'Constellation,' 1889, New York Club. Designed by E. Burgess.
Many of our yachtsmen possess skill in designing, and are also fully capable of supervising and directing the construction of a yacht as well as her rigging and fitting out; and when that is done they can take the helm, and under their guidance their craft will be as well handled as by the best professional skipper.
Prominent among these skilled yachtsmen in New York is Mr. E. D. Morgan, Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, who in the height of his yachting career owned a whole harbour full of yachts, ranging from an ocean-cruising steamer to a naphtha launch in machine-propelled craft, and from a first-class schooner yacht to a cat-yawl amongst the sailing vessels. Others but a degree less devoted and skilful are Messrs. J. R. Maxwell, A. Cass Canfield, L. A. Fish, Archibald Rogers; and, in Boston, General Charles J. Paine, Mr. C. H. W. Foster, Com. J. Mal. Forbes, Messrs. George C. Adams, C. F. Adams, jun., Bayard Thayer, Charles A. Prince, John Bryant, Henry Bryant, Gordon Dexter. The chief designers in New York are Messrs. Winteringham, Gardiner, and A. C. Smith; whilst in Boston, Messrs. Stuart & Binney and Waterhouse & Chesebro are amongst the best known; but many others scattered along our seaboard have designed and built most creditable yachts, and occasionally a craft is turned out that rivals the productions of the best and most experienced designers.
Yachting on the waters of the British Possessions in North America has developed rapidly, and, fostered by the formation of clubs, and the establishment of regular seasons for racing and cruising, there is no doubt that the improvement of design and rig will progress satisfactorily.
The seaboard of the British Provinces is well adapted for cruising and racing, and due advantage is taken of all yachting facilities on the coast as well as on the Great Lakes, and to a considerable extent on the St. Lawrence River.
In glancing over the yachting situation in the United States there is every reason to feel satisfied with what has been accomplished; all improvements in design and rig have been eagerly adopted by our yachtsmen, and if we have drawn from the English in some points, they have been fully repaid by gleanings from American practice. Yachting is appreciated in other localities than on the seaboard, with its bays and rivers; the great lakes have a small fleet of pleasure vessels, and on some of the smaller lakes, as Minnietonka in Minnesota, racing is carried to a degree of perfection wholly unsurpassed by the owners' salt-water friends.
During the season of international matches, in 1885-87, the public interest awakened was extreme; reports of the racing were read with interest from Maine to California. When there is no international work on hand, the chief yachting event of the year is the cruise of the New York Yacht Club. Following the lead of 'Gimcrack,' in 1884, the cruise always takes place during the first week in August, embracing also a part or whole of the second.
Starting from a port on the Sound easily accessible from the city of New York, the squadron makes its way eastward, stopping at several of the principal places of resort along the Sound.
Of late years it has been the custom to race from port to port, regular entries being made and prizes awarded.
At every port along its course the New York Yacht Squadron receives large augmentations of both sailing and steam yachts, so that at last, when the fleet anchors in the harbour of New London, it is an armada of pleasure craft laden with pleasure-seeking yachtsmen, all in accord to make this demonstration the brightest and gayest event of the season. The entrance of the squadron into Narragansett Bay is one of the most beautiful of all imaginable marine pictures; the ranks are then complete, often numbering 200 vessels, by steam and sail. Every available craft is pressed into service by the dwellers of Newport and vicinity to go out to meet the arriving yachts; steamers laden with passengers, tugs, trading schooners with their decks black with unusual freight, the ubiquitous cat-boat, all assemble in waiting off the Lightship at Brenton's Reef to welcome the approaching fleet that is already coming into view off Point Judith.