, 1877-02-17
YACHTIN


GREATEST MARINE COURSE1
IN THE WORLD.
"A WET SHEET AND FLOWING SEA-"
The profession of q sailor is one
fraught with danger and as long as
courage is the quality that makes
men beloved of women, just 60 long
the pastime of yachting will elicit
the emulation of the youth who are
nurtured among wealth. The rich
Southern planters son of our boy
hoods day, looked forward to the
time when he would own four
miller, equal to Boston, Wagner or
Sussex the Northern merch ,nt's
son had no ambition higher than to
own a yacht capable of crossing the
Western Ocean and participating in
an international regatta, like the one
at Cowes in which Stevens "Amer-
ica" bore off the palm from the Eng
lish squadron. Lester Wallack, the
accomplished actor; R. B. Forbes,
the veteran merchant; J. NJ. Water
bury, the opulent distiller; George
Osgood, railroad stock operator I,
and R. F. Loper, the great foundry
man, all kept their yachts.
SAN FRANCISCO,
As she has grown more opulent has
become more ambitious of keeping
a yacht squadron and emulous of
the fame of New York. Head and
shoulders above all of them, stands
our OLD friend Richard L. Ogden
(the genial Podgers) whose keen
and facile pen has hit off the gener-
osities and foibles of San Francisco
society, alike, for the past twenty
years. Next came DR.. J. G. Tucker,
whose liberal income enables him
to spend enough in keeping up his
yacht, to run dozen little newspa-
pers like ours. These with Capt.
Eckley. M. R. Roberts and Stewart
Menzies, keep up a fine club and
are fast gaining renown for San
Francisco. Yet their favorite stamp
ing grounds are the bays of San
Pablo and Suisun, which lie be-
tween the bay of San Francisco and
the mouth of the Sacramento rive.
Those bays are filled with mud-fiats
and are cut up with narrow chan
mel, caused by the debris of hydrau
lie mines being emptied dow the
rivers. Hence beating to windward is
a difficult manHuvre.
PUGET SOUND
Is something different from that, in
every requirement for yachting. 1t
has three parallel regatta courses, ,all
of deep water and free from the
sudden flaws of wind that character
ize the bay of San Francisco and its
tributaries. The main Sound, from
Port Townsend to Olympia, has the
deepest water and affords capital
sailing-ground. The total distance
is about 1O4 miles over which the
City of Pekin could run at full
speed without slowing down. Hoods
Canal affords about sixty-five miles
more of choice yachting ground.
Add to this the seventy miles of the
east passage between here and La
Conner, and here is total of two
hundred and thirty-nine miles of the
very best yachting country. From
June to November, there is no por-
tion of American water to equalize
Puget Sound. The next question
is, could sufficient inducements be
offered
THE SAN FRANCISCO CLUB,
To induce their yachts to come to
Puget Sound? OF course, the sloop
yachts could not be expected to
come, as the heavy weather on the
coast would render a dead-beat to
windward, of seven hundred miles,
too heavy an undertaking for that
class. But the schooner yachts. the
Minnie" Cousins" "Azulene,"
and vessels of that class, could come
and enjoy a couple of months of
such yachting as San Francisco bay
could never afford. If the San Fran
cisco squadron could be induced to
pay us a visit once, from that time
our beautiful Sound would become
an annual rendezvous for them and
all the wealth and fashion of Oregon
would flock hither. The distance is |
trif1e too far, we fear, and that is |
the principal obstacle. If it were
four hundred miles, we could safely |
count on seeing them here every |
summer.
THE CHARM OF YACHTING
Is indescribable. In our boyhood
days, we wele often an invited
guest on board the pretty schooner
yacht Haze, owned by Butler Dun
can, of New York. We accompan-
led him once to Hampton Roads and
time as far East as Thomas
ton, Maine. Such charmingly clear
summer nights on the Atlantic, with
all the commerce of England and
America scudding by the presence
of beautiful women on the quarter
deck. with their sweet songs to en-
the mOOnlit evening watches