That year we sailed twenty-seven races, winning fifteen firsts, six seconds, and two thirds, and ending the season on the Medway with a series of matches in which we all changed boats and crews. It was on a lovely autumn afternoon that we anchored our barge yacht under the wood as committee boat, with tea, something stronger, dry clothes, and a party of friends on board. In every case and with every crew Sea Maiden came in first, till we persuaded Lord Charles Beresford to sail his Undaunted with our sail, when she at once turned the tables. Next year there were a number of new punts built, namely: Mosquito, Star Fish, Water Lily, Princess May, and Tartar. The Royal Engineers, too, built the Terrible and Powerful, sister ships, with long overhanging sterns, and Captain Mareney, R.E., with his own hands built Bébé, which has proved the fastest of her class. In a strong wind the Bébé's speed is something quite phenomenal, and one race she sailed in a hard gale, surprised everyone who saw her. Mr. G. C. Kerr's punt, L'Espérance, besides being good-looking, sails very fast; and on one occasion, in a light wind, beat the seventeen-ton, Buccaneer, in a race to Sheerness and back, without time allowance. Owing to the drawing of our punt, which appeared in the Field, there have been many imitations of our flat-bottomed class started in different parts of the world. The Puffins at Plymouth, a little fleet at Weymouth, the new class at Southampton, and individual boats in Scotland, Northumberland, Anglesea, Florida, and even distant Hong Kong. There was a rumour that a challenger for the Seawanhaka Cup should take the shape of a long flat punt, and for this purpose a drawing was made by one of our most celebrated designers, but the Canadian holders of the cup have accepted the American challenge, instead of that of the Minima Yacht Club, so, this spring, the sound of the hammer will not be heard in our loft.
M. A. Wyllie.
MRS. PENN-CURZON.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mrs. Wyllie's invalid daughter.—Ed.