Evening journal., 1893-09-11
pIspLEAsuRgs OF YAcArINe.
Experiences That Possess None of the
Charms That People Imagine.

Experiences That Possess None OF the
Charms That People Imagine.
One commonly thinks Of yachting as the
most delightful Of summer pastimes, and
the very word calls up visions of ''wet
sheet, and a flowing sea, and a wind that
follows fast" smells Of salt things, and
whistlings through the rigging, blue sky,
white caps, driving clouds and all that sort
Of thing, to say nothing of the possibilities
Of delightful companionship and the de
licious unconyentionality of meeting ones
fellow men and women with all the for
mality and restraints of on shore life thrown
off, no making talk or anything Of that
kind, but knocking about carelessly and
easily in flannel suits and having "a real
good time" Or, again, racing, with its ex-
elements, and cruising, with all its possi-
bilities Of adventure -a as, for example,
cruising TO Bar Harbor, where, it is well
known, Americas fairest daughters gather
yearly, decked in their best, for the sole
purpose of making Bar Harbor a Utopia
and haven Of rest for those who have plenty
Of money and so down to the sea in expen-
sive yachts.
Such is the popular and accepted view of
yachting, but there is another and gloomy
side to the picture which the writer, who
forth clearly in three distinct statements,
with an open challenge to contradiction
first, that to "go and take a sail" in small
boat belonging to some one else and TO sail
aimlessly about onthe open sea is ''an awful
bore;" secondly, that to 20 as amateur
crew" on a rowing yacht unda 60 feet long
is not only bore, but a hardship, and on
yachts over 60 feet in length it is not Gus
tomary to have an amateur crew" unless
an occasional and almost always useless
passenger can be considered such; and last
ly, that cruising is a lottery absolutely de-
pendent on the weather. Fogs, calms
storms and head winds are quite as usual
as free winds and sunshine.
Observe that nothing has been said about
seasickness, which makes yachting impos-
Eible to 50 many
There is no place on earth where the sun
can strike down out Of the sky and bleach
and blister and sizzle as it can upon a
yachts deck. There Is no place that can
be hotter OF more stuffy OF more uncom-
Portable than yachts cabin on a hot day,
when there is no wind or when the wind is
dead aft, and when it is rough, and the
water is driving across the yachts deck in
a sheet of white foam, and the crew are all
huddled behind the shrouds. into which
old oilskins have been stuffed to make a
screen, and the man at the wheel has life
lines running from the main sheet to the
main shrOuds on either side Of him to keep
him from being washed overheard, and the
oilbags are hung 70 windward to keep the
water from breaking, and the fire is out in
| the galley, and the cook has been scalded
by the soup stock jumping out Of the
| boiler, and the barometer is dropping like
mad, and the skylight leaks so that every
wave which comes aboard sends bucketfuls
Of swash down into the cabin, and when
every now and then wave comes aboard
and pounds down on her deck like a load
of pig iron, and those below are shaken
about like corn in "a pepper, and those on
deck simply hold on and duck their heads
when such is the condition of affairs
| yachting would not be considered a pas
| time.
The delights Of being amateur crew.
can be briefly summed up. They consist in
| lying fat ON your face either in hot sun
or a pouring rain, and if You turn over
having the owner shout at you: Keep
still Do you think that you're a wild ele-
phants You Jared her all over that time. %
Furthermore all yachts are not rigeed
| alike, and If the amateur crew is told at a
critical point in the race-say Just before
rounding the leeward mark-to let go the
/ spinnaker halyards aud let the balloon ito
| halyards go instead, so that the whole sail
| goes over Co leeward. the remarks which
will be made to him will be ''unft Tor pub.
lication."
No, yachting is not all "besr and skit.
| tles.p-Boston Transcript.