Yachting, Vol. 1

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

In fitting out, two very important points have to be thought of—viz., if the yacht is not coppered, what is the best paint to coat her with, and what is the best method of treating the decks? With regard to the first question, there are two paints which the writer has never yet seen used in the yachting world, except on his own boat, and which can be highly recommended. One is the black priming varnish used on iron ships, and especially in the Navy. He gave this, some years ago on the Clyde, four months' good trial. It was used on a boat kept out for winter work which lay in a little harbour well-known for its fouling propensities. At the end of the four months there was absolutely no growth or sign of weed of any kind. Where it is to be obtained he is unable to say, as the coat of paint that was put on his boat was given him by a naval officer. The other paint is called after the inventor, 'Harvey's Patent.' The writer's experience of this is as follows:—A friend sent him a tin to try, and to give his opinion upon. Accordingly his boat, which had been lying up Portsmouth Harbour some six months at her moorings, was brought down to Priddy's Hard and hauled up. She had, though coated with a very well-known patent, from 7 to 10 feet of weed floating astern of her at the time, which had to be removed. After being thoroughly cleaned, left to dry for a few days, and having her paint burnt off, a coat of priming was given, followed by two coats of the Harvey. The boat was then launched and towed back to her moorings, where she was left for over 20 months. At the end of that time she was hauled up, prior to being put into commission; and there was no sign of grass or weed; slime, with an almost imperceptible shell-fish growth, being all that was visible on her bottom. The boat was seen by a good many naval and other men during the time she was at her moorings, and they remarked on the quality of the paint. One great point about the Harvey must be mentioned, and that is, it dries very quickly when put on. It is a good thing to warm it before using, as it is apt to get hard and soak up the oil; but it soon softens, and after being properly mixed works well.

Before touching the decks, the spars and blocks will always require to have the old varnish of the past season scraped off them, and will have then to be re-varnished. In scraping the spars care should be taken that the knife, scraper, or glass be drawn with, and not against, the grain of the wood. The scraping will always be achieved with greater facility if the spar or block in hand is slightly damped, and the scraper or knife-blade employed has its edge turned over a little. This latter is done by drawing the side of the edge along the back of a knife or steel tool. After scraping, the whole spar should be rubbed down with sand-paper, prior to its receiving a coat of varnish. The brushes employed should be either well-used ones, or, if new, ought to be well soaked in water prior to use, as this will prevent the bristles falling out during the process of varnishing. Nothing is so provoking as to have to be continually picking out bristles from the varnish; of course, what holds good about varnishing holds good in the matter of painting. When using copal varnish, it is as well to pour out only as much as may be wanted for the time being into an old tin or jar, because it very soon hardens on exposure to the air, and then becomes useless. For the same reason the varnish bottle or can should never be left uncorked. Two coats of varnish thinly laid on ought to suffice at the beginning of the season, and a third coat may be given as the season progresses.

With regard to the decks. Everything depends on the state of the decks themselves and how they are laid. If they are made of wide planking, which is rarely, if ever, the case when the workmanship is that of a yacht-builder, they should be painted; if, however, the decks are laid with narrow planking fined off with the deck curves at the bow and stern, then, notwithstanding the beauty of white decks, it is better to varnish them. Varnishing keeps them hard, and saves many a heart pang when the little yacht is visited by a friend with nails in his boots or a lady in small heels. If the decks be worn at all, a coat of varnish is a capital thing. After trying decks varnished and unvarnished, experience confesses that the joys of beholding a white, spotless deck in a small yacht are more than outweighed by the sorrow and annoyance of seeing deep nail-marks imprinted on it.

As decks, when cared for, are always varnished when a yacht is laid up for the winter, this varnish has necessarily to be removed prior to a start on a season's yachting. The best method by which this can be carried out is as follows:—Black ashes, Sooji Mooji, or one of the many preparations of caustic potash, should be procured from a ship-chandler, and mixed in an iron bucket with warm water in the proportion of one-third black ashes to two-thirds water, according to the strength required. As soon as the sun has set the mixture must be poured over the deck, which must be left well covered with it till an hour before sunrise. The mixture, which will have dried during the night, must now be treated with hot water and well rubbed into the varnish, and fresh buckets of water must be kept applied till every particle of the mixture with the varnish has been cleared off and out of the deck planking. If the mixture is applied or allowed to remain on the deck while the sun is up, it will be certain to eat into and burn it.

There are two or three ways of laying decks. One is to have the planks nailed down to the beams, the nails countersunk, and the holes filled up with wood plugs to hide the nail-heads. This is generally done by men who have not had much to do with yacht-building. The common method employed is to drive the nails diagonally through the edge of the plank into the beam. Nails let in horizontally and driven into the next plank, two or three cotton threads having been placed between, keep the two planks in position. Each plank is similarly treated, and when all the planks have been fitted and jammed together, marine glue is poured into the seams. As soon as the glue has set and hardened the decks are planed, and finished off. The third method is not so pretty perhaps, but is believed from practical experience to be the best. The planks are mortised together, varnished, and then brought tight up. The whole deck is often built and made ready to fit before it is put into position, so that when it is laid on the beams, all that is required is to nail it down into its place. The writer has had experience with the second kind of deck mentioned here in nearly all of his yachts, and of the third method of laying decks in the 'Cyprus.' She was about five years old when he bought her, and that is a good age for a racing 5-tonner's decks to last sound and without a leaky spot to be found anywhere. Her decks were certainly kept varnished, for the simple reason stated above, that visitors might be always welcome, no matter what description of foot-gear had been supplied to them by their bootmakers.

It is not an uncommon practice to have a yacht recoppered, though her copper may be in good condition and even new. When such a proposition is made, which is not infrequently done by skippers wishing to play into the yacht-builder's hands, and thinking more of their own pockets than their master's interests, the yachtsman must remember that every time his yacht is coppered her skin is made more porous, and she herself heavier in the water, since the planking will naturally sodden with greater rapidity.

If the incipient yachtsman has bought the hull and spars of a yacht that is only partially built or finished off, a few more hints must be added, which will give him food for reflection, and may prove of service.

When a yacht likely to suit has been heard of, nothing being known of the owner, the next thing should be to try to discover whether she is sound or possesses any weak places. The purchaser should overhaul her outside just below the channels, and examine if the yacht has been frequently caulked between the seams of the planking, or if there are any signs of weeps of any kind about that part or elsewhere. The weeps will be shown most likely by a rusty discolouration. If the yacht is coppered, wrinkles must be looked for under the channels, runners, and about the bilge. They will show if the yacht has been strained at all. A knife should next be taken, and the point driven into the planking about the water-line, where it joins the sternpost and stem, and then along the two lower garboard strakes, especially if cement has been used to fill in between the keel and planking, to discover if there is any sign of dry rot, sap rot, &c. Inside, under the cabin floor, the timbers, deadwoods, and the garboard strakes if the yacht be coppered, should be tested in the same way. If the yacht has iron floors, these should be carefully examined for galvanic action or decay. The heads of the bolts which go through the lead keel should be scraped to see whether they are made of iron, metal composition, or copper. If they are iron or steel, most likely they will require to be renewed, because galvanic action is very soon set up between the lead and steel. Outside, copper shows wear and tear more quickly near the stem and sternpost and along the water-line. In the cabin itself the deck ceiling should be examined for weeps and leaks, especially about the bits forward and near the mast, also wherever a bolt-head is visible. On deck, a look round the covering board will discover whether it has been often recaulked, by the seam being extra wide. The heat of a stove below is frequently the cause of the deck forward leaking. The deck seams should not be wider there than at any other part. All the spars should be examined, and if there are no transverse cracks, longitudinal ones may be held of no consequence. The weak parts of the mast are generally to be found between the yoke and cap, where the eyes of the rigging rest. Rot is often found there, and strains are met with up the masthead. The boom shows its weakness at the outer end by small cracks, and the bowsprit by the gammon iron and stem-head. If the above rough survey proves all correct, attention must be given next to the rigging, sails, and gear. Wear in the wire rigging is shown by its being rusty, the strands stretched, or by the broken threads of a strand appearing here and there. If the jib, throat, peak halliards, and mainsheet are new, or have seen the work of one season only, they will not require much overhauling. With the other running rigging the strands should be untwisted, just enough to see whether the heart of the rope is fresh and not rotten. The blocks ought to be of a light colour without cracks in them, and iron strapped inside. The sails will not show either mildew marks or discolouration if they are in good condition. The chain and anchors to be in good order should not be rusty, but clean and well galvanised. They should be looked at to discover whether they have ever been regalvanised. This will be noticed by the links presenting a rough, uneven surface, where there was rust or decay before the repetition of the process of galvanising.

Sometimes at fitting-out time an owner finds that he has to provide his yacht with a new anchor. It may help him, therefore, in his choice if the writer gives his experience in the matter of ground tackle or mud-hooks. There are a number of patents in the market, the most patronised of which are Trotman's, Martin's, Smith's, and Thomas & Nicholson's. All these have many good points, with a weak one here and there to keep the competition in anchor designing open to improvement.

Trotman's anchor has movable arms and stock, stows away well, and is a fine holding anchor when once it bites; but it is often very slow at catching hold, and this is dangerous when the anchorage happens to be close and crowded, as, for instance, is frequently the case at Kingstown, Cowes, &c., during regatta time. If the anchor does not catch at once on such occasions the yacht may drift some distance before she is brought up, and with little room this operation is performed, more often than not, by collision with some vessel astern.