The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-06
DEFENDER AND VALKYRIE.
Interesting Comparisons of the Rival
Yachts.
From Harper's weekly.

From Harper's Weekly
Extreme as is the form of the new boat,
her construction is no less remarkable and
novel. Unlike Mr.. Watson. Mr.. HERES
hoff has pot been content with a presumed
improvement of design and a conventional
and tried construction, but has carried 20
an extreme a purely experimental con-
struction. Starting with a lead keel of
about eighty-five tOns,a piece of metal thir-
ty- five feet long. fve feet six inches deep,
and three feet through at the center. the
keel-plate is casting of brass in three
sections, bolted together by fianges, the
whole bolted with bronze lag screws to the
lead keel. The stem and stern posts are
also cast in brass and bolted TO the brass
keel-plate, while TO flanges on the upper
side of this plate are riveted the heels
of the frames and the floor plate, all of
steel. The outer plating is of manganese
bronze about tilree-sixteenths Of an inch
thick up TO little above the water line
the top sides being plated with aluminium
of one-qUarter 70 three-sixteenths of an
inch thick. With this all-metal construc-
tion some of the straps of the composite
method are dispensed with, but, like Val
kyrie III, the interior of the hull is
strengthened with diagonal and vertical
braces from deck to bilge in manner pre-
viously unknown in yacht building. An
alloy of aluminium, much stronger than
the pure metal. has been used within for
some of the deck beams and for various
straps and braces. and aluminium in one
form or another has been literally util-
lied. Should this construction prove am
ply strong, it will give great stability,
through a large percentage of ballast and
"A yer 1IITrr ar1fo .afr
The sail area of Defender is yet I'M
known; different sails and spars are ship
ped and tried from day to day, and only
her owner and designer know Just what
the measurement win probably be. TO
the eye she has little or no more sail than
Vigilant but it is disposed in different
manner, more after the Watson plan, the
mast well forward, a very large mainsan,
and comparatively small headsails. That
this disposition of sail Is very different
from that of Vigilant in 1898 is partly dis
guised by the fact that Vigilant has since
been altered, and presumably improved
by the shortening of her boWsprit and top
mast and her shipping of a longer main
boom. 1t now seems probable that even
with the announced Increase of sail on
Defender she will measure less than VAL
kyrie III.
Three weeks ago. on the day that De-
fender was launched, Valkyrie III sailed
her first race on the Clyde; on Saturday
last, while Defender was sailing her first
race of Sandy Hook, Valkyrie III was
about starting from the Clyde for New
York. The results of the four races sailed
by Nalkyrie III on the Clyde are, on the
whole, satisfactory to her friends. While
she showed a tenderness on one occasion
that has been severely commented on by
British writers, at the same time she was
sailed in very strong blow, with hard
northwest squalls off the high ground.
her sails and gear all stretching Imme-
diately aftervard some ten tons of lead
were shipped inside, apparently with only
good results in light weather. while the
stability. Taking the trials all through,
she has shown a great increase of speed
over Britannia and the newer and larger
Ailsa