The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-07-09
YACHTING IN AMERICA.
Tho Extent and Cost of Boating
for Pleasure.
of Organized Clubs and Thou
sands of Recorded Yachts Repre-
senting az Invested Capital
of Millions of Dollars.

OF MILLIONS OF dollars.
Zach advancing year makes more APP
parent the universally of a taste for
aquatic sports among the American
people. Yachting has ever beer a grow
ing pastimc by the waters of the North
Atlantic coast. We now find white
sails in the least-expected places; yachts
and yachters where but a few years ago
the only sailors were the timid wild
duck and the solemn mudhen; boats up
on waters that have scarcely ceased to
ripple from the agitation of their first
invasion by q launched vessel; butterfly
canoes scudding over rivers that not a
decade since knew no alien thing save
the Indians dug-out; lakes upon which
float shapely vessels of pattern so mod
crn hat they almost seem uncouth in
their intrusion upon natures primeval
landscape; sloops and cutters, schoon-
crs and cat-boats, every kind of sailing
craft, in short, that a be made to ca
ter to the yachtcr's insatiate desire for
sport. In yachting the United States
takes first rank; her yachts and yacht
ers outnumber and outsail those of all
other countries. Few among the ''land-
lubbers' of the country, and not many
yachters, realize the magnitude of this
national pastime. The Queens Cup
races gave the sport a publicity which
it never had before, but even these
events did not bring to general public
notice an adequate conception of the ex-
tent of this interest.
1t is safe to estimate, writes F. w.
DonrhArp ~ C0-+,,- +la+ +lo,o =, -
least one yacht to every ten thousand
people in the land, and that an average
yacht will carry at least ten persons.
This means that there are at least six
thousand yacht owners in the country,
and that sixty thousand people may
participate in pleasure-sailing; a large
number, surely, to be devoted to sport
which is necessarily confined to locali-
ties neal the water, and which is an ex-
pensive pastime. The public hears
much of vessels of the Volunteer and
Grayling types, champions of the big
boat" classes, but the real yachters of
the land are the owners of small boats;
in fact, the big-boat owner generally
keeps a small yacht in which to enjoy
himself when he feels like being master
VI IlS OWL Craft ~ lew SLdIlSllcS Will
render this quite plain.
Figures that are somewhat incom-
plcte show hat there are over 200 or
ganized yacht clubs in the United
States, which enroll nearly 1000 yachts.
OF these, less than one-thirteenth are
steam vessels, launches, etc, and not
at all. One-eleventh are
as large yachts, including many
steam and sail vessels, big schooncrs and
all of more than forty feet wa
ter-line measurement. That is to say,
Of 4 900 recorded yachts, ive-siXths are
vessels under 40 feet. This
c~onclusivcly that the majority of
American yachts are small boats that
arc managed by their owners. Its safe
to assert that there are at least 1000
moro small yachts which are not en-
in clubs, and of which no exact
record can be given.
The 200 clubs report a membership of
1900 men, 1000 of whom are yacht
owners. Leaving out one-sixth of them l
owners of large and very costly YES .
sells ranging in value from $4,000 to l
perhaps $500, 600 each, and assuming )
average cost Of the small yachts to
DC about $1,000, which is a low figure, 1
me finds that fve-sixths of these 1000 S
represent an invested capital of g
'ver $500, GOO; a large sum when it is t
emcnbered that yachts never pay {
Jack anything in profit to their buyers, s
nd that, like horses and carriages,
hey eat up a good deal of money all 2
he time. The average dues, etc, of a 3
club are about SIS q year, not t
ocnting extras. This, paid in by 1000 t
lcmbers of clubs, shows q revenue of =
10000 per arnum, which really repre- b
cnts 10 part of the great cost of yacht
az, for every yacht-owncr has to pay
is OWL expenses, and the club dues ;s
re spent on shore. At a very low cstl-
the. owner of q small yacht will
pend $50 a month during the season of =
bout five months. This means that
be small-yacht sailors Of the country o
pend at least $500, 900 in q season.
much their yachting costs the II
wners Of the big boats it would be i'm u
to state; the sum is enormous. I;
ii
The "Finger" Prayer Book.
T~hirty-fivc or forty years ago some Il
lc issued the famous ''Thumb- Bible" N