SAIL-PLAN OF SEAWANHAKA KNOCKABOUT—550 SQUARE FEET.
Personally I favor a short bowsprit in a knockabout, it being convenient for hoisting the anchor, keeping it clear of the hull, and preventing unseemly dents from the flukes.
I fear that knockabouts, or raceabouts, even in restricted classes, are destined eventually to be fitted with fin-keels. As a speed-inducing factor the fin has fully demonstrated its capacity since the first edition of this little book appeared. I have not, however, altered my opinion one iota since my remarks on the ballast-fin made in the chapter which precedes this. In my judgment the fin is admirably adapted as an adjunct to a racing machine, but for cruising craft I like it not. Brand me as an old fogy, if you will; half a century behind the times, if it so pleases you, shipmates, but give me credit for sincerity.
The keen sense of rivalry inherent in every American will not permit him to be content with a good, honest sailing boat for cruising purposes only. If one of his chums comes out with a faster craft, whether a fin-keel or a modification thereof, he will become dissatisfied with his own boat, no matter how seaworthy and comfortable she may be, and will promptly discard her for a new-fangled design in which speed is the principal characteristic. The so-called restricted classes, which are so popular just now, are, I think, sure in the end to become purely racing classes, something after the fashion of the Herreshoff 30-footers now so fashionable in Newport. As racing boats, none afford more sport than these wonderfully smart flyers, and I can well understand what fascinating toys they have proved to their owners. But, after all, they are only toys, vastly expensive, too, with no accommodations for cruising and apt to be uncomfortably wet in a breeze.
The one-design classes of small yachts are not confined to knockabouts only. Cruising schooners, designed by Cary Smith, made their appearance in 1898, and the class, from a modest beginning, seems likely to grow. The features of the boats are their sound and wholesome characteristics. They possess moderate draught, large accommodations, and strength of construction. They are 64 feet 2 inches over all, 46 feet long on the load water-line, 16 feet beam, draught without board 6 feet 6 inches, least freeboard 3 feet. A rather low cabin trunk gives full head-room for the greater part of the yacht's length, the main saloon being more than 13 feet long with a floor width of 6 feet 9 inches. On each side are two berths and two sofas with drawers beneath. There is accommodation in the forecastle for four men. The yachts carry 20,000 pounds of lead ballast, of which 18,000 pounds is on keel. Another one-design division is the Riverside Yacht Club dory class, which has been adopted by many of the clubs enrolled in the Yacht-Racing Union of Long Island Sound. These boats are thirteen feet on the keel, seventeen feet over all, with four feet beam, fitted with a centerboard and rigged with a small jib and a leg-of-mutton sail. They are for single-handed racing, but for pleasure cruising or fishing a man can take his chum along. Fully equipped with oars, sails, etc., they cost about forty dollars, and afford capital sport on fine afternoons. To encourage this little class, prizes worth winning are offered by the club, and sweepstake races are popular features.
The idea was probably taken from the Nahant Dory Club, organized in 1894, which did much to encourage sport in this serviceable and inexpensive class. Spectators will find amusement in watching "green hands" in their maiden efforts at sailing these dories, as strange and startling results often follow the rash experiments of an adventurous tyro. But apart from the comic element, valuable lessons in yacht-racing may be learned by steering and manœuvring a dory against a fleet of half-a-dozen eager competitors. Thus, yachtsmen cannot help approving this new Riverside venture, originated, I believe, by Mr. F. Bowne Jones, of the Regatta Committee.
The origin of the one-design class was Dublin Bay, where the "Water Wag" type was first evolved. A Norwegian praam with a boiler-plate centerboard, combining ballast and lateral resistance, and carrying a big sail, was built in 1878 at Shankhill. She was christened Cemiostama and proved an ideal boat. The conditions were a sloping sandy shore on which the high surf not infrequently broke, and from which the craft had to be launched every time her owner wanted a sail, and onto which she had to be beached after the cruise was finished. Cemiostama was a capital sea-boat; she pointed well, hit what she aimed at, did not sag off to leeward, and was quite fast. When the centerboard, weighing about one hundred pounds, was raised she ran up easily on the beach, resting quietly on her flat bottom. Her centerboard was then lifted out, and her crew of two hauled her up.
The knowing Irish yachtsmen, appreciating a good thing, saw that there was a lot of fun in a boat of this class, and several were built, and many scrub races were indulged in. In 1887 the Water Wag Association was started, the craft being built on the same lines and the sail-area being limited. Their dimensions were thirteen feet in length, with a beam of four feet ten inches, full lines and a flat floor.
The Water Wags are presided over by a king and a queen, bishop, knights and rooks; and although the boats were at first used principally for pleasure, they are now racers pure and simple. Their headquarters are now in Kingstown Harbor, and prizes are put up for them at all the local regattas. They are very handy, too, and quite admirable for the purpose for which they were designed. They cost from $75 to $100, and the rules that govern their races provide that they shall be similar in every respect except sail-plan. The mast must not exceed thirteen feet over all, measured from top of keel to truck; the fore and aft sails must not exceed seventy-five square feet in area, and the spinnaker (which is to be used only before the wind and never as a jib) must not exceed sixty square feet.