The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-04-03

years have been. The chief reason for this is
the extreme remoteness of any international
contest of note taking place this year, and the
yachtsmen are therefore devoting their ener
giles to subjects at home. For the past four
seasons up to last year, there has been a
great international yacht race for the Ameri-
ca cup. These races have SO occupied the
Z yachting fraternity that the fostering of a
purely recreative type of boat has not had the
attention which it is receiving this year.
The competitive boats in these interna-
tional races have been sloops of what are
called the eighty-five and ninety foot classes.
They have been built especially for racing,
and are too large for pastime, for they re-
quire so many men TO handle them prop
erly. A schooner of that size is more easily
handled than a sloop, for the tremendous
main sail alone of the latter takes whole
crew to manage, and other features of these
boats are equally expensive. 1t can be readily
seen that no man wishes a boat of this kind
for mere pleasure purposes, and if a boat over
fifty or sixty feet long is wanted for cruising,
the majority will be schooners.
THE SMALLER TYPE OF YACHT.
A number of boats made their appearance
last year that are known now as forty foot
ers." Others are on the stocks, and by the
ptime the different regattas are held this sea-
son there will be quite a feet of these handy
yachts. They are of size which is consid-
cred best for all around purposes, and their
popularity is the result of actual cruising
and racing in place of mere cheapness, as
might be at first supposed when compared
with the new boats of two or three years
back
There are in all eleven of these forty foot
ers that will be called 1889 boats, and with
the nine that competed last year, feet of
twenty will be in service this season. The
most notable of last years forty footers are
the Kara. Baboon, Chiquita, Nymph,
Papoose, dial and Alga.
THE COMPROMISE TYPE.
Many Of the new forty footers are of the
compromise type, with a keel. Some are
fitted with centerboards which, however,
rarely rise above the floor, the additional
depth of the boat doing away with the neces-
sity for the deep board required on the old
shallow type of craft. The average draught
Of these forty footers is nine feet, and though
not so wide as the ordinary centerboard
sloop, their beam is proportionately greater
even than that of the Thistle which was the
widest boat of her class that ever visited US
from English shores. To Edward Burgess
credit is generally given for the introduction
of this class, and his boats in this class com
pared with the typical English cutter are
much wider than the latter are of the same
draught For instance, the Balloon with
draught of nine feet is thirteen feet beam,
while the Minerva, celebrated forty foot
cutter now in America, has beam of only
about eight or nine feet The Minerva is a
fine type of the English model. She was
tL,a Nly-g1n +1l- rE
in the American regattas this season.
The English boats of this class are compre-
hensively described as racing machines, for
they are for the most part devoted wholly to
speed, and have no deck furniture, while
their below deck accommodations, though
they have large depth of hold, are small on
account of the narrow beam. Even with
this sacrifice of comfort and space for speed
it is yet to be proven that they are faster
than, or as fast as, the American type, for
the greater beam of the latter allows larger
sail area. Most of the new American forty
footers are built with flush decks and can be
shut up and driven through heavy weather
with the advantage of having comfortable
accommodations below.
THE QUESTION OF EXPENSE.
A factor of the popularity of these boats
over the class which includes the big single
stickers Puritan, Mayfower and Volunteer,
is that whereas the Volunteer, for instance,
cost about $4,000 and entailed correspond
ingly great running expenses, the new forty
footers are costing on an average $4,000, and
can be handled by three or four men, includ-
ing the owner. Gen. Paine sailed the Vol
unteer with about ten men before the mast,
but in q race the number was doubled.
Take them for all purposes, the forty footers
are the proper size for amateurs to become
nautical experts.
The Seawanhaka-C orinthian club offers a
special prize for this class at its annual re-
gatta this year on June 10 and II, over the
regular New York Yacht club course. So
many owners signifed their intention of en-