In 1897, Mrs. Schenley joined the one-design class—with Cresta—- started the year before by Major Colville and Colonel Bucknill. These boats proved very popular and much good racing has resulted. They are ugly but wholesome, not very fast but answer their purpose well. We did not race very assiduously that season as we were often otherwise engaged. Cresta won us about fourteen prizes, in thirty starts I think. Many women sailed in this class, Mrs. Parry and Mrs. Tower constantly accompanying their husbands, also Mrs. Towers Clark and Mrs. Alwyne Greville were occasionally to be seen on the C'lerk and Eileen. These latter, however, never ventured to take the helm, though they were much attached to the sport and nothing daunted by weather. The boats owned by women this year were the Fairy, Miss Lord, Cresta, Mrs. Schenley, and Speedwell, Miss Cox, while Mrs. Oliphant was Queen Regent on the Rosemary. My sister, Miss Hughes, constantly sailed the Meneen and Speedwell, but she will never make such a record as she did with the Viva, half-rater, lent her by Mr. Wood, which was one of the largest prize-winners and most successful of her class ever floated.
Half-raters are too small for my taste, and I think a two-and-a-half, as the boats are built now, is the best size for a woman. Possibly the day may come back when the five-raters will be as easy on their helms as they were in 1891. My sister tells me she steered Forella, five-rater, in quite a fresh wind this season and had no difficulty in managing her, so perhaps I am not too sanguine in anticipating more sport for us in this class.
F. G. Stuart. Southampton.
FAIRY, STEERED BY MISS LORD.
My ideal mode of yachting would be to have a new two-and-a-half-rater whenever the old one was worsted, with a five-rater perhaps now and then to vary the monotony. A fifty-ton steamer, or one perhaps a little smaller, to act as convoy is essential, and it should be fast and have a good saloon, and a couple of rooms to change in if needed. Cowes is the most convenient pied-à-terre from a racing point of view, being very central with regard to the more frequent regattas. Racing is not a cheap amusement, but then, nothing nice ever is. To put it roughly, the two-and-a-half-rater would cost £300 to build, and £100 to "run." The steamer £2,500 to build, and £300 to "run," and the little house at Cowes, one or two hundred for the season. Of lesser items connected with racing there are several, the numerous club subscriptions for one thing being no small matter. The expenses of yacht-racing have been steadily on the increase, and I hope now they have attained their maximum. We have had sixteen racing boats in the family during the last twelve years, our last effort being made in the poor man's class, the one designers, which fact speaks for itself. Many others are in the same hole as ourselves, and are glad enough to find a means of racing without so much expense. The one-design class was specially instituted to meet this demand, as the boat only costs £200 to begin with, and all the costs, wages, etc., are limited and prescribed by the rules. They are fine little craft too, stiff and dry and light-helmed, in fact very suitable boats for a woman to start her racing in. About fifty prizes are given by Solent clubs for this class, though, of course, they are not so well catered for elsewhere.
A trip to the Westward at the end of the Ryde week is a pleasant change, the regattas at Torquay and Dartmouth being quite unique spectacles. I know of nowhere in England where ceremony is so lightly disregarded, or where conviviality is so essentially the order of the day.