INTERNATIONAL RACE, 1886. 'GALATEA' (LIEUT. W. HENN, R.N.) PASSING SANDY HOOK LIGHTSHIP.
The desire for club formation was prevalent in Boston about the same time that the Brooklyn and Atlantic were started. The Boston Club was a promising institution, and called together a very respectable fleet of yachts; races and cruises were held, and much discussion on, and comparison of, designs were indulged in, to the decided advantage of the style of rig and general management of pleasure craft both in cruising and racing.
Early in the '70's there appeared a sudden disposition to form yachting clubs wherever a handful of boats could be found with owners living near each other. Club after club was started, many of which were short-lived, but in a little time the discordant elements were separated, and in all the clubs that now exist can be found a healthy social spirit, and a true disposition to advance the cause of yachting by the encouragement of Corinthian races and cruises. With the organisation of the Seawanhaka Yacht Club of New York, and the Eastern Yacht Club in Boston, the circle of really important clubs seems to be filled; but it is to-day easy to find as many as twenty-five or thirty clubs scattered from Maine to Florida, whose influence and example offer encouragement to the promotion of social intercourse and yacht designing.
About the year 1880 there began to arise amongst yachtsmen a feeling of uneasiness in respect of the design of yachts then in vogue, and for so many years in successful use.
It was the natural sequence of the gradual change that was being wrought in the surroundings of the class that seek pastimes, and with increase of leisure and wealth there came a desire for more seaworthy vessels; cruising had then become a settled thing, and a winter's cruise in southern waters was no unusual event. The ever-increasing communication with England, and consequent friendly intercourse, led directly to a desire on the part of many American yachtsmen to adopt a design—if not an exact copy—something more after the style of the English yacht.
The sad accident to the 'Mohawk' also had its influence in unsettling our faith in the wide, flat model, and in 1881, when the 'Madge' came in amongst us and showed what speed and weatherly qualities were present in the English design, and when also the cutter 'Clara' drove home and clinched the work the 'Madge' had begun, there then set in a regular furore amongst American designers and yachtsmen for something that was different from the then accepted forms of hull and styles of rig. In 1885, when it became necessary to defend the 'America' Cup against 'Genesta,' it dawned on the yachting fraternity that a stroke must be made or the much-prized trophy would return to its native shores.
