The Saint Paul globe., 1905-04-23
Special to The Globe

Special to The Globe
nm EW YORK. April 22.-Yachtsmen are
lM still discussing the new universal
uV measurement rule which received a
pretty fair test last season. Last
year was the first year OF trials under
the rule and point that perhaps only
builders OF yachts will appreciate is that
~ required at least winter to digest and
thrash out results.
Speaking upon the subject Henry ]
Gielow. the designer who was influential
In securing the new rule. said in an in
terView this week: The rule is a speed
formula giving a well designed boat a
fair show no matter whether of hight or
| heavy displacement with probably
slight advantage In favor of boat Just
above medium displacement under aver
age conditions. Under the new rule the
rating OF the light displacement scow
type Will run so high that there viii be
little show for this type of craft.
There Is no doubt in my mind that
the new rule will favor a boat OF good
displacement, moderate length of ends
and sharper water lines. making it easy
In a seaway and free from the spanking
ana pounding of the latter boat under the
Ola rule. am not prepared to say that
the rule Will favor either keel or center
poard. but as far as my observations and
investigations have gone il Is nv belief
that wholesome fullbodied centerboard
| boat will have a good fighting chance
1t is not a question for speculation
out II Is matter OF fact that the old
rule. or number OF them. have brought
yacht racing. building and designing prac-
| build because the rules deVeloped bad
| types OF boats and in building TO the top
! or class under one rule they found them
| selves at the middle or bottom of a class
under some other rule. We have had the
/ laughable spectacle of seeing two boats
i on Long Island sound. one allowing the
other some four minutes OF time under
| one rule. and In the next race. under an
| other rule. the time allowance was re-
| yeIsed With uniform rule this will be
| different.
! s.DOubtIass vacbts,,,or NIL, ~, ,o,,o.,
! tive and VIII wait year to see what the
4 rule VIII develop before they will own
large racing yachts, but with the new
rule once adopted activity in the design
| ing and building OF the smaller classes
will certainly set In. A good exemplil-
cation OF this can be found in the Atlantic
/ and other clubs on Gravesend bay where
| eight class . boats are being built
from plans OF six different designers to to
test and try out the new rule. The racing
4 VIII be watched with keen interest and
( II the rule shows that good boats win,
| tably follow
| Yachtsmen generally say that the new
| rating system was intended to develop a
| more rational type OF n boat on the one
hand and 10 establish sufficiently min
| ute classification on the other so that the
| nuisance of time allowance could be
! largely eliminated. The new formula
\ provides a more equitable method OF
computing length and introduce displace-
| ment into the rating, so rs to encourage
| the building OF vessels on wholesome lines
| and penalize the undesirable scow type
| eXempliied In the last Americas cup de-
| fender, Reliance. Under the old system the
| load water line with the boat upright was
| taken as the length. and a type OF yacht
| was evolved, really inferior as sailer,
\ but able to beat better competitors be-
! cause Of it's ability to extend it's load wa
/ ter line when heeled over TO such an ex-
| tent that II actually raced q yacht OF
/ a much higher class than that In which
/ IL was rated. This was both bad design
| and poor sport, so that under the new
\ system ii was provided that length should
| be measured on a line parallel with the
| middle fore and aft plane at distance
from IL equal to a quarter of the greatest
| load water line beam and a tenth of this
i beam above the load water line
| Displacement was introduced into the
! formula to work in a similar way towards
Saner huh construction. Under the old
system there was no standard rating
! measurement but the leading formula was
| the square root OF the sail area plus the
/ load water line, the whole divided by
! two. The new formula for rate measure
ment Is che length multiplied by the
| square root Of the sail area, the whole d.
| vided by five and fiye-tenths times the
/ cube root Of the displacement
| The race of the Seawanhaka Yacht club
/ around Long Island July 10 is definitely
/ assured, but the event for auxiliaries Of
4 the New Rochelle Yacht club IS not set
| tied. The Seawanhaka race will be an In