The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-06-21
SPOON BOWS.

1t Is Wlth pleasure says the Anne rlcan
Shlpbullder, that We publish the follow
ing letter from Chas. g. Davis, late of
The Rudderand now connected with the
yacht building firm of {. q. HaWley &
Co. of Quincy, Mass. There never
was Il bow fashioned by shipwrights.
from the time of the carracks with
their ungainly fighting bows to the
present age of overhangs, that so APP
pealed to the imagination as the famous
clipper bow. AS combination of use
fumess and decorative finish to a ship
or yacht it is hard to beat So far as
ships are concerned. and vessels that
are supposed to 90 to sea and ride
through amy and all kinds of weather,
doubt very much if a bow such as the
famous California clippers have used
for century or so can be improved on
by amy radical change. But for speed.
and for use on yachts that do not carry
some call it the spoon bow, " is decided
ly better. Take such boat as the
shallow Sloop yacht Genesee that won
the Canada's cup last August-you can
drive such boat with a free wind
through anything and she will run
ahead and over the seas with dry decks,
while the deep boat with a clipper bow
has to take in sail to prevent driving
her nose clean under water | have
rounded Cape Horn as a "homeward-
bounder' on a cipper-built bark of L.
600 tons, running II knots an hour under
topSallS with water pouring in water
falls Off the forecastle head and flowing
att along the decks knee deep, and in
strong contrast to this experience | ran
the spoon-bowed sloop Dragon of five
tons from Beaufort, n. c.. to Savannah,
Ga, under two reefed mainsail and lib
down the coast on the tail of three
days ''north-eaSter," and though she
put her bowsprit into the sea ahead up
to third jlb hanks, the seas were so
steep, she never even wet her decks
forward, yet the tatfrail log showed she
was making nine and one-half knots an
hour. That experience cemented my
friendship for the spoon bow. Had she
been clipper or plumb bowed craft we
would have had to heave herto. With
beam wind the spoon bow and over
hang att give such a long bearing to
hold up the pressure ON the sails, and
at the same time such an easy line for
the water to flow around, that they
reach extremely fast. And now, having
claimed superiority for the spoon bow
in reaching and running, you will natur-
ally suppose | am about to make ex-
cuses and apologies for the windward
going qualities of the spoon bow. Well,
L am gong to do no such thing. When
the GeneSee demonstrated her ability
to beat the keel boat Beaver with the
wind free the Canadians all backed her
for the windward work Beaver was
certainly slippery boat on this point
OF sailing, yet when it came to the test
the GeneSee beat her just as badly as on
the other points of sailing, and thou
sands changed hands on the result But
you must not think it is the spoon bow
alone that is responsible for all this
speed, it merely helps out a good boat
by giving her greater buoyancy in her
topsldes when big comber threatens
to swamp her and causes her to recover
and lift her hull up out of the smother"
1t gives bow lines that run up like
an old time skate and causes her to
lift up and run over any seas she may
strike and not cut deep into them. 1t
gives more deck room on the same
waterline length and makes an easier
boat to plank, the planks running in a
fair true sweep and not an unnatural
forcing into the hollow lines of the old
type of yacht. The spoon bow in the
East has completely revolutionized the
type Of yacht and yachtsman would
no more think of building hollow
bowed boat than he world think of put
ting square sails on a racing sloop."