The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-10


to be the whole secret of the smartness
of American yachts in going to wind
ward, but it worked through a keel,
which was well loaded with outside
lead. The use of this made it possible
to lower the hilges a little and give the
vessel less beam on her length, Her
opponent. Genesta, represented the eX-
IRENE cutter type. She was eighty-one
feet long, fifteen feet beam and thir-
teen feet draft
Our sloop had borrowed some of the
best ideas of the cutter rig. She had a
long topmast and short lower mast.
These things are now common, but we
used to build with enormous hoist of
mainsail and a little topsail like a
pocket handkerchief. Puritan had also
the straight round bowshrit of the cut
ter, though it was not fitted to house.
She had also the runners and runner
pendants OF a cutter, but she retained
the boom lacing of the mainsail She
set her jib flying. a Ia cutter, but this
feature was not retained in subsequent
designs. The chief points of departure
from orr Old pernicious type were the
diminution of the beam, the lowering
of the draft and the use of outside bal
last. AS a standard OF measure by
which to judge the amount Of increase
of depth on the old type, it may be no.
ted that Crawling, an eighty five-foot
schooner, drew only five feet with her
board up. Puritan carried forty eight
tons of ballast. all told. and heT sail
area was 1882 square feet. Genesta
carried two tons oe inside and seventy
tons of outside ballast and sail area
Of 7,150 feet. 1t was generally conceded
that she was undersparred, but this
was a typical defect of the British cut
ter of her date. Some experts thought,
too, that she was overballasted Mr..
Burgess, in yachts and Yachting"
said: 1.-THE object in building Puritan
was not so much to get vessel that
would be particularly fast in light
weather as to produce a good all-round
yacht, and especially one that would
give a good account of herself in
breeze of wind-at any rate, boat that
would not disgrace herself in, heavy
weather"
Puritan justified the hopes of her de-
signer, who next turned his attention to
drawing the lines of a yacht to beat
Galatea in 1885. This cutter was more
formidable, at least on paper, than &C.
nesta She was 1925 feet over all. S6.S
feet on the water line, fifteen feet beam,
1875 feet draft, 157 SO tons displacement,
had sail area of 1855 square feet, and
carried eighty tons of ballast. May
flower, the yacht chosen to sail against
her, was one hundred feet over all, S5.7
feet on the water line, 1856 feet beam
on deck, 22.3 feet beam at the water
line, ten feet draft, had a displacement
of one hundred and twenty eight tons
and carried fifty tons of ballast inside
and out Her sail area is not given IN
Mr. Burgess records, but 1T was larger
than that of her opponent. In regard
to the new features in her design, Mr.
Burgess wrote: I'm order to make her
easier in a seaway her bilge was made
slightly easier. and the center of graVi-
ty lowered considerably Also This
lowering of the bilge and the weights
was only a continuation of the develop
ment begun in Puritan. 1t was the
second step in a long and interesting
march of progress away from our old
rtlptedly continued till limit was
reached and Mr. Herreshoff in Columbia
went back a pace, as we shall see. In
spite Of Galatea's formidable dimen-
sions Mayfower beat her much worse
than Puritan had beaten Genesta, and
Furthermore in the following season,
during which the British yacht re-
manned in our waters, Atlantic. which
had been built to compete for the honor
of defending the cup and had been con-
uuered by Mayhower In the trials, also
defeated Galatea decisively in several
regattas. In the cup series of 1886 the
fact that the British boat would not
point with ours was so apparent that
the centerboard received again the
credit for being a wonder worker. 1t is
to note that Mr.. Burgess
thought it was only a convenience,
handy for large boats because it could
he hauled up in shallow waters, but not
necessary for small craft at all In my
own opinion one of the chief causes of
the failure o. Genesta and Galatea to
point with our yachts was their baggy,
loose footed mainsails. Our British
cousins gave up these old favorites of
theirs after those two experiences, and
all their cup chalengers since then
have had their mainsails laced to the
booms.
Tn 1887 we had another tussle with a
this time canny Scot. The
cutter Thistle, designed by Watson to
for the cup, showed more radi-
cal departures from typical English de-
signs than any other vessel that had
ever visited American waters. which
was natural, as she was the first Brit
ish craft built for the cup races. She
was a giant in every way, built to car
ry sail and be driven. and TIE first re-
ports of her frightened us, She was
1OS.05 feet over all, S6.46 feet on the
water line, 2O03 feet beam, 1873 feet
draught, 1873 tons displacement, and car
ried sixty-two tons of ballast. The de-
crease in ballast was made possible by
the increase in beam. This increase
was doubtless the out come of an idea
that the initial stability of American
yachts added to their sailcarrying
power and enabled them to sail on their |
lines Thistle was spared much more
than her predecessors. Ge- |
nesta, for example, had a seventy-foot |
boom; Galatea's was seventy-three; but
Thistle's was eighty. Her under-b body |
revealed new ideas, too. She was the |
first of the cup yachts to show the cut
20, 1 dow hfN6x In y