| Icicle. | Avalanche. | |
| Center-timber and box, | lbs. 776½ | lbs. 768½ |
| Runner-plank and strap, | 565 | 520 |
| Mast, | 250 | 361 |
| Runners, | 150 | 186½ |
| Boom and two blocks, | 146½ | 451½ |
| Rigging, | 125 | — |
| Blocks, | — | 93 |
| Rudder-post and tiller, | 91 | 81½ |
| Gaff, | 47½ | — |
| Yard, | — | 198 |
| Jib-boom and two blocks, | 47 | — |
| Blocks, | — | 18½ |
| Blocks and halyards, | 62 | 50 |
| Sails, | 172 | 206 |
| lbs. 2,432½ | lbs. 3,007¾ |
It is seen, therefore, that the lateen outscales her rival by about 575 lbs., the two boats being nearly the same size. Theoretically, the Avalanche having only a single sail—and that capable of being set almost as tight and flat as a drumhead—should out-point and out-foot anything of her size, but practically the extra weight hinders more than the better fitting canvas helps her.
The “cat-rig,” too, has been tried, but without the good results anticipated, and a sharpie rig has, it is said, done fairly well with a small boat on the Shrewsbury.
It may be confidently stated that the sloop rig is the safest to count upon for allround work, particularly in the largest-sized boats. In boats of the second and third class the lateen may be used with a chance, not altogether assured, of superlatively good results.
It is not likely that ice-yachts will ever be built larger than the present, the Avalanche, Icicle, Northern Light, Scud, and their class, i. e., about fifty feet long, and spreading something like 600 square feet of canvas. To sustain such a boat requires comparatively heavy ice; to drive her at a high rate of speed calls for a living gale of wind, and to tow her home when becalmed, or collect her scattered fragments should she chance to be shipwrecked, is a work demanding a large store of patience and endurance. In average blustering wintry weather, with a wind not to exceed, say, twenty-five miles an hour, boats of the second class stand a very fair chance of beating those of a larger spread and heavier weight.
The art of sailing an ice-yacht is sui generis. It is, indeed, of comparatively modern origin. A generation ago sheets were started on an ice-yacht when running free, much as they are in an ordinary sailing-boat, and the singular properties of the close-hauled sail were not understood. The modern ice-yachtsman never slacks away his sheet except, perhaps, when he wants to turn a stake with certainty, or when the ice softens. Given a hard surface and a stiff breeze, he will outrun the wind in any direction.
One who hears this paradox stated for the first time may be pardoned for incredulity, nor is it easy in all cases to make clear the possibility of such a feat. A very large majority of intelligent people when confronted with the proposition, simply say that it is impossible and absurd, and are hardly convinced when they actually see an ice-yacht running straight down the wind, with her pennant streaming out astern. To yachtsmen. it had been known for several years that a comparatively light wind would send ice-yachts ahead of the fast express trains on the Hudson River Railroad. After a time the mathematical experts heard of it, and they said it could not be so; they took their little slates and proved their position to the satisfaction of all properly constituted scientific minds. But this did not prevent the yachtsmen from sailing faster and faster, and presently other mathematicians rose up and demonstrated the contrary of the proposition, thereby showing, for the ten-thousandth time, that all save the truth can be proven by figures.
FIG. 2.—THE SAILING PARADOX.
The fundamental principle of sailing an ice-yacht faster than the wind may be readily demonstrated by means of a very simple mechanical device.