| Length over all | 50 | feet |
| " W. L. | 33 | feet 6 inches |
| Beam | 9 | " |
| Draught | 6 | " |
| Ballast | 6 | tons |
Mr. Mollett's boats have chiefly been of the open and half-decked class. His first great success was the 'Cigarette,' a centreboard lugsail boat, which won a great number of prizes and was a perfect witch in going to windward. He followed this up by several similar boats, all fairly successful and betraying advances in cleverness of design and experiments upon well-thought-out principles.
In 1890 Mr. Mollett startled the boating fraternity by producing a kind of double-hulled boat called the 'Gossip,' which, to use his own words, is 'curious though fast.' Her deck appearance is that of an oblong raft, and the section of her hull is that of a flattened W. There is no actual division between the hulls, but a hollow runs along the middle so that when the boat is on an even keel the top of the hollow is upon the water-line. When she heels over the windward hull is raised more or less out of the water, and the vessel sails on the support of the leeward portion, the windward portion acting as a kind of outrigger or windward ballast. The buttock lines are, roughly speaking, segments of a circle of long radius with only the middle and lower part of the segment immersed. She had no keel, but a centreboard dropping between the hulls, and a deep rudder. Her dimensions are: Length over all, 28 ft.; length on L.W.L., 17½ ft.; beam, 7¼ ft.; depth, 2¼ ft.; draught of hull, 10 in.; draught with plate down, 3¾ ft.; area of sail in foresail and lug mainsail, 460 ft.
'Castanet.'
The 'Gossip' was extremely fast running and when sailed full, and won several races. Her mode of going to windward looked peculiar, as she was sailed broad full and rattled from side to side of the river at a rare pace, so that although neither sailing so close as the other competing craft nor shooting so far in stays, being so light, yet she would often make a point to windward quicker than any of them by reason of her speed; and, after all, as Mollett says, the object is to get to windward as quickly as possible, no matter how you do it.
The 'Gossip' had, however, one grave defect. She would turn turtle with astonishing suddenness. Her vanishing point was soon reached. She had to be sailed with the utmost skill and caution, and it is only by good luck that she has not yet drowned anyone. The only time I sailed in her, being unaware of this peculiarity, I as nearly as possible had her over in a sudden puff; which, as I had my children on board, might have been a serious matter. Her owner tells me that she has capsized five times, and has very frequently been on the verge of capsizing.
A design of this remarkable craft, and an interesting article upon her by Mr. Mollett, appears in the 'Field' of January 10, 1891. Mollett took the centreboard out and substituted a fixed keel with 5 cwt. of lead on it, which he was sanguine enough to say rendered the boat practically uncapsizable. She has, however, capsized several times since then. He afterwards removed the keel and returned to the centreboard, with which he thought the boat was faster and handier. Since then a succeeding owner has reverted to a sort of heavy fin-keel, but the boat has not done so well in racing as formerly. Her canvas is, however, worn and stretched, which may have something to do with it. We hope, for the sake of her owner and his companions, that she will disappear somehow or another before any fatal accident results from her use.
Noticing how cleanly our flat counters leave the water, Mollett thought—What is the use of having a sharp bow to divide the water? Why not have a double-sterned boat, and let the bow slide over the water instead of through it? Something of this idea was present in the building of the 'Gossip,' but in the 'Castanet,' lately built for Mr. Russell Colman, the idea has had full sway. There is a broad, flat, spoon bow, differing very slightly on deck from the stern, and not differing at all on the water-line, so that it is practically immaterial which end is selected to go first. There are the same segments of large circles for buttock lines. The load-water-line is 17 ft. 3 in., and on deck 29 ft., the overhang being very nearly equal at each end. The beam is 7 ft., and the extreme draught of the short fixed keel, which is spiked to the bottom of the spoon, is 3 ft. 2 in., with 23 cwt. of lead. The latter is disposed at the bottom of the keel in a triangular bulb.