The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-12-08
Talk of 75-Foot Boat to Sail
Against 00-Footer Seems
Rather Futile
RACES FOR AMERICA
CUP ILLUSTRATION
Tom Lawson's Frenzied FL
nance Campaign Dueto His
Treatment at Hands of
n. Y. Yacht Club
By Jay LEWIS.

| BY JAY LEWIS.
| Sir Thomas Upton. who has thrice
tried TO lift the American cup, Will
! try his hand at another yachting ad-
, venture. He expects to bring his
yacht, the Shamrock VI, to this coun-
| try, pass through the Panama canal,
/ and race the best boat built on the
Pacific coast in 1915.
! Already the San Francisco yachts
men have accepted his challenge. They
are talking OF building a seventy i've
/ foot sioop to meet the Shamrock, which
I does not seem reasonable, If the sham
/ fock is Il ninety footer, as reported.
The best seventy tive-fo oter ever
built could not hope to cope with a
ninety -footer, even with the liberal
| time allowance given the smaller ves-
sell This has been demonstrated in
/ the trial races for the America cup
defenders.
| The smaller sloops from the days
of the Volunteer, could not hold their
own with the big HerreshoT sioops,
with their hong overhangs. and
waterine of more than one hundred
| feet when heeled over. The first
HerreshoT sloops. Eigilant and CO.
| ionia, were not up 10 the last work or
| this great master in yacht designing,
the Reliance. Herreshoff improved on
| Burgess, initiated Watson, and then
( ~
| sgner named Crowinshield, before he
| evolved the Reliance.
Designer of Puritan.
Burgess was the greatest designer
| tts his day. He designed the Puritan.
which beat the Priscilla the best boat
turned out in New York, that season.
! The Priscilla, il memory does not play
| tricks, was an iron boat, designed by
A. Cary Smith, who has more recently
4 A aHa
| The Priscilla was beaten by the Bur-
CESS boat. the latter q beautiful CEN
terboard sloop, with plumb bow but
| q long fine stern. It was these finely
drawn after lines that made Burgess
/ famous.
The Puritan defeated the English
| challenger. Genesta, designed by j.
| Bevor Webb. Burgess then designed
the Mayfiower, the next cup defender
and although the Puritan was regard
ed as the better boat in a heavy breeze.
with housed topmast and reefed sails,
the Mayflower was the faster in the
| lighter airs. and got the chance to
defeat the Galatea. brought across
| from England by an English naval
/ lieutenant, named HEM.
The Galatea was also Beaver Webb
cutter. with a tremendous draft for
her length, and so narrow that il
seemed impossible for her to float or
carry sail. She was NOT regarded
as the best boat OF her type, for the
Irex. owned by Captain Jameson, an
! freshman, was said to be the fastest
cutter that ever sailed. But the su
pertority Of the centerboard sloop over
the gutter was demonstrated when the
Burgess sloops beat the English cut
tiers.
| Sioop Versus Cutter.
The sloops with their centerboards
/ down could thresh equally we'll 10
| winward with the sharpest cutter ever.
built and before the wind, with their
| centerboards up. they simply walk
| ed away from the deeper cutters that
| moved slugglshly in the lighter airs.
With the wind on their Quarter the
Burgess boats also showed their SUI
! periority and although the GeneSta
! gave the Puritan a great race in
/ half gale with a heavy sea the Amer
I lean boat won by something like @
! minute and thirty-eight seconds in
! thirtynlile race In a gossamer
/ breeze the sioop beat the cutter twelve
AID seventeen minutes over the same
| coUrsc off Sandy Hook.
| After the Mayfiower. Burgess de-
| signed the Volunteer, a handsome
sioca with a clipper box. The Volun-
! see- ~s-s the greatest of her class and
she gave the Thistle, the first Scotch
/ 5sstgrsG challenger three rare beat
! inxx. nnc=. ID the disgust of Captain
John Barr, elder brother of the ia
| faoas Charley Barr. who later COM
par6~: I'VE America cup defenders
| the Columbia and the Reliance.
Watson. Canny Designer.
| watson. who designed the Thistle.
| taught tho American designers
trick or two. He decided that low
| center of gravity, TO ensure the stabil-
| ity of a heavily spared craft, could
| best be obtained by placing the lead
| ballast on the outside. The cutters had
| been provided with an iron keel fast
ened to their hulls. but they We're
small affairs and not TO be classeo
! with the later Tin keels.
| Studying the American center
| board idea, Watson evolved the fin
keel In the second Valkyrie, built for
Lord Dunraven. he approached al
most perfection for all-around rae
ing yacht.
H. Meanwhile another American de-
/ signer had made his appearance.
| Captain Nat HerreshoT, who had de-
| signed some wonderful steam craft.
| including the stilletto, the original
! model for the American torpedo boat
| and torpedo boat destroyer. had been
! taking Lessons from Burgess
Herreshoff liked the fine lines and
| long overhang that Burgess put to the
! stern of his models. The Burgess
boats made little fuss and lefs The
water with the least possible wake, or
1 disturbance IN the rear, due 10 the
| long overhang and the finely drawn
/ lines.
Gets Long Ovcrhangs.
Herrcshoif decided that a boat with
long everhang, forward as we'll as
1 aft, would be an improvement and with
| this idea in mind he designed forty
| footer called the Cloriana, which was
almost, II not quite. seventy feet over
all
The Gloriana was the first racing
freak OF which the Reliance was the
| last word. Herreshoff had also pro-
fted by the experiments OF VIII Fife
and Watson as well as Burgess. He
had seen Flies little thirty-footer.
/, Minerva, como over here and clean
lup everything near her size on this
side of the Atlantic. He had seen