In 1891, however, there came to New York, from the yards of the Herreshoff Brothers, in Rhode Island, a new forty-six-foot yacht, which soon put the fame of the Volunteer and all her glorious rivals into the background. This was the Gloriana, “remarkable as a daring and original departure from the accepted theories.” The radical novelty in her form consisted in the great cutting away of her bulk under water while preserving the full extent of the water-line, and the making of a very deep, heavily loaded keel, trusted for stability. Her hull was also novel, consisting of a double skin of thin wood on steel frames, while the upper part of the hull projected excessively at both ends. She was everywhere a winner, and was immediately followed by a smaller boat, the Dilemma, whose keel was an almost rectangular plate of steel, the ballast, which alone was trusted for stability, being in the form of a cigar-shaped cylinder of lead bolted to the lower edge of the “fin,” as this kind of keel was appropriately styled. Many boats of this pattern were soon afloat, most of them highly successful at home and abroad, and carrying a surprising spread of canvas.
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY J. S. JOHNSTON AND PURVIANCE.
“MAYFLOWER.”
The year 1893 brought another challenge for the cup in the person of Lord Dunraven, sailing the yacht Valkyrie, but he was met by a new, well-proved Herreshoff fin-keel, the Vigilant (built of a new alloy—Tobin bronze), and handsomely defeated. The following season the Vigilant went to England, and found herself equally overmatched by the Britannia, owned by the Prince of Wales, while Valkyrie II was wrecked. In 1895 Lord Dunraven sent a second challenge, backed by a new Valkyrie (III); and this produced a fresh American contestant, again designed and built by the Herreshoffs, named Defender. The races came off amid intense public excitement, outside of Sandy Hook, but were most unsatisfactory; “in the first, Defender won; in the second, Valkyrie was disqualified as the result of a foul, and Lord Dunraven declined to sail a third.”
COMPARISON OF OLD AND NEW TYPES.
1. “America,” 1851, water-line 90 feet.—2. “Cambria,” 1868, water-line 100 feet.—3. “Magic,” 1857-69, water-line 79 feet.—4. “Sappho,” 1867, water-line 120 feet.—5. “Mischief,” 1879, water-line 61 feet.—6. “Puritan,” 1885, water-line 81 feet.—7. “Genesta,” 1884, water-line 81 feet.—8. “Thistle,” 1887, water-line 86 feet.—9. “Volunteer,” 1887, water-line 85 feet.—10. “Gloriana,” 1891, water-line 45 feet.—11. “Wasp,” 1892, water-line 46 feet.—12. “El Chico,” 1892, water-line 25 feet.
Such has been the history of this long series of races for the America Cup, and such the development of its defenders; but while they and their work have stimulated interest in yachting all over the world, they have really not influenced it greatly, because all of the later boats competing were not practical yachts, in which one might cruise and live afloat, and enjoy life with his friends, but “machines” in which every quality tending to comfort and safety was sacrificed to the requirements of speed. In fact, the owners of these “big boats” kept small, handy, comfortable yachts for their own enjoyment, and the racers were as a rule sailed by a skipper and crew of professional racing sailors.
There are said to be over two hundred yacht-clubs in the United States, enrolling about four thousand yachts, an eighth of which are steam or electric boats, scattered wherever any water suitable for the sport exists. With the lakes and rivers we have nothing to do, except to say that the yachtsmen of Montreal and Quebec are really salt-water sailors, for they cruise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and elsewhere at sea as well as their fellow-sportsmen of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. At the other extreme the Havana Yacht-Club has American members who take their boats to the West Indies every winter. Bermuda is another favorite resort, and the scene of lively races with a local, narrow sort of craft, called a “flyer,” which will beat almost anything if only it can be kept right side up.
On the Pacific coast, ... wherever there is a bay that will afford a harbor, and a town that will support people, the yacht is used as a vehicle of pleasure.... Many of the San Francisco boats are large schooners, a number are powerful sea-going sloops, while of smaller craft there is an abundance of almost every type, although the New York catboat and the flat-bottomed sharpie of Long Island Sound are seldom met with, and seem not to be in favor.... Pacific yachters appreciate the good points of the yawl, for the squalls which blow over the waters of the west coast are sudden and severe, and no rig meets these conditions of weather so well as does the yawl.