The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-09
new LINES ADOPTED
FOR THIS YEARS
DEFENDER
Boat to Defend Americas
Cup Against Lipton's Last
Shamrock Will Be of a
Radically Different Type
From Columbia and Con-
stitution.

John r. Spears, the yachting expert
of the New York World, writing on
the new cup defender, has this to say:
The following facts regarding the
new defender of the Americas cup in
the international races to be held off
Sandy Hook in August of this year
with Sir Thomas Lipton's latest chal-
lenger, Shamrock Ill, have been OBJ
tanned from the Herreshoff ship yard
at Bristol r. l., where the defender
is now building and where the splendid
list of defenders from Vigilant to Con-
stitution were launched from the ways.
The source | know to be fully trust
worthy, and what is still more impor-
tant, the facts as given will be found
to bear the impress of truth on the
face of them. For they show very
clearly that the new boat is 1egiti-
mate development of the previous mod
els designed by Capt. Nat Herreshoff
and if one may judge from a bare
statement of dimensions, they indicate
a boat that will show a decided in
crease of speed over anything yet built
or designed for use in yachting wealth
er.
We learn first of all that the new
boat has eighty-two frames and that
they are spaced twenty inches apart
from center to center. On the sup
position that the stem will be found
twenty inches beyond the first frame
and the taffrail twenty inches abafc
the last one, the new boat will be 1873
feet 4 inches long over all. Now, al
though no such authoritative state
ments as this have ever come from
within the Herreshof yard either in
regard to the Constitution or Columbia
there are excellent reasons for believ-
ing that the two old boats that COM
peted for the hOnors two years ago
were near 1872 feet long. We know
in fact that each had seventy-s seven
frames and that the frames were spac-
ed twenty inches apart from center
to center. Calculating asm above, this
would make the racers just 131 feet
s inches long over all. We are there
fore assured that the new boat is at
least six feet longer over all than the
old ones were, and she may be seven
feet longer.
This means, first, that the new boat
will have longer lines under water as
she heels to the wind, and it means,
too, that as she heels there will be
more ship, so to speak, to resist the
pressure of the wind. Thus. the new
defender, when upright, will have a
racing length of not more than ninety
feet on the water, but when the wind
lays her over and brings her over
hangs into the water, her Wetted
length may increase to 120 and pos
sibly to 125 feet. The wetted length
will increase rapidly with every de-
gree added to the angle of inclination
and the increase of six feet in over
all length means a considerable in
crease of ability to carry larger
spread of canvas. 1t also means a
considerable increase in her ability to
resist the tendency to make leeway.
Wider Than Constitution or Columbia
The next statement of dimensions
is that the new defender is Is feet
6 inches broad over all. The Consti-
tuition is % feet 2 1-2 inches broad
and the new boat is therefore IL
inches wider than the old. The Co.
lumbia was but 24.17 feet wide, and
more than a foot and a third wider
than Columbia.
How this increase of width affects
the new boat will be readily under
stood by the landsman if he will re-
member that an increase of width in
ship is like an increase in the width
of the base of a pyramid. 1t is harder
to turn over the wider ship. She will
carry more sail than the narrower
ship and more sail means more power
to drive the hull through the water.
In fact, it is fair to presume that
the increased length over all and the
increased beam may enable the new
boat To carry more than $4,000 feet OF
canvas in her plain-sail dress, as it
has hitherto been rumored that she
would do.
However, length over all and in
creased beam might not in themselves
alone give a ship improved speed. In
fact, one of the ValkyrIes was 26 feet
wide, and yet she was badly beater
al
bulky, or what some foolish Searchers
for the impossible in models would cal
wholesome" Indeed, every one of the
British challengers has been too bulky
under water; that is to say, the dis
placement or weight of the ship wa!
too great for the area of canvas tina
she could spread.
1t is in this matter of displacement
in the shape and area of the under.
water body of the new ship that sh'
is most interesting. We are told tina
in the new, boat the crew will have
to walk on their hands and knees
when they go into the hold. For while
the depth from the top of the crown
of the deck frames to the top of thu
lead is il feet 5 "A inches at the poin
of greatest depth, so much of tina
distance is occupied by the fin kee
above the lead, and by the web of tn,
frames above the fin, that the tween
decks space is too low for man t.
stand erect In.
This is g. most important departure
The new ship will draw net far from
the same amount of water that tn,
older boats did (the exact draft 1 dir
not learn), and yet the floor Of tn,
hull has been drawn up, so to speak
the depth from the crown of thu up
per deck to the deck below Is two fee
less than that If either Of the oIde
boats. AS en- Cl@ salt would say, tn
dead-rlse Of the new boat is two fee
less than that CT either CT the old ones
and that Is t. say that the real hui
of the boat-the hull exclusive IF tn,
fin keel-is net sc. deem by two feet
If the new hull were cut eff by
horizontal plane at the hilge, the par
below the plane could oe fitted ipsfd
of the frames of the Columbia. S,
says our authority in explaining thi
difference i'll the models.
Let the Old time designers Of tn
Swimming dish, of whom Gait Phi
Ellsworth was a leader, be new he'll,
In honor, for nc model by which the,
sWore was ever such q Swimming disl
as this. For many years we have beer
told of the virtues OF the British "cut
ter" model-the knife blade model
and Of the evils OF the Swimming dis]
model evolved by the Yankee "iaclx
knife designers" but the most advanc
ed and scientific modelsr of the az
comes forth and says that the onl,
trouble with the jackknife men wa
that they didn't make their model
Swimming enough. An old-ti
rhymster, in the days of the Galate,
cutter, once sang, we may now say: