Fig. 117. The Yawl “Jullanar.” Built in 1875.
During the ’seventies, thanks to Mr. William Froude and others, experiments of the highest educative value were made to discover the laws which governed the resistance of water to bodies moving through it. This led to a scientific basis on which to model the lines of yachts’ hulls. But suddenly and unexpectedly, from Maldon, on the Blackwater, in a remote corner of Essex, a Mr. E. H. Bentall, not a professional naval architect but an agricultural implement maker, who had received but little training in naval architecture, designed and had built the now famous yacht the Jullanar, in 1875. Since length means speed, he gave her much of this, whilst for stability she was given a fairly deep draught. But getting right away from existing conventions, he had the courage to dispense with the old-fashioned straight stem and stern, and cut away all dead-wood from both. And so the Jullanar, with her easy lines, and rigged as a yawl, came into being. She had a tonnage of 126 (Thames measurement); length over all 110½ feet; beam 16·6 feet; and a draught of 13½ feet. She immediately displayed such remarkable speed and was so successful as a racer that her lines considerably influenced the late Mr. G. L. Watson, the famous yacht architect of the nineteenth century, in designing the Thistle, although this ship did not come into being until 1887. The sketch in Fig. 117, showing the hull and rigging of the Jullanar, has been made from the fine little model in the South Kensington Museum.
Photo. West & Son.
Photo. S. Cribb.
Yacht-design has been considerably modified by contemporary existing measurement rules. Thus, when in the ’eighties the only taxed dimensions were, not length over all, but length on water-line and sail area, the temptation to introduce overhang both at bow and stern was irresistible. In Jullanar the germ of the idea existed, but it developed to its fullest extent during the ’nineties, and so by a curious fatality one becomes witness of still another revival, more strange and curious than all the others, the revival of that which was indeed one of the most characteristic features of the Egyptian craft in the early dynasties, the overhanging bow and stern. In 1893 was built the Satanita, in which this last-mentioned feature is well shown. (See Fig. 118.) This powerful beauty has on the water-line 97·7 feet, and an extreme beam of 24·7 feet, and a draught of 16·5 feet. Her sail area (Y.R.A.) was in her Solent days 9923 square feet. The beautifully-fitting sails seen in the accompanying illustration are in wonderful contrast to those hollow bags used in the pre-America days. In the same year was launched King Edward’s (then Prince of Wales’) Britannia, which with Captain Carter at her helm, won both fame and a considerable number of prizes during the ’nineties. Her length on the water-line is 87·8 feet; her extreme beam 23·66 feet; and draught 15 feet. The illustration in Fig. 119 of the counter of Britannia has been specially included to give the reader some idea of the weight of her mainsail, which, as will be noticed, is being hoisted by no less than fourteen hands on the halyard, including the ship’s cook and steward. The year 1893 was made memorable by the launch also of the Valkyrie, one of the famous trio of yachts of the same name. She measured on the water-line 86·8 feet; her extreme beam was 22·33 feet. The illustration in Fig. 120 shows Valkyrie I. It was during this year that beam, being no longer taxed, was allowed to show its value, and ever since that time the tendency has continued for a more wholesome type of boat, instead of the vicious old plank-on-edge class of craft.
Photo. West & Son.