Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-01-26
YACHTS AT REST.
SLOOPS AND CUTTERS READY TO
GO INTO WINTER QUARTERS.

A Visit to the Docks of South Brooklyn.
What a Yacht Looks Like When Laid
Up"-How the Vessels Are Cared For
What Becomes of the Sailors.
To realize that the yachting season is in
deed over one need but visit the line of docks
extending along the curve of the shore from
South Brooklyn to Bay Ridge. In that line
there are no less than $50 yachts of all de-
grees now laid up for the winter. This num-
ber is being added to daily, and before the
envious winds of autumn have snatched the
last russell leaf from the bending trees there
will not be left single yacht in these waters
in commission. The general public is apt to
see only one side of the matters in which
their interest is spasmodically and tempor-
arily absorbed, and that is, as a rule, the out
side.
But if one really wishes to know what
yacht looks like when Laid up" he must go
to such a place as Tebo's dock at South
Brooklyn. And what is she like. Miss
Beauty in morning wrapper, with her hair
in curl papers She is stripped of all that
goes to enhance her charms. Hulk, main
mast, bowsprit; that is all that is lett of her;
and she is swathed and bandaged like an old
ist will be inclined to shed tear-she is so
utterly desolate, helpless, lonely and ifeless.
The mawkish poet, who spreads himself
through six months and over much foolscap
on the subject of "snowy pinions," ETC.,
will experience a pang of revulsion Of
feeling, as if a cherished corn were trampled
upon. Forenoon beauty, daylight stage
shows and winter yachts are subjects to be
avoided in poetry.
This is practical age, and when the time
of the sailing of yachts is over the question
that naturally is of most importance to their
owners is how to take care of them during
the severe season. To leave as little as pos
sible of what is liable to injury exposed is
what is aimed at, and when the yacht is
towed reluctantly into the dock after her
contests, trials and triumphs, she is straight
way mercilessly stripped and left in the
hands of the dockkeeper. The topmast is
housed, the sailors are removed; the steering
wheel is taken away bodily, and all these as
well as many other odds and ends, as well as
the small boats, are put ashore and locked up
in a storehouse Then the matches and aught
else made of mahogany wood are covered
with canvas; and frequently the bare spars
are similarly clothed A steam yachl is dis
brasswork is as carefully covered with can
vas as the mahogany.
MOST DISCONSOLATE OF ALL.
When in winter dress the single stickers
look, perhaps, the most disconsolate of all. 1t
is in single stickers that public interest has
centered of late, influenced by the lnterna-
tional and other great races in which these
have taken part. A schooner with the mo-
notony of her appearance relieved by two
masts never looks SO dreary as the single
sticker, which by her metamorphosis is re-
duced in appearance almost to the plebelan
level of fishing coble. She is certainly
brought to resemble the general style of the
primeval boat; a chunk of wood and bare
pole. But appearances are deceitful, and the
tremendous capabilities that lie in that inno-
cent hull, when it is Burgess model, would
cause the primeval boat builder to raise hue
and cry of ''witchcraft."
Some yacht owners adopt a more elaborate
method of sheltering their craft. They build
structure of wood resembling little frame
house right over the deck, so that all below
is kept safe and sound. This mode, if more
thorough than the other, is more cumbrOus.
1t is also more expensive, for a canvas suit
once made will last for several winters, and
the wooden shelter house has to be solidly
built anew each year, and for these reasons
the simpler method is the more common.
The great army of skilled seamen who
manned the yachts is disbanded, and its
members scattered TO the four Winds except
in the cases where the sailing master has
been retained to stay by his boat during the
winter. In this country the sailors are gen
orally engaged for the season and do not sign
any contract for number of years as they
do in Britain. They are therefore here pc
riodically, but it is safe to say that none of
them want for winter work. Some go off on
short coasting cruises; the others are sure to
find ''iob" about the docks or in the multi
farious departments of marine industry. The
shippers, as a rule, rest ON their laurels and
prepare themselves to add to them next year.
By the middle of March, if winter does not
linger too long, there will be signs of activity
on the yachts once more. Workmen will
swarm about their decks unloosing the un-
slightly bandages, completing their beautiful
toilet and getting them into sailing order,
and month later they will spread their
white wings with birds and butterfies of
spring-New York Tribune.