The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-28
THE vALKYRIE's GREAT BOOM.
Some Conclusions Suggested by n
Survey of Her Spars and Lines.

Survey of Her Spars and Lines.
From the New York Tribune.
Much as was said last Tuesday in this
Valkyrie Ill, as seen when she was afoat
and in her cruising rig, new views and new
doubts arise when one sees the enormous
area of her racing rig. 1t is difficult to
remember the power of the hull when first
gazing on her gigantic spars. Only one
Can she carry them?"
The hull of Valkyrie III. has been here
referred to as an embodiment, the very
type, or power in a boat. But there is
now steel boom on her which to
yachtsman's eyes is something simply
frightful. The parallel length of it was
three tmeis paced off on the edge of the
dry dock, and that boom does not seem
to be one inch less that a hundred and
fifteen feet long. An elephant is fairly
we'll set up in the matter of strength. He
is huge. We respect him. But the Tri-
bune building as howdah on his back,
doubt begins.
Suppose you take an approximate idea
of what canvass this boat will carry. The
hull is about 12S feet long over ALL The
bowsprit projects thirty feet beyond the
nose, and the 115-foot boom seems to ex-
tend about twenty or twenty-five feet be-
yond the extreme end of the long-drawn-
out counter. This will give in the neigh
borhood of $50 feet as the base of the sail
area triangle. Now, if we take a hight
of, say 120 feet as its apex, we get fair
notion of her ordinary spread of canvass
And to this must be added the area which
is extended outside this triangle by the
sixty-hve-foot gaff.
Ono rfo nd off ot 1lcfo
ICES the sail area which the now bare spars
map out, and then, in the next look at
the Valkyrie, she seems all at once too
small. Where are the forces in the huh
to oppose all this sail pressure and to
give stability to the whole erection? Well
there is the boat-a mere canoe, and below
it a deep, narrow strip of keel like the
large belly-fin on a bullhead sunhsh. They
tell you that at the bottom of this fin
there are eighty tons of led concealed
under copper sheathing But the space
1t occupies looks too small and you can
not believe it.
In a recent conversation with the writer
the present bishop Of Vermont quoted the
Sunday school boy who replied that faith
was trying to believe what you know
amt So" and there is a similar difficulty
in believing that so apparently small
amout OF lead and canoe could SUPPORT a
sail pressure of this kind
Now this Valkyrie III. is a peach, in so
far that she cannot be all absorbed in one
bite. She must be Inspected from many
points OF view before any correct sum-
ming up can be arrived at. Looking al
her from near the bow. the bilge, as Il runs
into the counter, looks too hard. looking
down al her from the edge OF the drydoek
ana amidshlps, the eye fails 10 observe
the true hatness OF the floor and the real
power Of the bilge This Is secrefed by the
outer curves ANA the hull appears mteh
more N-shaped than II Is. The only way
these ideas can be corrected Is 20 descend
% the bottom Of the dfydock and see ne
real floor she possesses
And a. soon as this d viewed one dis.
eeFefs that those most Important unes