The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-08-08
YACHTS AND YACHTING.
THE COST OF DEFENDING THE CUP.

THE COST OF DEFENDING THE CUP.
The exact sum of money paid for the
Columbia, in 1899, is not known, but
the sum has been estimated at not less
than S150,000. Without doubt it cost
over $4,000 to carry her through the
season; probably the sum was much
greater than this. In the first part of
the season her owners paid SIG, 600 for
three suits of sails. And then there
was the Defender, which acted as trial
horse to the Columbia. 1t cost lust
$500 for her to be trial horse, but it
was paid without groan. And now
for the present season.
1t will have been noticed that the
construction of each cup defender has
cost infinitely more:than its predecessor.
The fact is, the Herreshoffs have charg-
ed several thousands of dollars for each
minute of extra speed Following those
deductions the Constitution has I'M
questionably cost not a cent less than
$500, 200 to build. She has large tend
er, the steamboat Mount Hope, and a
crew of 6S men. She has three or four
suits of sails, extra spars and the like,
and she will go into drydock before the
cup races. Outside of the $500, 900
spent on her construction she will prob
ably cost the Belmont syndicate about
$4,000. Then there is the cost of her
trial horse, the Columbia. She will
carry crew of forty men, each of whom
will receive $35 month in wages.
That makes 81, 200 month; 81, 900 for
the five months she will be in commits
sion. The wages of Captain Barr and
the first and second mates will aggre-
gate for those five months, $4,000; and
| for the men have already resulted in an
expenditure of $1,000, and there is the
cost of feeding them to be considered.
Spars and overhauling and other partic-
ulars will easily cost another s25. 900.
| 1t will thus be seen that, all in all. $780,
600 is conservative estimate of the
cost of defending the cup this year.
Another instance of the rapid passing
of a racing yachts usefulness is that Of
the grand old Defender, the 1895 cup
racer. 1t cost fully over 100000 to
build her-not to run her; just to put
her atloat ready for racing. Those who
designed the yacht thought that a
bronze hull with aluminium topsides
would slide through the water with
greater celebrity than any other combi-
nation of metals that could be devised
for hull. They SO informed the syn
dictate that ordered her. But they adj
ded, aluminium and bronze make poor
combination, and in course of time the
aluminium will rot where it joins the
bronze, and the Defender will be use
less. But what mattered that? She
was to be built to defend the cup; after
she had defended it she might rot or
not as she pleased.
THE EXPENSE OF YACHTING.
Take the yachts that we often hear
OF. In all OF them you will find a con-
siderable discrepancy in the rock-bot-
tom running expenses and the money
that is really spent on them. Consider
the entertainment of guests, the Salar-
les of captains and officers and crews,
sustenance, spars, sails, rigging and
other gear; stewards and engineers
expenses, and the like. No little sum
is involved. 1t will be matter of sur
prise, perhaps, when we say that Col.
o. II. Payne's 650-ton steam yacht,
Aphrodite, burns forty-fve tons of Goa!
a day, when she steams at fair rate of
speed. Coal now costs about 81 ton.
Forty-fve tons day-S1S0. That is
not so bad for starter, but wait. The
Aphrodlte carries a company of sixty
men: captain, first and second mates,
carpenters, chief steward, two assistant
stewards, two bedroom stewards, one
pantryman, chief cook, three assistant
cooks, chief engineer three assistant
engineers, three oilers, fifteen firemen
and nineteen men before the mast.
A captain of yacht like the Aphro-
dite receives about 5000 month; the
mates, between S75 and 500. Her sea-
men receive $50 month, and so do the
tiremen and oilers. The chief cook is
paid at least $50 and his three assist
ants, $50, while the head steward, whose
duty it is to look after the quantity and
quality of the supplies, to attend to
guests and to see that everything runs
smoothly, is cheap at 800 or 1925 each
month. tcosts about fifty cents day,
on an average, to feed each of the sixty
men on the Aphrodite. Then take the
cost of engineers and mates stores, the
maintenance of the cabin and wine
lockers, the various entertainments, and
you will find that it costs not less than
$4,000 month to run her; say $500 a
year. Such figure was cited by a
person who is in position to know :
Lawrence Perry, in Frank Leslie's
Popular Monthly for August.