Sail-carrying power is almost entirely a matter of displacement, for it is only a large-bodied boat that will have buoyancy sufficient to carry a great weight of ballast, and the deeper that ballast is placed, the more leverage will there be to counter-balance the sail, and hence the greater may be the sail-spread. Under the new system of deep plates, with the whole of the ballast bolted on at the bottom of the plate in the shape of a cigar or Whitehead torpedo, it is impossible to say how much area of sail could not be given to a boat of a certain length, beam, and depth of hull, and the only questionable difficulty that would come in the way would be the weight of the mast and spars necessary to carry the sail. For instance, take the three principal methods of stowing ballast, inboard, outboard, as in the ordinary keel, and the plate with a bulb. The dimensions of the boat to be supplied with sails are, length 30 feet, beam 7 feet, draught to bottom of wooden keel 4 feet. If the ballast is stowed inboard (lead ballast is presumed in all the cases), and the displacement permits, the sail-area may be 800 square feet. If the ballast is taken out and moulded in a keel, the sail-area may be increased to close upon 900 square feet. Should the lead be taken out and a plate some 2 feet or 3 feet deep be fitted, with the lead in the form of a bulb fixed at the bottom, the weight of the spars and the sails would be the only obstacle to the great increase of canvas that might be spread. Suppose, again, another hull be employed for experiments, having the length the same, but the beam increased to make up for the smaller depth of body below L.W.L. of 3 feet, the new hull may have the same displacement, and therefore the power to support the same weight of ballast as the last example. If this hull were supplied with a plate 4 feet or 5 feet deep, with the same bulb of lead, she would carry a still greater amount of sail; but with such a shallow boat there would be no accommodation.
Speed, that element in design which everybody cries after, whether they be practical scientific yachting men (and there is one thing Great Britain can boast of in her yacht designers, professional or amateur, and that is, they are all, without exception, first-rate helmsmen and seamen), or only graduating in the first principles of yacht-racing, is dependent on many conditions. In the first place, it forbids the presence of all superfluous deadwood, so that the outside surface presented to the water may be all of a useful description (that is, by being part of the planking or skin, or only as much deadwood as is necessary for the strength of the vessel), and the friction caused thereby may be reduced to a minimum. With a hull of large displacement there must naturally be very much greater surface friction than in one of smaller body, and therefore the question will arise—Will not the smaller yacht be the faster of the two? This involves still deeper sifting, because sometimes the smaller yacht will beat the one built on the same length and beam, though she may be very much larger. Before we can choose which of the two kinds of boat will be the better to have for a successful racer, a second great condition has to be looked into and satisfactorily settled. This is nothing less than what kind of waters the yacht will have to race or cruise in. The question of the element water is one very frequently forgotten and lost sight of by those buying yachts, especially second-hand ones; and the purchaser, who perhaps buys a most successful small vessel in the South, is astonished to find that when he has tried her against the local Scotch cracks, her performances prove of a very poor description in comparison, and disappointment is the consequence. Water may be in the eyes of some all the same, wherever it may be, and so it is round our coasts in its smooth state; but when it is set in motion there are scarcely two of our great yachting stations alike, while the seas in our three Channels all vary in form. At the mouth of the English Channel the seas, as soon as the 'chops' are left astern, become regular, are long and deep, and more or less easy for a small yacht to negotiate; that is, she has room to work in and out of them, and at the same time avoid receiving a comber aboard as passenger. As she sails farther up and the channel narrows, the seas become more of the deep ridge and furrow order, steep, narrow, and difficult to sail over, whilst each sea will contain its full weight of water. On nearing Calais the seas have less water in them, but are very short and steep; the consequence is they are more inclined to break. In the North Sea the sea disturbance takes another and larger form, and sailing North becomes still larger, and, of course, wider and deeper, till the Northern Ocean is opened out. St. George's Channel is very much like the English Channel, except that between Port Patrick in Scotland and the Irish coast the waves are more regular than between Calais and Dover, where currents and banks tend to make dangerous cross seas. So it is found that off Plymouth and Falmouth and outside Dartmouth there is often an ocean swell running, especially after there has been a south-westerly gale. The Solent, again, is different from the Clyde in its sea disturbance, and when acted upon by a south-easterly gale the seas off Spithead, owing to the shallowness of its water, have not nearly so much weight of water in them as those of the Scotch estuary when worked up by a northerly or southerly breeze. The Liverpool and London rivers are very much alike, though perhaps of the two the Liverpool has the greater sea disturbance, owing to the strength of its tides, which at some seasons are very rapid.
To large yachts of 40 tons and over the difference in character of the seas just spoken of is not a matter of great importance. What a large yacht may treat as a mere ripple to a 5-tonner may be a 'nasty sea'; and as these pages are dealing with the smaller craft of about 30 feet length, the sea disturbance must be regarded as it affects them. On rivers and inland waters the waves, as a rule, have not much weight in them, and there is no reason why the small yacht should not be able to go through the waves she is unable to rise over. Yachts of large displacement are more likely to do that at better speed than a small vessel of the same beam and length, because they have more weight. Where ocean rollers are concerned, or a heavy swell, while there is wind both types may be equal; but when the wind is shy and light, then the yacht of large displacement will walk past her small rival. It would be noticed that the heavy displacement vessel would forge ahead apparently moved by no other force than the 'send' of her weight as she lazily pitches to the movement of each succeeding wave. The courses for small yachts where such conditions are met with are Plymouth, Dartmouth, and Queenstown, and some parts of the Clyde and St. George's Channel to a very much lessened degree. Then, if a thought be cast across the Atlantic and a look be taken at the characteristics of the waters of Long Island Sound, that favourite haunt of all American racing and cruising yachtsmen, as on our own inland waters, the seas that much disturb the small fry are, it will be observed, scarcely noticeable to the large schooners and cutters of which so much is heard. The principal form in America laid down for all yachts used to be a long flat floor with very small displacement, great beam with a centreboard—the immense beam giving great initial stability. Large as well as small yachts were built to this design, and much used to be heard about their remarkable speed. A few years ago, however, two or three small yachts, amongst them the little 'Delvin' 5-tonner, built by Mr. W. Fife, jun., were sent over, all of fairly large displacement. These, without exception, put the extinguisher on all the American small yachts, by beating them time after time. The reason of it was that the English-built yachts could drive through what broken water or sea disturbance they met with, while the 'skim-dishes' could do little against it. Since those days the Americans have very materially altered their model, and both large and small yachts have been given more power; vide the examples brought out to compete with our yachts for the 'America Cup,' and those to which the 'Minerva' has so lately shown her tail.
Where, therefore, great speed is required, and there is no limitation to sail-carrying power, a large displacement vessel is the best type to choose. Some small-yacht racing men do not like to be always remaining in their home waters, but prefer to go round to the regattas at other ports, and try their luck against the small yachts that gather at these meetings. They live on board, and sail their yachts round the coast. To such the large bodied boat is a regular frigate. The head-room is good, no lack of space is wanted for a comfortable lie down, and the owner and two friends, with racing sails and all other yacht paraphernalia, can stow away in the main cabin as cosily as can be.
'Minerva,' 23 tons. Designed by W. Fife, 1888.
During the last six years yacht designers have been spending their time in perfecting a vessel to be rated by length and sail-area alone. Boats of large displacement and moderate length, with good sail-spread, limited so that the boats might be rated under their several classes, gradually, but surely, gave place to boats of greater length, smaller bodies, and a smaller sail-spread. It does not appear, from the opinions of many who have published their views, that there is at the present time any particular desire to have good accommodation in racing yachts. The owners of the greater number of the 5-raters do not live in them, and the owners of the 40-raters have been so accustomed to great head-room in their vessels, that now, when, instead of having 7 feet to 8 feet, they still find they can walk about in the cabins, no complaints are heard; but with the lessons that Mr. Herreshoff has been teaching, there is every reason to believe that we may live to see a 40-rater launched with about 3 to 4 feet depth of body under water, and then perhaps there may come a reaction, and a return may be made to a moderately large displacement. Up to the present time the 5-raters have been kept fairly large, and owing to their beam, as far as internal accommodation is concerned, have room enough and to spare; but the raters of 1893 were not nearly of such large displacement as the boats of two years before, and they are wonderful to look at outside.
The fin-keel requires great depth if it is to be of any real use, and it is in this particular point that small yachts suffer. If a 5-rater is to sail in all waters, and go the round of the coast regattas, then her draught should be limited; of course, if the sole intention of the owner is that his yacht is never to race in any other locality than his own home waters, then, if the home waters be the Clyde, or Windermere, or Kingstown, there is no reason why depth should not be unlimited. On the other hand, should the yacht be intended for a sea-going vessel, then a heavy draught of water is not altogether desirable.
There are times when a 5-tonner or rater may be overtaken by bad weather while making a passage, and when a comfortable harbour under the lee would be a most acceptable refuge to make for. There are scores of snug little places round the coast where a small craft could lie peacefully enough, provided her draught of water allowed her to make use of any one of them. The average depth of water at these bays or harbours is about 6 feet at low-water spring tides. Hence no yacht or rater of 30 feet or under should have a draught of more than 6 feet. The writer remembers only too well an occasion when, after leaving Campbeltown, in Cantyre, for a northern port in Ireland, a north-westerly gale sprang up, bringing with it rain and a sea fog. The distance across from the Mull is not more than a few miles, but when his yacht made the land it was blowing so hard he had to run for the nearest shelter. Alas! when he sighted the little tidal harbour he was steering for, it was low water, and his yacht, which drew 7 feet 6 in., could not enter. He had to lie at two anchors outside in the Roads with some half-a-dozen coasters, expecting, with every shift of the wind, that the anchorage might become one on a lee shore. The 'Humming Bird,' in 1891, left the Solent for Queenstown. She is a 2½-rater. After leaving Land's End the weather, which had been more or less fine, changed, and the sea getting up, it was decided to take her into St. Ives Harbour. She unfortunately drew more than 6 feet; the consequence was, though only 25 feet on the water-line, she was compelled to take her chance and drop anchor in the bay outside, because there was only 6 feet of water in the harbour.