Yachting, Vol. 1

by Sir Edward Sullivan; Earl Thomas Brassey Brassey; R. T. Pritchett; C. E. Seth-Smith; Watson. G. L.

The season of 1876 was one especially to be remembered among those interested in the now established 5-ton class, as it witnessed the advent of three grand additions to the greatly increased fleet sailing in that class. Each yacht was from the well-thought-out drawing of a master-hand, and each was the representative of the three several schools of yacht-design, the 'Freda' being the work of the late Mr. Dan Hatcher of Belvidere, Northam, near Southampton; the 'Camellia' the offspring of Mr. William Fife, jun., of Fairlie, on the Clyde; while the 'Vril' was built from the design of Mr. G. L. Watson, of Glasgow.

The 'Vril' holds the right of precedence in that she was not only designed, but built and sailed, by her three owners, Messrs. G. L. Watson, John Lawrence and J. B. Hilliard, who, assisted by two carpenters, put her together in the Messrs. Henderson's yard at Partick, Glasgow. She was a fine, round-bodied little vessel, with a large sectional area and great sail-carrying powers. She had less waste surface for friction and skin resistance in proportion to her size than many a yacht of a much smaller tonnage. In several ways she might be said to have been a novelty, as she was the first yacht that was fitted with a heavy lead keel consisting of the whole of her ballast. Her counter was short and tucked up with a knuckle on the quarter. She had no bulkheads, and her fittings were only such as were absolutely necessary; still very little goes a long way towards making a small yacht comfortable, and her head-room under her deck made her 'tween decks look like a palace. She was about the last yacht that was supplied with the fore and aft studding-sail (or stu'n's'l, as it is called) known as the 'ringtail'; but it was seldom, if ever, called into use. For small yachts such wind scrapers are more trouble than they are worth, to say nothing of the room the extra spars take up. The 'Vril's' record was remarkably good, and though the three friends, assisted by an amateur or two, were her only crew during her first season—for her owners would not have a paid hand on board—she won a full quantum of first prizes, and with the clever boats she had for rivals praise must be meted out not only to the little yacht herself, but to those who sailed her for the smart manner in which she was handled.

The 'Camellia' and 'Vril' were, with the exception of their draught, almost identical in their dimensions, the 'Vril' being 28 ft. 3 in. long and the 'Camellia' 28 feet. Their respective beams were the same, 6 ft. 6 in., and they drew, the 'Vril' 6 feet and 'Camellia' about 5 feet of water. The 'Vril' at the end of her third season was sold and turned into a fast cruiser. Her fittings, as they are now, are very elaborate and are well illustrated and explained in the seventh edition of that handy and serviceable book, 'A Manual of Yacht- and Boat-Sailing.' She has been laid up for some time at Mr. Robertson's yard at Sandbank in the Holy Loch, where her proximity to many new yachts makes the signs of the sere and yellow-leaf stage of her existence, which is creeping upon her, very apparent. But there is life in the old boat yet, and her owner has in the 'Vril' a fine, able, comfortable little cruiser.

It is now some six years since the writer had the pleasure of seeing the 'Camellia.' She had just been sold to a gentleman to go to Stranraer, where she is at the present time. She was hauled up on Fairlie beach in charge of the late Mr. Boag, and was awaiting a suitable tide for being launched. The 'Camellia,' though of like dimensions to the 'Vril,' was altogether different in form, and to those acquainted with the Fairlie type was as pretty an example of what the Messrs. Fife were in the habit of turning out at that period as it was possible to select. She and her sister ship the 'Clio' were both built from the same drawing, and were the first boats in which Mr. William Fife, jun., whose name is now a household word among men interested in yachting matters, played the conspicuous part of designer. The 'Camellia' was a smaller-bodied boat altogether, more compact than either the 'Vril' or 'Freda,' with a powerful entrance and fine run, and ribbands as fair as they could be. Messrs. Craig and Lawson, for whom she was built, possessed in her a little sea-boat capable of being driven in all weathers, and the harder it blew the more she seemed to like it. With less bilge and somewhat higher floor than 'Vril,' she was fitted, like her predecessor the 'Pearl,' with simply a half-deck and waterways, and was strengthened by a strong beam running across her to which the pump was attached. Of course in smooth water it was a great advantage being able to work the yacht from below, but in anything like very heavy weather she carried hatches for covering in the open space. Both the 'Vril' and 'Freda' were fitted with topmasts, but giving the 'Camellia' the same fitting was only an afterthought, for when she was launched, like the 'Clio,' she was supplied with a polemast. Three or four years after her appearance she was decked in and provided with a very neat coach roof, or booby hatch, but her head-room below in her cabin could not have been more than 4 feet. She makes a very good cruiser now, and from the grand work put into her, as into all yachts which hail from the great Fairlie yard, her sides looked when last seen as fresh and as smooth as on the day when she first saw the water.

'Freda.'

The 'Freda' is (for she is still hale, strong, and fit to show her tail to many a vessel of her size on cruising terms) a fine able boat, some 30 ft. 4 in. on the L.W.L., with a beam of 6 ft. 1-¼ in. and draught of water 6 ft. 6 in. She is, like all the Belvidere yachts of those days, a boat of large displacement with a grand midship section, with Hatcher's well-known entrance, and a rather lighter quarter than usual. Her sternpost has very little rake in it; in fact, excessive rake of sternpost was a rarity during the seventies, and her keel was only slightly rockered. Most of her ballast, about 2 tons 14 cwt., was carried inside, and the lead on her keel was under 2 tons. She was built for Mr. Freake, her planking being altogether of mahogany. All the wood, dead woods, ribs, and planking were got out in Mr. Hatcher's yard and then taken to Mr. Freake's estate, where she was put together and finished off. As a model yacht she is a perfect picture both above and below water, as well as on deck and in the cabin. With a flush deck and a small water-tight cockpit, after the fashion of the 10-tonners, and a neat skylight, the 'Freda' looks all over fit to go, and equal to all emergencies. She has proved herself quite as much at home when cutting her way through a head sea as when smooth water and dry decks have been the rule. She was the home of her racing crew, and Mr. Beavor Webb, who sailed her during her racing career, and afterwards bought her from Mr. Freake, could spin many a yarn of the little boat's great weatherly capabilities.

No three yachts were more unlike each other, and after all the 'Freda' had done down South, and the 'Vril' and 'Camellia's' successes in the Clyde, so much attention was attracted to them that at last a series of matches was arranged to take place between them off Holyhead the following season of 1877. The place was well chosen, as in bringing the several matches off on the coast of Holyhead Island there was no chance of favouritism, since the locality was strange to all concerned, and the yachts had to prove their worth in a sea quite different from that to which any of them had been accustomed. It is not too much to say that, owing to the distance that had to be covered before the three yachts could reach Holyhead, and the fame of their doings in the yacht-racing world, no more interesting racing has since taken place, either in America or in our own home waters, than the matches that were sailed off by these little opponents.

The arrangement was that 'Freda' should sail 'Camellia' and 'Vril' separately, and the yacht that pulled off two out of each three races was to be declared the winner. The weather for some days prior to and during the race week was anything but inviting, and the manner in which the yachts worked their way to their port showed at once what kind of stuff they were. The 'Vril' was unfortunate, for owing to some gross carelessness the men who brought the yacht round from the Clyde allowed her mainsail to get damaged to such an extent that during the trials it could scarcely be made to stand. The stakes were for 100l. a side. The first match between 'Freda' and 'Vril' took place on May 14, 1877. The courses on each occasion were arranged by Messrs. G. L. Watson and Dixon Kemp. On the first day the course lay from the New Harbour across a line between the 20-ton yacht 'Challenge' and a buoy, round the end of the breakwater westward, rounding a flag-boat outside the inner end of the breakwater, thence eastward three miles round the Bolivar buoy; thence to a mark-boat off the old pier, twice round, finishing between the 'Challenge' and the starting buoy, 14 miles. There could not have been a finer trial than these three matches afforded. The wind on the 14th was light from E.S.E., shifting to the eastward, accompanied by rain, whilst on the second day it veered round between S.W. and N.W., and brought up with it the usual sea that most yachtsmen frequenting St. George's Channel know so well and hate so cordially. Space will not permit a full account of the races to be given here, but should details be required, they will be found most faithfully recorded in an article in 'Hunt's Magazine' for the year 1877, which has greatly assisted the writer in refreshing his memory, or in the 'Field' newspaper that was published on the Saturday following the races.