Yachting Volume Ii Part 27

In Australia yachting has had, and in some places still has, a hard fight to a.s.sert itself against the exciting sport of horse-racing. The oldest yachting community is that stationed at Sydney, New South Wales, where the two leading clubs date back to the years 1863 and 1867, viz. the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, and the Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Yacht-racing, however, was carried on long before those years, and perhaps owing to the fine piece of water, some twelve square miles in area, enclosed within Port Jackson Heads, which lends itself to aquatic pursuits, yachting here has taken greater hold of the inhabitants than at any other place in the Southern Ocean. No finer boat sailers exist anywhere than at Sydney. There are a goodly number of yachts connected with the Port, and no money or care has been spared to keep the Sydney fleet up to date. Both Messrs. G. L.

Watson and W. Fife, jun., to say nothing of other well-known designers, have from time to time given a helping hand towards furthering this end. The cla.s.ses, however, which give the most sport, and which can draw together 5,000 or more onlookers during a racing day, are those that include the open boats. These are altogether a speciality of Sydney.

The limits of the three princ.i.p.al cla.s.ses are--for the

First Cla.s.s.--24 ft. length, with not less than 7 ft. beam, and 3 ft.

depth.

Second Cla.s.s.--19 ft. length, with not less than 6.5 ft. beam, and 30 in. depth.

Third Cla.s.s.--17 ft. length, with not less than 5 ft. beam, and 20 in.

depth.

These boats are all centreboarders. When in Australia the writer was shown the 'Victor' as the finest example at that time of the large cla.s.s. She was 34 ft. long, had 8 ft. beam, and a depth of 3 ft. A description of her was given in 'Hunt's Yachting Magazine' some years ago. She was built of colonial cedar, and of 1/2-in. planking. Her frames were of bent elm, the sternpost and knees of tea-tree, while her keel was of tallow-wood. Her draught aft was 21 in., and forward 2 in., with the crew of sixteen men on board. She carried a racing centreboard of 1/4-inch plating, 9 ft. long, and 6 ft. deep, with a double drop, allowing the plate when lowered to hang with its length horizontal to the keel. For ordinary occasions the racing centreboard was unshipped, and a smaller one subst.i.tuted in its place. No dead ballast is allowed in these boats, and two air-tight or cork cushions are carried under the thwarts, because no boat is permitted to start for a race unless she possesses sufficient buoyancy to keep afloat should she happen to turn turtle or capsize. The 'Victor' was fitted, like all the boats of her cla.s.s, with stringers running fore and aft, about two feet from the gunwale, which allowed the crew to sit double-banked, the outside contingent on the weather gunwale, with their feet under the stringer, the inside on the stringer itself. When shifting from the starboard to the port tack, or _vice versa_, both outside and inside men go over at the same time, the inside men becoming outside, and the outside of the previous tack becoming inside. The 'Mantura' and 'Craigielee' are also fine specimens of the 24-feet cla.s.s. Photographs of these two boats under way are hung in the billiard-room of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club House.

The wood these boats are planked with is fine, hard, durable stuff; and lends itself, when finished off, to the formation of a beautifully smooth surface, which readily takes a good polish. This colonial cedar is used for deck-fittings, &c., and takes the place of mahogany with us. New South Wales is certainly very bountiful to yacht-builders in its supply of timber for all purposes connected with their trade, though New Zealand has to supply the pine-wood for yachts' decks. For floors three native woods are employed--honeysuckle, white mahogany, and tea-tree--while iron bark, so well known for its value in the building of whalers, is excellent for knees and suchlike. All these woods offer strong, naturally grown shapes, and forks of the most acute angles. Spotted gum is generally employed for bent timbers; another wood is found in the tallow-tree, which is very suitable for keels, owing to its hard yet oily nature.

From its position the harbour suffers from uncertain winds, but should there be a clear sky and a hard north-easter there need be no fear that the racing will not prove of the very best. The regatta course forms an obtuse-angled triangle, and as a short stretch has to be taken across the mouth of the harbour, it not infrequently happens that a very uncomfortable sea has to be negotiated before the second buoy can be rounded for the run home.

Hobson's Bay is a much larger tract of water, being close upon ninety miles in circ.u.mference. It is not, however, navigable in all parts owing to extensive shoals. These, though very much in the way of navigation, help to form a kind of breakwater to the anchorages off Sandridge and Williamstown, which are open to southerly and south-westerly winds, and would accordingly, but for them, be often swept by very heavy seas. The princ.i.p.al yacht club is the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, established at Melbourne; but there are numerous small yacht and boat clubs scattered about the colony at various towns, such as Sandhurst, Bendigo and Ballarat, where there are lagoons or lakes varying in size from three to many miles in circ.u.mference. The Albert Park Yacht Club, at Melbourne, is a good type of one of these inland inst.i.tutions. The yachts or boats employed on the Albert and Ballarat lagoons range from 14 feet to 30 feet over all, They have great beam, and because the depth of water is as a rule shallow, have rarely over 4 feet to 5 feet draught. Good sport is obtained out of them, and races are continually taking place.

At Geelong, which is a fine natural harbour about forty miles from Melbourne, and off the open anchorages of St. Kilda and Brighton, yachts are moored during the season, and at these places are to be found any number of yachting enthusiasts.

The club course is a very good one for trying the respective merits of competing yachts, and many an exciting race has been sailed over it.

Intercolonial regattas have been held, which have proved great successes, and for these, owners of yachts of 40 tons and under think nothing of working their way from port to port over an expanse of a thousand miles or so of ocean. The yachts built in the colony are framed and planked with the wood of the red gum-tree, which is, in fact, the only wood the colony produces that is of any real value for the yacht-builder's use. It takes the place of larch or pitch-pine with us.

Both Adelaide, in South Australia, and Auckland, in New Zealand, possess yacht clubs, and are the homes of many keen lovers of yacht racing. The Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron, at the former place, has been in existence for almost a quarter of a century. The New Zealand yachtsmen can boast of possessing in their midst perhaps the finest woods in the world, and nothing can beat the kauri pine for decks, though in England and other countries it is generally known only for the excellent masts and spars that can be got out of it. A Scotch builder once reported that he found it very apt to twist and warp; but most likely the wood had been cut badly, for that is not the general opinion regarding it in the colonies, where it is almost invariably employed for decks. New Zealand, however, has been treated at length in the preceding chapter.

BOMBAY, ETC.

At Bombay, Malta and Hong Kong regular annual regattas are held, besides numerous matches and races during the yachting seasons.

British built or designed yachts, to say nothing of those produced by local talent, are to be met with in all three ports. At Malta and Bombay very flourishing Royal Yacht Clubs exist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lateen yachts, Bombay Club, 1887.]

The yachts at Malta are princ.i.p.ally cutter or Bermuda rigged vessels, and range from 20-tonners downward. The Royal Bombay Yacht Club possesses a house beautifully situated near the Apollo Bunda, or main pier, and the yacht anchorage is within hail of the club lawn. About two dozen or more yachts make use of it, among them being steamers and vessels of every method of fore-and-aft rig. Two or three are British built, and among these is the easily recognised little 3-tonner 'Senta,' so well known in Kingstown during the palmy racing days of the 3-tonner cla.s.s. One of the latest additions to the fleet is a small Clyde-built yacht something under 5 tons, with the fashionable fiddle-headed bow. This boat the writer saw under way. There were a number of dhows, large enough to carry three or four such yachts inboard, making up harbour with a fine sailing breeze just a point abaft the beam, which placed them on one of their best points of sailing. They appeared to be slipping through the smooth water at a high speed, leaving it as clean as if it had never been disturbed, and everything was in their favour for making a quick pa.s.sage. The little Clyde boat had been knocking about the harbour and was well astern of the dhows, when she was hove round and made to stand on after them.

Favoured with the same wind, gradually she began to draw up to them, and bit by bit overhauled and pa.s.sed each one, leaving them in a manner which made me doubt very much whether the rate of speed with which dhows are so often credited can really be so great. The dhow-rigged racing yachts make very good reckonings. They have considerable draught forward, with a small draught aft, and the foremast (the masts rake forward) has its step almost over where the largest body and the greatest draught happens to be. These yachts, like all vessels of a similar rig and build, are never tacked, but are always gybed, and naturally in a triangular course they lose much time when racing against cutters and schooners.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Royal Bombay Yacht Club.

1886. Sailing Course.]

The rules of the Yacht Racing a.s.sociation, with the measurements, regulations, and time allowances, have been adopted by most of, if not all, the clubs mentioned in the Australias and elsewhere, and nothing can equal the cordial reception accorded to all lovers of yachting who visit their colonial cousins. It is only to be desired that, as in rowing and cricket, so in yachting, a systematic and frequent interchange of friendly contests may soon be inaugurated between them and their mother-country which shall eventuate in a general enlightenment all round on things pertaining to yachting.

BERMUDA

BY R. T. PRITCHETT

The Bermudian's hobby is going to windward, and to be really happy he must have a semicircular fin or plate on his keel like that described by Lord Pembroke. Bermuda has a Royal Yacht Club which gives prizes and holds regattas at Hamilton. There is also a Dinghy Club, of which the Princess Louise is Lady Patroness. Lord and Lady Bra.s.sey each presented a Challenge Cup when they visited Hamilton in 1883 in the 'Sunbeam.' One cla.s.s here deserves special notice.

'Fitted Races' are the chief joy of the true Bermudian. The owner apparently gives up his boat to the fiendish devices of his 'pilot,'

as the n.i.g.g.e.r boatman is called, who gets the biggest mast, spars and sails he can find, often a 50-foot mast in a 25-foot boat, and a 35- or 40-foot boom topping up with a huge square-sail as big as a ship's maintop-gallant-sail. He then collects all the other n.i.g.g.e.rs he can find, dresses them in striped jerseys and caps, puts them up to windward, over a ton and a half of shifting ballast, serves out a lot of rum all round, and off they go, generally with the head of the mainsail lashed (no halliard) to the masthead, so that she must carry her whole sail all through the race or swamp. The present writer's experience is confined to many good dustings in that admirable craft the 'Diamond,' with her very able skipper Burgess, coloured gentleman (_bien culotte_), both of which were lent to Lady Bra.s.sey by Admiral Sir Edmund Commerell. She was built of cedar, and her lines and midship section are given in Dixon Kemp's 'Boat-sailing.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fitted races at Bermuda, 1863.]

_Dimensions of average Bermudian boat of 5 tons_

Length 25 ft.

Mast 44 ft.

Boom 33 ft.

Bowsprit 19 ft.

Spinnaker boom 25 ft.

General rule, greatest girth + length = height of mast and hoist.

Mr. Charles Ricardo, Secretary of Upper Thames Sailing Club, who sailed with the owner of the 'Cara,' a 28-foot boarder, kindly furnishes the following description of a Fitted Race.

The morning of the race it blew hard, and we sailed out to the leeward mark-boat half under water, the 'Cara' having only about 14 in.

freeboard, and on board there were six hands, a big spinnaker boom, and some two dozen so-called sandbags for shifting. These had been apparently filled with mud, not sand, and as they rapidly got soaked, we looked more like navvies fresh from a clay-pit than boat sailers.

There are many gradations of dirt and various degrees of saturation from salt water, but this combination is unapproachable. We caught a line from the mark-boat and shifted jib, owner going out on the bowsprit for this function, and getting a couple of green seas well in the small of his back--it didn't matter. We were well soaked already, so more or less was quite immaterial to us. We were hanging on to the stake-boat some time, waiting for the other craft to arrive, with nothing particular to do but bale out and try to dodge the things kicking about in the bottom of the boat. I had no shoes on, and there was one baler. I thought I had put it into a locker three times, and was watching the wretched thing edge out again and prepare to fall on my toes, sharp edge down of course, when the owner sung out l.u.s.tily, 'Boat bearing down to hang on!' She was a regular Bermudian with 'fitted' gear, enormous spars, and her big sail up, a crew of coloured gentlemen crowded up to windward, and foaming through it like a tugboat after a homeward-bounder. She had to gybe under our stern and run lip alongside the mark-boat, and--Swish, over came the boom again; swish, went the end of it into the water. She heeled over tremendously, and did not seem to right, as she ought to have done. We guessed at once what had happened: her ballast was to leeward--those mud bags--it had not been shifted in time as she came round, and of course kept her on her beam ends; she gradually settled down and sank in about four minutes. The water was full of yelling n.i.g.g.e.rs, who mostly swam for us; there seemed to be some hundred of them--anyway they yelled like it. They nearly swamped us scrambling in; finally we got rid of them on to the mark-boat, and very glad we were, as a few dozen damp n.i.g.g.e.rs all asking at the same time for drinks are not much fun in a small boat with a bit of a sea on. At the time it was not enjoyable; still it is an episode in yachting experiences which grows more pleasant to refer to as it looms astern and becomes ancient history. When one starts for a day's sport, it is weak to allow a trifling incident like this to mar the even tenor of its way, and at Bermuda one dries so soon.

A great deal of dinghy racing is done at St. George's, and it will be well to notice here the peculiarity of these boats and their gear. The normal dimensions of the dinghy are as follows:--

Length 14 ft.

Beam 4 ft. 6 in.

Draught 2 ft.

Mast 25 ft. to 30 ft.

Boom 25 ft.

Bowsprit 15 ft.

Dinghies are fearfully and wonderfully made things, with their plate on as in the big boats, the sails lashed up and set in. Five lunatics come next in the prescription; these embark very gingerly indeed--quite a bit of fancy work--while some one holds on to the mast from the top of the wharf to prevent accident, and when they think they are ready and balanced they are shoved off. Directly she feels the wind over she goes, and four hands stretch out to windward as far as possible, the fifth being busy baling, which is a most important feature of dinghy sailing. A very exciting amus.e.m.e.nt it is. As long as the boats can be kept right side up they do go a tremendous pace.

Waiting about before the race and gybing are the most exciting and dangerous times, as three dinghies have been known to capsize in one race before starting. Bathing costume is considered the correct thing, and is well adapted to the climate; it is also desirable in this sport to be able to swim, as there is no room in the boats for such superfluities as life-belts. The 'Diamond' was a very fine boat, and splendid in a wind; as the mainsail represents the usual mainsail and jackyarder all in one, the whole sail-area forms the desirable equilateral triangle a little aft to send her up to the wind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bermuda rig.]

The fitting of the boom is different from any other rig, as it pa.s.ses on one side beyond the mast; a tail block hauls the boom right aft, and counteracted by the mainsheet gives a very flat sail indeed; great results are obtained, all the advantages of a standing lug on a large scale being secured, while the tension can be increased and the canvas made flatter. s.p.a.ce cannot be afforded for her lines, midship section and sail-plan, good as they are, still 'Diamond' is decidedly a good cedar-built representative craft:--

Length on water-line 34 ft.

Beam 11 ft. 2.5 in.

Draught 6 ft. 6 in.

The extravagances of Bermudian water frolics have been given here as very extreme instances of yachting enjoyments; still Bermuda is a splendid place for sailing. You can leave the island on a Friday for New York, arriving on Monday; leave New York on Tuesday, and in a week more be back in the old country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dutch ice boat of present time.]