SWEDEN
The Swedish Club, established 1832, is very strong, having five yachting stations—Stockholm, Goteborg, Norrköping, Malmö, and Ornskoldsirk—the members owning vessels of good tonnage, schooners, screw steamers, cutters and yawls, numbering over 170.
CANADA
By G. L. Blake
Yachting in Canada dates back as a pastime almost to the first days of its colonisation. Halifax, Toronto, and Quebec can boast of yacht clubs which were formed long before the seventies, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, being the Royal Canadian Yacht Club at Toronto, which was started as far back as the year 1852, and now has a fleet of forty yachts and more. On Lake Ontario, a superb sheet of water some 200 miles long by 40 in breadth, with a depth in places of over 100 fathoms, and well adapted for either cruising or racing, the sport has been cultivated as a science for many years, so much so in fact that, in 1873, a leading authority on such matters wrote, 'Yachting is fast becoming the national pastime of Canada.'
In 1872 there were yachting stations at Toronto, Coburg, Kingston, Hamilton,—the club at Hamilton was made a Royal Club in 1888—Belleville, and other ports on the confines of the Lake, where numerous regattas have been held each season; but, as the prosperity of colonial yachting entirely depends on the state of trade, these small communities have seen many ups and downs. During Lord Dufferin's tenure of office as Governor of Canada a great impetus was given to things maritime, and the author of 'Letters from High Latitudes,' who owned and sailed a small 7-tonner at the time, lent a very able helping hand to all that concerned yachting in Canadian waters. Yachts of all descriptions are to be found there, from the small skimdish of a 'sharpie,' with its enormous centreboard and cloud of canvas, to the stately schooner of 200 tons and over. In 1872 there were only one or two vessels of English design or build on Ontario (which is practically the chief yachting centre), of which the best known was the little 'Rivet,' 17 tons, that had been built at Glasgow and was brought out in frame some years before. At the present time, however, anyone visiting Ontario would see many old Scotch and English favourites cruising about; more than one of our smartest 10- and 5-tonners are now registered on Canadian books, while most of our principal yacht designers have representatives of their skill flying racing flags and built to the Canadian tonnage rule.
As there is communication with the ocean by canal and river viâ Montreal, Quebec and the St. Lawrence, besides through canal with New York, yachts from outports are not infrequent visitors, and they take part from time to time in the several local regattas. The lake, as might be expected, is often troubled by severe squalls, which now and then, if of long continuance, create a very heavy sea disturbance. Luckily, this does not occur very often, though moderately greasy weather sometimes has its advantages in giving tone and colour to the enjoyments of open sea navigation.
Of the principal Canadian outports, Halifax and Quebec are the oldest and most sporting. The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Club, which was established in 1875, and is stationed at Halifax, is one of the leading clubs in the Dominion; that at Quebec dates back over twenty years; and the St. Lawrence Club, at Montreal, with its fleet of eighty yachts, some five years. At Halifax there used to be a very sporting club, called the Royal Halifax Yacht Club, which would hold precedence of the R.N.S.Y.C., as one of the oldest societies of the kind in Canada, did it exist as such, but it is believed to have been blended into the latter club and to have assumed its new name.
Canada is rich in all the necessaries that are called into play in ship- and yacht-building, the woods she provides for the purpose being some of the finest in the world. Nothing can come up to her timbers, such as the spruce, yellow and red pine varieties, either for length, evenness of grain, or freedom from knots, and it is to Canada that we in England are so deeply indebted for most of the timber used in our shipbuilding yards.