ter is practically incompressible, and, sur- weight clothed in the form having the face disturbances apart, the quantity and smallest area of skin in proportion to weight displaced are the same at all depths weight. Theory demonstrated this some and at any speed. Hence the resistance years ago, but it was doubted on this side offered by water to the motion of a ship pro- of the water until in the cruise of the New pelled by sails is divided into three class- York squadron last year the cutter Oriva es-frictional, eddy-making, and wave- made it apparent to all who cared to see. making. The first is due to the resistance Later in the year came the Seawanhaka of the particles of water gliding over the races, instituted to test the relative values of ship's bottom, and is in a direct ratio to sloops and cutters. Until then it was conthe area and roughness of the immersed fidently claimed that fast boats must sail section of the vessel. In light winds and over the water, because depth meant reat low velocities nearly the whole resist- sistance; that outside ballast was a hinance met with by vessels sailing at five or derance, and made boats logy; that a light six knots' speed is due to this surface fric- displacement could be more easily moved tion; and, in competitive sailing, extent through the water than a heavy one; that, and quality of surface friction, and the to carry sail, beam was a necessity; that power representing stability, are undoubt- two jibs for racing were less effective edly the main elements upon which suc- than one; that cutters roll more and are cess depends. Eddy and wave-making wetter than sloops; and that lofty narrow resistances are those parts of the total op- sails and short gaffs are better than low position to headway which are most influ- wide sails with long gaffs and foot curyenced by the forms and proportions of ing free. All this mathematics had deboats. With great beam comes great in-clared to be false, and when practice conitial stability up to certain defined angles of heel, and with depth and low centres of gravity is found that range of stability Some who recognize the truth of the which is a maximum at fifty-six degrees of new ideas have sought the ideal boat in a inclination. Free-board gives both initial compromise between the two types, but no stability and range of stability, and even one of these has yet proved itself in all eswith those who believe in skimming dish-sentials equal to an extreme boat of the es there is an acceptance of the truth that other systems of construction. more free-board, or height of deck-not of bulwark—above the water-line must be secured.

The shallow, beamy boat is faster in moderate weather because of its greater initial stability; this gives great sail-carrying power, and enables the yacht at the same time to stand up on lines which do not force it to drag the deck through the

firmed the dictum of theory, the cutter became an established fact.

To anticipate a reasonable criticism it may be declared that there is no desire to prove that yachting is necessarily sea-going, nor that the sport requires with us the same rigorous attention to safety as on the stormy coast of England. It is an accepted law that each country or each variant section of the sea-board produces the boat best suited for its environment,

from the forward side of the stem to the stern, plus the square root of the sail area in square feet, the result divided by three. In yachts of normal type the square root of the sail area expressed in feet is about equal to the length on the water-line, and compared with the latter indicates a difference from the normal type in the direction of increased or diminished sail area, taxing heavily rigged yachts, letting the ordinary type go free, and favoring the light-rigged craft. The division by three is used to approximate the figures to the actual length of the boat, so as to facilitate the use of the ordinary tables for time allowance, and to provide figures convenient for the purposes of comparison and registry. The rule is based upon the theories that any system which taxed either breadth, depth, or bulk, each by itself, would favor or foster an opposite quality, that length is the principal element for speed, and that ability to carry sail comes next. Therefore it was concluded that length in some form, modified by sail area in some form, should be adopted. It remains to be seen whether this new departure will be followed by the other American clubs.

and whatever enthusiasts may believe, our | ard of measurement based upon twice type will not disappear. For certain wa- the length, measured on the water-line ters in special weather and in ports with shallow entrances it is a speedy and most useful craft. For short runs in summer within land-penned rivers, or in harbors and on sounds, it will, under a modified form, hold its place for years, and under its own conditions it will be unsurpassed for speed. But it is not the best allaround boat, and where the best general results under the greatest number of circumstances are desired, the deep boat, whether cutter or simple keel, must be employed, or else the tendencies of the times have been misread. For sea-work there is no doubt that the cutter is the best boat; not any special cutter, for the proportions of a boat vary with its size, and to declare ex cathedra that in any vessel so many lengths to beam, or such displacements and sail areas, make the ideal craft, is an absurdity. In small yachts, whether single-handed or intended for three or four persons, it is the best type. There is no greater abomination than the cat-rigged boat, and youngsters who are learning to sail their ships could not have a more dangerous school. In "The Canoe and Flying Proa" Alden wisely and wittily declares that "in the estimation of persons familiar with boating who If some such fair measurement rule do not desire to die early the cat-boat has prove acceptable, so that boats may race three serious faults-a liability to capsize, upon actual and not upon fictitious valto be swamped, and to sink when a suffi- ues, and the different squadrons can meet ciently large hole is made in her. The and compete upon equal terms, then will last fault she possesses in common with our yachting take again that hold upon all other civilized vessels, but to the first national interest which made it twentytwo she is peculiarly prone." five years since the pride and boast of American sailors everywhere.

On the New England coast and in California centre-board boats are built deeper, many keels are afloat, and cutters and yawls are increasing in number; the broad boat, low in the water, is giving place to a deeper, less beamy craft, with higher sides, and lead ballast stowed low down; and everywhere the cutter rig, both for racing and for cruising, is growing in favor.

And this is certain, that however much intelligent yachtsmen may disagree upon the question of types, there is a consensus of opinion that there should be improvements in rig and construction; that the days of unseamanlike spars, sails, and gear, and of flimsy soft-wood hulls, are over; and that the carefully built boat is the cheapest in the end.

The committee of the New York Yacht Club has this summer adopted a stand

DISCIPLINE.

In the crypt at the foot of the stairs
They lay there, a score of the dead.
They could hear the priest at his prayers,
And the litany overhead.

They knew when the great crowd stirred,
As the Host was lifted on high;
And they smiled in the dark when they heard
Some light-footed nun trip by.

Side by side on their shelves

For years and years they lay;
And those who misbehaved themselves
Had their coffin plates taken away.

Thus is the legend told

In monkish, black-letter rhyme,
Explaining those plaques of gold
That vanished from time to time.