Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1893-10-11
NOT ALL PLEASURE.
Even the Sport Of Yachting Has
It's Drawbacks.
There Is No Place So Hot rs q Ships
Deck and Nothing So Exnspor-
ating Inexpe-
ricnced Crew.

One commonly thinks of yachting as
the most delightful of summer pas
times, says the Boston Transcript, and
the very word calls up visions OF a
"wet sheet, and flowing sea. and
wind that follows FAST" smells Of salt
things, and w!listlings through the
rigging, blue sky, white caps, driving
clouds anG ell that sort OF thing, to say
nothing Of the possibilities OF delight
TT! cCr2pu1ioH%h!p aaa tlc GcliaiC!:'-
ny ~cunyonGiNE2iity OF Taat;ng o;:u'.
fellow .l2l and women viii; aii III.
toiIr2;ity and txGStiaillt3 OF OTi-Chor2
Lie thrown OF: no making talk or any
thing OF that kind, but knocking about
,carelessly and easily in flannel suits
and having "a real good time" Or,
again, racing, with all it's excitemcuts,
and cruising, with all of it's possibili-
ties of adventure, to Bar Harbor Such
is the popular and accepted view of
yachting, but there is another and
gloomy side to the picture which the
writer, who is sometimes inclined TO
growl, can set forth clearly in three
distinct statements, with an open chal-
lengc to contra6iction-frst. that to
''go and take a SAIL in 4 small boat
belonging to some one else and to sail
aimlessly about On the open sea is ''an
awful borc;" secondly, that to go as
'anatcur crew" on rowing yacht
under sixty feet long is not only
bore, but n hardship, and on yachts
over sixty 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, lastly, that cruising is q
lottery absolutely dependent on the
weather. Fogs, calms, storms ard
head winds are quite as usual as free
winds and sunshine.
Observe. that nothing has been said
abont seagickness, which makes yocht-
ing 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 siZ1e as it can
upon yachts deck. There is 10 place
that can be hotter or more Gtufty or
more uncomfortable than yachts
cabin on n hot day, when there is no
wind or when the wind is dead aft, Gnd
when it is rough, and thcwatcr is driv-
ing across the yachts deci: in q sheet OF
white foam, and the crow are all hud-
died behind the slfrouds. into which
old oil skins 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 fl ON 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 scaldcd
;by the soup stock Jumping out of the
boiler, and the barometer is dropping
like mad, and the sl1ylight leaks SO
that every wave which comes aboard
sends buckeTfuls of 'swaSh down into
the cabin, and when every now and
then a wave comes aboard and pounds
down, on her, deck like load of pig
iron, and those below arc shaken about
like corn in a pepper, and those on
deols simply hold on and duck their
heads-IYhen such Is the condition of
affairs yachting would not be consid-
cred q .pastime.
The delights of being amateur
crew" can be briefly summed up. They
consist IN lying fiat ON your face either
in a hot sun or pouring rain, and ii
you turn over ,havingithe owner shout
eat you: keep still Do you thinl'
that you're q wild elephant? You
Jared her all over that time. Further.
more, all yachts are not rugged alike
and if the amateur crew is told at q
critical point,in the race--say jus5 be-
fore rounding the leeward mark-tc
let go the spiunaker balyards and lei
the balloon. jib halyards go instead, sc
that the whole sail goes over to leo
ward, the remarks which viii be made
TO him. will he tsnnht. for publication