BOAT-SAILING ON SILT WATER.
THE present season in the Isle of Wight has witnessed the complete triumph of a new and popular form of yachting, -which will add an immense number of recruits to the ranks of amateur seamen. Small-boat sailing, commended some years ago by Lord Brassey as affording the most direct and -personal form of enjoyment to those fond of the sea, is now firmly established as a national pastime. The alteration of the rules of the Yacht Racing Association, by which length and sail area were made the standard for " rating " yachts of all sizes, has largely contributed to this result, which is credit- able to the foresight of the body which controls English yacht-racing. The great and growing expense of owning _large racing yachts has doubtless had its share in filling the ranks of the boat-sailing clubs. For some years large racing yachts have been as costly to their owners as maintaining a racing stable, with the disadvantage that while a successful .racing stud tends to reproduce itself, and may bring in hand- some returns in the form of sales and stakes to diminish the trainer's bill, the expenses of racing large yachts are likely to -increase at "each remove." The vessel which wins all along the line in one season is seldom permitted to remain -unchallenged in the next. The contest is not mainly one of seamanship, but lies partly between the yacht designers and partly between the competing owners' power of .spending money. Given a boat built, regardless of expense, to beat those of the previous season, the standing problem of the crack yacht designers during the next six months is to devise another which, without infringing rules and regulations, will "go one better" than last year's winner. When the new design is completed and approved any one who is ambitions of owning the best yacht of the coming season may reckon with some confidence on the offer of a vessel capable of beating the last year's champion. But in order to do this he must 'be prepared to pay, not the same price, but whatever -premium the differences in build, which nearly always repre- sent an appreciation of cost, may amount to. Thus large-yacht racing has steadily tended to become a contest between the longest purses. The owner of number one, when beaten by the owner of number two, goes to the designer and suggests that by some improvement and a little more expenditure he Dan identify another season's success with his name. The natural result is that an ever-increasing number of those whose means are not unlimited, but who have a real liking for the sea, go to the other extreme, abandon the expense of owning large yachts, and buy boats which they can sail and manage themselves.
• The common feature in these miniature yachts is that they shall be able to be sailed single-handed. To this end the number of ropes is reduced to a minimum, and, with or with- soul a companion, the owner can haul up his main-sail, set his jib, and then seating himself by the tiller, sail and steer his - boat with a speed, freedom, and power of turning among and around the crowded craft in harbours, or for miles along the -.coast in a moderate breeze, which would scarcely be credited. Within the limits of size possible for single-handed control are included a great variety of build and rig, and ample scope for the designer's skill. There is not a country on the globe possessing a sea-board in which there is not one or more ,special form of sailing boat in which local seamanship excels. All these are duly noted by the British builders. The list of types of build laid under contribution by the -votaries of boat-sailing on sat water grows every season. At the present date it is sufficiently large to bear testimony to the enthusiasm with which the new form of yachting is pursued. One type of lug-sail is borrowed from China, and another from the fishing boats of Mount's Bay; while Lowestoft and the Mediterranean furnish competing patterns of lateen-sails. The "cat boat" of Newport and Rhode Island, first introduced into this country by the late Marquis of Conyngham in 1853, with its single sail, was perhaps the "great original" of all our single-handed fleet. When the first of these craft was seen at Cowes, she was d...med "too marvellous to be a reality. To see the Una ' dodging about, on and off a wind, rounding the stern of this craft, and across the bows of that one, and weaving about between boats where there did not seem room enough for an eel to wriggle, astonished the Cowes people, who had never seen anything more handy than a waterman's skiff with three sails or an Itchen boat with two." * In the fleet which has grown up since then are centre-board sloops from Staten Island, unrivalled in light winds and smooth water, Milford Haven boats, for shallow and narrow creeks, Brighton beach-boats, flat-bottomed, for running inshore or crossing shoals, Bombay boats and Galway hookers, Belfast loch-boats and Bermuda yachts, catamarans of Madras and Fiji, " sneak " boats from a New Jersey lagoon (these are for rowing only, but there is no limit to the developments begotten by the spirit of nautical adaptation when once aroused), " sharpies " from Connecticut; and miniature yachts copied from those on the Clyde, Windermere, Cork Harbour, Belfast Lough, and Dublin Bay, are multiplying in every harbour round our coast.
The number of different types already existing, modified to suit the most varied seas and winds, would seem to preclude any remarkable developments in design. But this has not been the case. Perhaps the most remarkable instance to the contrary was the extraordinary success of an absolutely new boat made by the Herreshoff firm in America for an English lady. This little boat, named the 'Wee Winn,' had in place of a heavy lead keel attached directly to her bottom, a cigar-shaped weight fixed and held some dis- tance under water by a thin metal plate. This lowered the centre of gravity to a point considerably lower than the vessel's keel. The sailing and turning powers of the new boat were unrivalled. In her first season, during which she was sailed single-handed by the lady who owned her, she entered for twenty-one races, and won twenty first prizes and one second prize. Such uniform success was due to skilful sailing as well as good con- struction. Seamanship is perhaps the most marked result of boat-sailing, and the recent history of the pastime shows an increasing tendency to make personal skill in the management of boats the ideal aimed at. This desirable intention is shown, beyond the possibility of mistake, in the formation of sailing clubs, in which boats of exactly the same type, size, and rig are owned jointly by the members. In the club races every member starts under exactly the same con- ditions as regards the vessel, and the contest is reduced to one of smartness and seamanship. There are many con- tingent advantages in a joint-stock sailing club. It is an inexpensive, and at the same time a sociable, amusement. The boats cost about 230 each, and when once purchased need few repairs, and one man can attend to several vessels. The club house or room forms a pleasant meeting-place, and ladies can share in the amusement, whether sailing the boats them- selves or accompanying a member. There are few fresher scenes than those presented by everyday life and movement in the harbours of England, and among the shipping in the roadsteads which confront them. They are not less beautiful to-day than when Turner painted them, and the number of craft there seen is even greater. It is in such invigorating surroundings that small-boat sailing is enjoyed. To analyse the pleasure derived from it would be a difficult task ; but the conditions of its successful enjoyment are such as appeal naturally to most persons in vigorous health. Tides, never alike for two days in succession, and farther modified by the season and the wind, the places of rocks, currents, and shoals, must all be learnt, in addition to the art of sailing in winds, light or heavy. Besides the knowledge of the local charts and the art of sailing, the amateur sailor must also master the rules of the Yacht Racing Association, and when he can sail a race successfully without infringing this complicated "Rule of the Road at Sea," he may fairly claim to have graduated in the art and mystery of seamanship.
• Yacht and Boat Sailing. By Dixon Kemp. Lon!on : brace Cox.
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