The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1893-11-15
MoT 90 yaEbusN Sc.
yachting Has Lots DisspiS lsrta ~


&hoss Esho esk rhen
One commonly Thinks OF yachting
q the most delightful 0f summer
pastimes, and the very word calls up
visions of "a wet sheet and flowing
sea, and 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 possf-
bilities of delightful compenionship
and the delicious unconyentionaI:tV
of meeting ones fellow men s&ad
women with all the formality and
restraints of on-shore life thrown of;
NO making talk or anything of that
kind, but knocking about oarelessly
and easily in flannel suits and having
"a real good time. " Or, again, rac-
ing, with its excitements. and cruis-
ing, with all its possibilities OF ad-
ventures, for example. cruising
to Bar Harbor, where, il is well
known. Americas fairest daughters
gather yearly. decked in their best
for the sole purpose of making Bar
Harbor Utopia and haven of rest
Tor those who have plenty OF money
and go down to the sea in expensive
yachts
Such is the popular aud accepted
view of. yachting. but there is
another and gloomy side of the
>picture which the writer, who is
sometimes inclined to growl. can set
forth clearly in three distinct state
ments. with an open challenge to
contradiction; First. that to "go and
take sail" in a small boat belong
ing to some one else and to sail aim
lessly about on the open sea is IAN
awful bore;" secondly, that to go
as an amateur crew." on q rowing
yacht under sixty fest long is net
only bore, but q hardship, and on
yachts over sixty feet in length it is
not customary to have an amateur
crew." unless an occasional and
almost useless passenger can be con-
sidered such; and, lastly, that cruis-
ing is lottery absolutely dependent
on the weather. Fogs, calms. storms
and head winds are quite as usual as
free winds and sunsk;ne.
Observe th&l nothing has been
said about seasicKness, which makes
yachting impossible to so 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 yachts deck There
is no place that can be hotter or
more stuffy or more uncomfortable
than a 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
lifelines. running from the main
sheet to the main shrouds on either
side of him, to keep him from being
washed overheard. and the oil bags
are hung to windward, to keep the
water from breaking, and the fire is
out in the galley and the cook has
been scalded by the sour 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 aad then
a wave comes aboard and pounds
down on her deck like load of pig
iron, and those below are shaken
about like corn in pepper and those
on deck simply hold on and duck
their heads-when such is the con-
dition of affairs, yachting would not
be considered a pastime.
The delights of being amateur
crew" can be briefly summed up.
They consist in lying fat on your
face either in hot sun or pouring
rain. and if you turn over having the
owner shout at you: keep still! Do
you think that you're wild elephant?
You Jared her all over that time"
all yachts are not
rugged alike, and if the amateur
crew is told at critical point in the
race-say just before rounding the
leeward mark-to let go the spinna-
ker halyards, and let the balloon jib
halyards go instead, so that the whole
sail goes over to leeward, the remarks
which will be made to him will be
"unfit for publicatier-