Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-12

cannot afford to use her afterward, and
finds 1t expedient to keep her at anchor
through the greater part OF the season to
save coal bills and entertainment expenses
and the cost OF paying and feeding a full
cruising complement of crew.
What Baby"
Even a baby steam yacht costs the an
nual salary of the average clerk to put her
in commission. A vessel 100 feet long or
thereabouts costs about 81. 100 each season
before she is ready for her first cruise.
Docking, painting, gliding, vanishing, etc.
cost almost $780, even If the crew has been
kept busy at it by driving skipper so that
no outside work Is needed That means
about months work for the whole crew,
which would number about eleven or twelve
men on a yacht of this size. The crew
wages and board for that time cost 5000
more, or with rigid economy might be kept
down to $3.50 Working suits. everyday
suits and gala uniform for officers and crew
will cost from 800 to 5000 more, according
to the style that the owner may demand
on his packet Thus the cost may run far
over the estimate given, which Is a mini
mum.
If the steam yacht is only little bigger,
say $50 to leo feet long, the expense jumps
giddily. a Queen of Sheba of that size
demands from seventeen to twenty men In
her crew, and that extra length of half a
hundred feet eats and drinks up varnish,
paint and gold leaf with a Gargantuan
hunger A month and half Is needed to
get her ready to make her coming-out bow
to the ocean. During that period her crew
will cost, for wages and grub, close to
81 900. Docking, gold leaf, paint, varnish
and cementing Will cost nearly 5000 Uni
forms will cost the same at least.
Her owner is lucky dog If he escapes
with less than $500 hole in his bank
account, and his balance is altogether likely
to show diminution by $4,000
Cost of the "Big Ones"
Get your Queen of Sheba up to where she
Is really a queen-out of the class of the
little ones and in the class of the big
ones" and there isn't one man in a thou
sand In the whole country whose entire an
nual salary would suffice to put her in COM
mission. A steam yacht of 200 feet length
will cost 5000 before she makes a single
turn of her propeller.
The Queen of Sheba does not need to be a
steam yacht. sailing yacht of size and
fashion devours money almost as fast as
her engned sister in the course of dressing
for the
A 1o0-foot schooner, which carries crew
of from nine to eleven men, needs a month 8
toilet, and when 1t Is all done and the
cleaning beauty sits on the water at last,
ready to raise her snowy sails for the first
flight Of the year, she will have cost her
owner anywhere from 81, 200 to $1,000.
Even the modest seventy-foot sloop, hard
ly to be classed as a queen in these days of
respondent private shipping. will cost not
less than $500 to fit out under the most ia
vorable conditions, and IL the owner does
not look after most OF the work himself.
but has to depend on sailing masters and
contractors to rig her up. his bill may cas-
lily amount up to $3.50 before he knows 1t.
II she Is a racer, the bill Jumps like a
kangaroo. No racing sailor would dream of
letting his vessel wear suit of sails that
| does not fit her at least as well rs a dandy 8
clothes fit him, and crack racing yacht
| has canvas clothes that fit SO much better
| than the best clothes ever made for her
| owner by tailor that there is no COM
| parison.
Nor would any owner Of a real racing
yacht dream of using solid spars. They
| must be hollow. The standing rigging must
| be of silver steel wire set up by turn
buckles till Il is as taut as fiddlestrings.
Even the running rigging nowadays is
| la, yely made of flexible steel wire. nineteen
wires to strand, kept constantly coated
| with nnseed oil and pine tar. The bottoms
| OF many of the crack yachts are lacquered.
Whoever has tried to collect Japanese lac
| auered curious knows what that costs.
| &c. when the yachts go In commission.
| hands go deep into pockets ali over the
| United States on both the fresh and bitter
waters. and at the end Of the season many
| a man breathes hearty sigh Of relief when
| he sees his money-burner go back into the
haa ia vii