Yachting Volume I Part 15

Yachts racing at night must carry lights by Board of Trade rules (Rule 28).

When accidents occur, competing yachts must help to save life (Rule 29).

A skipper should also remember that, 'should a flagrant breach of the racing rules be proved' against him, 'he may be disqualified by the Council,' for any stated period, 'from sailing in any race held under the Y.R.A. rules' (Rule 32).

_Duties of the Official Measurer_

An official measurer should be prepared to measure a yacht promptly at short notice. Consequently no person should accept the post whose time is much engaged in other business or pursuits.

The measurement of a racing-yacht's _sails_ is left very much in the hands of the sailmakers. The only check usually applied is the measurement of the spars on which the sails are set. The secretary of the Y.R.A. is then able to check the accuracy of the sailmaker's measurements as recorded on a 'sailmaker's certificate,' which is guarded afterwards by the secretary, Y.R.A.

For instance, to check a cutter's mainsail, the boom and gaff are measured.

It would occupy too much s.p.a.ce to describe the whole of the sail measurements, which are detailed on six or seven pages of the Y.R.A.

book of rules--under Rule 3. Let it suffice to say that the actual area of each sail abaft a mast is found, and that the head-sail tax is obtained by the measurement of the fore-triangle; which will be done in 1894 as follows:--

'The perpendicular will be taken from the deck at the foreside of the mast to where the line of the luff of the foremost head-sail when extended cuts such perpendicular, and the base will be taken from foreside of mast to where the line of luff of foremost head-sail cuts the bowsprit, other spar, or hull' (General Meeting, Y.R.A., December 6, 1892).

The instructions to the measurer issued by direction of the Council on May 8, 1889, are, briefly, as follows:--

He must not measure a yacht in which he is interested as owner, designer, builder, or otherwise.

The taxable length must be obtained at slack water by measuring the L.O.A. on deck, and deducting the O.H. at stem and stern, found by hanging a lead-line from the bow and taffrail and measuring its distances from the outer edges of the owner's marks on the stem and stern. He must ascertain that the yacht is in correct racing trim, and the crew amidships (mid over-all length) when measuring these overhangs.

Sails, spinnaker gear, tackles, &c., may be put amidships at this time.

He should note and record the position of any movable ballast.

Each measurement should be taken twice, and recorded twice in the book, and a third time if there be material disagreement. The mean should be adopted. [This is wrong mathematically. The 'mean adopted'

should be that of the observations which agree, the one with a 'material disagreement' being cancelled.]

* * * * *

By a new rule pa.s.sed on December 6, 1892, 'owners are required to mark the rating length of their yachts at the bow and stern, which marks shall at all times be clear above the surface of the water when the yacht is lying in smooth water in her usual racing trim,' i.e. with crew amidships. See previous instructions.

The following matters connected with measurements are contained in Rule 3, and should be remembered:--

Notches cut away from the fair-line of the stem or stern post are not allowed for when the rating length is measured.

The segmental area bounded by the bent yard of a lug or other sail, and its chord, is included in the sail-area.

If the length of the spinnaker boom when shipped in its place square to the keel, and measured from its outer end to the fore-and-aft line of the mast, be greater than the base of the yacht's fore-triangle, it is subst.i.tuted therefor in calculating the taxed area of head-sails.

The perpendicular for same triangle has already been referred to.

* * * * *

A measurer should send his measurements to the secretary, Y.R.A., by the first post in order that the owner may receive his yacht's certificate of rating as soon as possible.

* * * * *

At present the regulations on measurements are divided, some being placed in Rule 3, and some in the printed instructions to measurers.

It would be far better to combine them into one appendix, which measurers, builders, designers, and owners alike could then refer to, and note precisely how matters should be arranged. Rule 3 should simply describe the rule for rating racing yachts and the Y.R.A.

certificate of rating.

The remarks on the Y.R.A. rules end here, but the writer has been requested to include in this chapter a short examination of the various Rating Rules of different nationalities.

PART II. THE RATING RULES

_Extract from Letter to the FIELD in 1892._--'With shame I confess that the problems and calculations, the combinations of straight and crooked lines, with large and small numerals and Latin and Greek letters, the mathematical contortions and algebraic hieroglyphics ... are meaningless to my uncultured eyes. They are fascinating; I admire their beauty, and can well understand that inventing rules for rating must be a most charming pursuit for intellectual yachtsmen....

'DUNRAVEN.'

An attempt will be made to treat the subject as simply as possible, so that anyone who knows a little arithmetic may follow it.

The following 'hieroglyphics' will be used:--

B. Beam D. Draught F. Freeboard G. Girth L. Length L.O.A. Length over all L.O.M. Length between official marks L.W.L. Length on W.L.

M. Area of immersed mid-section M.S. Mid section R. Rating, whether Y.R.A., or corrected length, or other S. Sail area T. Tonnage U.Y.F. Union des Yachts Francais W. Weight of yacht complete in English tons dead weight same as her displacement W.L. Water level Y.R.A. Yacht Racing a.s.sociation

If the subject of rating were treated historically, it would be necessary to begin with the old tonnage rules; but we live in the present, and the more important of the existing rules will therefore be examined first. The old tonnage rules will more conveniently be described at the end of the chapter, with existing tonnage rules.

England and America have used rating rules for some years, and France determined to do the same in October 1892.

The efficiency of a sailing yacht can be calculated very similarly to that of a steam yacht, the sails being the motor in one, the engines in the other. But we know that the efficiency of a steamer should vary directly as her indicated horse-power, and inversely as her displacement. The same idea should apply to sailing yachts. It is, in fact, almost impossible to rate a sailing yacht satisfactorily without taking into account both her sail-area and her displacement--or something very closely allied with the latter.

A length and sail-area rule proposed by Mr. Dixon Kemp in 1880 was adopted in 1883 for second-cla.s.s racing, and in 1886 this alternative rule was adopted as the sole rule. It is--

English R = L S 6,000 (I.)

This important step was taken after a careful and exhaustive inquiry conducted by a special committee appointed by the Council, Y.R.A., and presided over by Sir William Forwood. The committee took the evidence of our most noted yacht architects, and finally reported in favour of Rule (I), and of the present cla.s.sification (except 2-1/2 rating, which was afterwards added by the Council). The report met with general approval; the Y.R.A. put its seal upon it, and gave it a tenure of seven years; subject, however, to General Rule 12, by which any change at any time can be made by the requisite majorities.

The tonnage time scale in use before 1886 was altered to agree with the new rating, which cannot be said to represent anything but what it really is--viz. the product of a yacht's taxable length and her sail-area.

The cla.s.sification and the divisor do not alter the rule one iota.

They are purely arbitrary, as was very clearly stated in an excellent letter by Mr. G. B. Thompson, published in the 'Field' of December 17, 1892. He said very truly that the 5-rating cla.s.s is in reality the 30,000 cla.s.s, and the 10-rating cla.s.s is the 60,000 cla.s.s. If the divisor 6,000 be altered alone, the result is precisely the same as altering the rating itself in like ratio, and in the same direction.

Thus (R. divisor) and (L. S.) must each equal 120,000 in the 20-R.

cla.s.s, and must each equal 240,000 in the 40-R. cla.s.s, and so on. In short, the Y.R.A. rule may be regarded thuswise:--In each cla.s.s L.

S. = a constant, for boats at the top of the cla.s.s.

By a recent decision in general meeting, Y.R.A., December 6, 1892, L.

will in future be measured between the outer edges of the official marks, which must be affixed by the owner and always show clear above W.L. when a yacht lies in smooth water in racing trim.

L., therefore, is no longer L.W.L., but L.O.M. (length by owner's marks), rather longer than L.W.L.

By Rule 3, Y.R.A., in calculating a yacht's R., a fraction of or exceeding 0.01 counts as 1.0 in cla.s.ses exceeding 10 R.; but in cla.s.ses exceeding 1.0 R. and not exceeding 10 R., a fraction less than 0.1 counts as 0.1; and in cla.s.ses not exceeding 1.0 R. fractions from 0.01 to 0.99 inclusive count for their value.