The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-07-04
YACHT FIGURES
HARD TO FIND
TASK OF DETERMINING HAND
CAP ALLOWANCE CALLS FOR
ExAcTING SURVEY OF DIS
PLACEMENT.

New York, July 3.-Just prior to the
starting of the first race for the Amer
ica's cup this month off Sandy Hook,
Shamrock ", the challenger and the
American defender of the historic
trophy will be towed to South
Brooklyn shipyard for official meas
urement. This is a very important
feature of the big contest and one
that is going to create considerable
trouble. Upon the outcome of the
measurement, will depend the time al
lowance that will exist between the
craft. No one knows what this al
lowance is going to be, although all
who are familiar with the situation
state, that the challenger will have to
give time to the defender.
1t is going to be an exceedingly
difficult task to measure the cups
yachts. For the first time, the big
race will be sailed under the uni
versal rule of measurement. The rule
reads, as follows
Yachts shall be rated for classlfl-
cation and time allowance according
to the following formula: Is per cent
of the product of length, multiplied by
the square root of sail area, divided
by cube root of displacement"
This is an exceptionally complicated
rule and one that only yacht design
ers understand. For the past 80 years
in all of Americas cup races the
measurement of boat for time al
lowance- has been one-half of the sum
of the load water line length and the
square root of sail area.
In 1908 and previous years Messrs.
Mower and Hyslop simply measured
the deck length of a boat, dropped a
plumb bob from each end into the
water, floated a batten in under the
bow and under the stern, measured
on the batten the distance from the
plumb line to the end of the water
line, forward and aft, and subtracted
the sum of these two measurements
from the deck length. That gave
them the load water-line length. The
sail area was measured according to
arbitrary methods, but it was as
sumed to be and very nearly was
the measurement of the area of the
sails. To determine the square root
of this area was a simple matter and
one sum in addition and one in di-
vision determined the rating of the
boat.
This was the formula even in 1908
although the mea surements of boats
for other races of the New York, Yacht
Club of that year were made under
rule very similar to the one now
in force, but this cup having been
adopted early in 1903, and the chal-
lenge for the cup races of 1903 having
been accepted in the fall of 1902, the
old rule of measurement prevailed in
the last cup race.
This year however, the measuring
of the yachts will be more compIi-
Gated involving a lot of calculation.
The load water line will be measured
as heretofore and then the quarter
beam length will be ascertained This
dimension is used as a corrective of
the load-water line and it must not
without penalty be more than a GER
tain percentage of the load-water line
length, for a boat of rs feet water
line, the dimension fixed by the chal-
lenger, this percentage will be slightly
over 81 per cent. Should it exceed
this percentage one-half of the ex-
cess will be added to the load water
line length, in order to constitute the
length factor in the calculation for
rating.
In addition there will be various
tests to ascertain whether the build
ers have made any concave curves
or notches in the lines of the hull
for if so certain penalties are pro-
vided.
While quite different from that of
years ago the method of measuring
the sail area is really a method of
ascertaining practically the area of the
sails. These two measurements. the
length factor and the sail area fac
tor may of course be taken while the
boat is in the water. The really new
feature OF the measurement of the
cup yachts, however, will be the meas
urements taken to determine the spac-
ing. The rule governing this reads: 2
displacement to be obtained by