55

THE EVOLUTION OF THE FORTY-SIX-FOOTER.

BY GEORGE A. STEWART.

EVERY yachting novice knows whata revolution has been wrought inthe science of yacht-designing dur-ing the past ten years, a devel-

opment of which the Puritan was theleading exponent; how the battles ofbeam combined with small displacementagainst depth with low and heavy leadkeels, and the fight of “sloop” versus“cutter,” have been waged, and how the“compromise” boats have been evolved,both in America and in England. ThePuritan-Genesta, Mayflower-Galatea and

Volunteer-Thistle campaignshave been wonderful edu-cators in the science ofthe sea, and they havegone far to solve many

vexing questions of na-val architecture.

With the attentionof the yachting world

riveted on the great-er actions of this

period, it is notsurprising that

t h e m i n o rpanorama

should

The most conspicuous of the resultsof the Puritan era are the 46-footers, andduring the past Summer these famouscraft have received an amount of at-tention which is second only to thatgiven to the national champions them-selves, Yet the origin of the class is avery modest one, its growth dating backto the international year of 1887. Inthat year the Adams Brothers, Messrs.George C. and Charles F. Adams, 2d.commissioned Designer Burgess to fur-nish them with a 36-foot water-line keelsloop. She was to fit no particular rac-ing class, and, indeed, was designedchiefly as a cruising yacht; and that sizewas chosen as it appeared to be thesmallest in which a stateroom couldcomfortably be bui l t and ordinarycruising comforts obtained.

Though such was the modest ori-gin of the Papoose, as the new yachtwas called, her construction attracted

no little attention among yachtsmen.Though the “cutter cranks” had

been temporarily silenced bythe success. of the center-

board compromises, Puri-tan and Mayflower

have passed comparatively unnoticed.Yet the events and competitions whichhave led up directly to the Glorianaand her swift sisters are no less inter-esting than the international compe-titions which overshadow them, andthe results are fully as instructive tothe student of naval science. In fact,the value of big international compe-titions lies not so much in the racesthemselves as in the stimulus whichthey give to yachting in general, fos-tering a wholesome growth among thecraft of all classes and sizes.

shadow.—the property of dr. john bryant.

against the “out-and-outer” Genestaand Galatea, theywere by no meansc o n v i n c e d . Thestate of public opin-ion at that time wasstill chaotic and notunmixed with pre-judice. The victoryof the Puritan had

56 OUTING FOR APRIL.

Centerboarder Vixen had “tanned”the cutter Maggie unmercifully in two

races at Marhlehead. Thetis and

done much to appease nationalpride and to soften the nationalheart toward foreign ideas.B u t w h e t h e r t h e 3-beamPapoose should be classedas a cutter, or as an Am-erican keel sloop, was avexed question, and thequestion whether somuch beam cou ldbe successfully com-bined with a 10-tonlead keel was alsovigorously dis-cussed.

Up to thist i m e t h e

Stranger had had their fling, andwhile the cutter won the se-

ries, the Thetis rested proud-ly on her record of having

“drowned out” the cutterin a beat around Cape

Cod on a wicked night.A subject, there-

fore, of a good dealof speculation, Pa-poose, was launched

in the Spring of1887. She hada beam of 12ft. on a water-question of

papoose.—formerly owned by geo. c. and chas. f. adams, 2d, now by john t. mott.

type among the smaller classes of yachtshad, in the bouts between “cutters” and“sloops,” resulted more or less in a“stand-off.” Before the year 1880 hon-ors in New York waters had been borneoff by the wide, shoal type of cen-terboarders, Wave and Schemer being

In Eastern waters the centerboarderperhaps the two most widely known.

Shadow, had enjoyed practically a mo-nopoly of the racing honors since herbuilding in 1871.

The arrival of the Scotch 6-beamerMadge in 1881 shook the complacentconfidence of the Yankee in his widesloop. The Madge carried everythingbefore her till she met the Shadow,which yacht succeeded in fighting theforeigner to a draw, each yacht winningone of two races. The series, however,resulted in a practical victory for thecenterboarder, as its conclusion foundthe Shadow’s owners eager for a thirdrace, while canny Captain Duncan pre-ferred to rest on the laurels already wonrather than risk them in a decisive boutwith this tough customer from the East.

line length of 36 ft., and drew 7 ft. 6in. of water. What a remarkably suc-cessful production she was for an ex-perimental boat is shown by her sub-sequen t r a c ing w i th the 40-footers.Probably no American craft has showna better distribution of displacementthan the Papoose, combined with fairlines, as her disturbance of the water,when driven at high speeds, is remark-ably small, and under such conditionsher absolute speed was barely inferior tothat of the 40-footers, in spite of hermore than three feet of inferiority inlength.

The first public trial of Papoose wasmade in the open regatta of the Dor-chester Yacht Club, at Nahant, June 17,1887. The début was made all the moreinterest ing by the presence o f t h eShadow, and of the Watson 6-beam cut-ter Shona. The Shona had beaten theShadow once the preceding Fall in alight air with rolling sea—true “cutter”weather. Consequently there was con-siderable rivalry between the center-board sloop and the cutter, while the

THE EVOLUTION OF THE FORTY-SIX-FOOTER. 57

presence of Papoose made a triangularcontest of rare interest at that time.

It was a light southeasterly breeze,and the Papoose did not get a quick start,on account of the big fleet crossing theline. Skipper Adams gave her a goodhead, however, and she slipped throughthe lee of her rivals amazingly fast.Soon she had head-reached them all,Shadow included, and showed to thefront of the fleet. Then she began toshow what she could do in the pointingline. When she took starboard tacksfor the Whistling buoy off the Graves,she had gained such a commanding leadthat the others were out of i t . Shekept on gaining before the wind, andespecially on a reach, and the breezeincreasing on the second round of thecourse served but to emphasize hersuperiority. The Shadow defeated all

the remaining competitors with her old-time ease, the Shona doing very badlypartly owing to a new and ill-fitting suitof canvas. This made the Papoose’s vic-tory all the more noteworthy.

At this distance of time it is possibleto look back and discount some of thePapoose’s victory, as she was two feetlonger than the Shadow and a consider-ably more powerful boat. But in thosedays the Shadow was considered well-nigh invincible by anything under 40-feet water-line, so that the Papoose’svictory gave her great prest ige. Itcertainly was a most creditable perform-ance, and showed that a new type hadbeen found that was far and away fasterthan anything that had gone before.

The success of the Papoose, like thatof the Puritan, went far to put an endto the sloop-cutter controversy. It was

chiquita.—the property of augustus hemenway.

5 8 O U T I N G F O R A P R I L .

apparent that the 6-beam cutter couldnot stand before the new “compromise,”while i t was equal ly plain that the“skimming-dish” centerboarder wasdoomed. Papoose continued to win allthrough this year, usually having abouthalf an hour to spare over her nearestcompetitor. This of course establishedher as a very fast craft, and made hersthe type which should be imitated infuture productions. From Papoose, in adirect line through the 40-footers, canbe traced the improvements which havegiven us the wonderful 46-footers of lastyear. The sequence is direct, and amost interesting one. The speed, com-bined with cruising comfort, that thePapoose possessed attracted owners tothe sport, and the next year saw half adozen 40-footers in the lists.

Papoose had held the honors in 1887,but the record in 1888 was pretty welldistributed through the fleet. At theclose of the season perhaps the Chiquitamight be selected as a shade the fastest40, though the margin from first to lastwas very small.

About the same time with Papoose theBanshee, a centerboard 40-footer, wasdesigned by Cary Smith. Like Papoose,Banshee was intended for a cruiser. butshowed good speed, and a number ofraces were sailed between the two craftin New York waters. The keel boatwon most of the races, part of the timebeing helped out by the never-failing“Papoose luck.”

The racing between Papoose and Ban-shee, and the fact that these boats com-bined advantages never before reachedin American designing, led naturally tothe building up of a 40-foot class in1888. For the first time absolutelynon-capsizable boats were possible forAmericans if they chose the keel type,while practical non-capsizability wasattainable if they should prefer thecenterboard. The new style craft dif-fered from the old in that they weremuch better sea-boats, were built andrigged much more strongly and con-tamed accommodations that were a vastimprovement on anything that had pre-ceded them.

The international racing, culminatingin the victory of the Volunteer over theThistle, spurred up great interest in thesport, and attracted new converts. Aswas natural, Designer Burgess had themost of the designing to do at this time,

and the new craft were all from hisdraughting board. The year 1888 sawthe production of the centerboard fortiesNymph and Chiquita, and the keel boatsBabboon and Xara. These, with Papooseand Banshee, made quite a respectablefleet, and as all were evenly matched,the victories were well divided amongthem. This served to keep the inter-est unflagging till the very end of the,season. In fact, some of the best racesof that year were sailed in September.

In the four new boats of that year Mr.Burgess tried several different types.The Nymph was a fairly wide center-board sloop, her beam being 14 ft. 6 in.,though she was a compromise to theextent that she had a heavy lead keeland drew six feet of water. The Chiquitawas one step more of a compromise,narrower and deeper than Nymph, being13 ft. 8 in. wide, and drew 7 ft. 6 in. ofwater, while her centerboard did nothoist above the cabin floor. This lastwas a very desirable feature, as the cut-ting of the cabin by the centerboardtrunk is one of the disagreeable featuresof the centerboard type.

The Xara was an enlarged Papoose,but she was never so successful as herprototype. In fact, later experience hasshown that the Papoose was herself toowide for the best results, and Mr. Bur-gess always regretted that he had notgiven the Xara the same absolute beamas the Papoose—12 ft., instead of the 13ft. 4 in. which she actually had. It isevident now that the Xara, with 12 ft.beam and the lines of the Papoose, wouldhave been a better boat than any of herrivals of that year.

The Adams boys, having disposed ofPapoose, were out with a new keel Bur-gess boat. Following their usual pen-chant for the lucky seven letters andthe double “O,” they christened theirnew ship the, Babboon. She was practi-cally the same dimensions as the Xaraand about the same type of boat, exceptthat, following the new fashion set byVolunteer, she had an overhanging bowin place of the straight stem. Babboonwas rather a disappointment, probablybecause the success of her owners withPapoose led people to expect more of herthan of the others. She had the faultscommon to all the keel 40-footers of that

keel plan. This gave a boat of greatyear—of too much beam and a defective

resistance, but lacking the power to carry

THE EVOLUTION OF THE FORTY-SIX-FOOTER. 59

sail enough to make her fast in spite ofthis resistance.

hoard, but still the little ship stuck it

The commonplace record of the Bab-out, and her crew never gave up tillthe signal was given that the race was

boon was relieved by her performance postponed. The work of the Babboonin the attempted race during the New and her plucky crew that day was theYork Yacht Club cruise at Vineyard theme of admiring comment through-Haven. This was the day, it will be out the fleet for the rest of the cruise.remembered, which gave the schoonerAlert much prestige.

A new impetus was given to the sportIt was a wicked in 1889, which may be called the banner

day, indeed, and a heavy southeasterly year of the forties. More than a scoregale with thick rain squalls was excuse of yachts of this size, all built withinenough for any yachtsman to keep with-in the shelter of East Chop.

two years, and all with more or less pre-tension as racers, were afloat, and the

The smaller yachts thought it wiser prospect for hot and close contests wasto keep inside the harbor, and few evenof the big craft showed their nose-poles

excellent. The surprise of that year wasthe wonderful sailing of the Fife cutter

outside of East Chop. The wonder of Minerva, which put to rout the wholethe regatta committee on the Electra, fleet of American forties, winning withthen, can be imagined, as the little such ease that her title as champion forBabboon, with single-reefed mainsail and the year could not be questioned.second jib set, flew by the flagship, The year 1890 marks the decadence ofclose-hauled on a wind and making the 40-foot class, though that year wassplendid weather of it rendered memorable by the appearanceat that. The sea was of the swift 40 Gossoon. Few of the for-tremendous, and the

forty seemedties of 1889 had the courage to renew

little to their hopeless battle with Minerva, andj u m p c l e a r o u t o f the advent of Gossoon went still further towater as she rose on drive the older craft off the race-course.t h e c r e s t o f a After a wonderfully close fight,h e a v y w a v e . each yacht, indeed, winning halfSpray flew across the battles in which they were en-her in sheets, andlife-lines

gaged together, the Gossoon on herwere

s t r e t c h e d forepublic form had a trifle the betterof the struggle, and the year closed

and a f t t o p r e - with the Burgess boat ac-v e n t h e r c r e w knowledged the championf r o m b e i n g of her class.w a s h e d o v e r - To be continued.

minerva.—formerly owned by admiral charles h. tweed, now by charles lee carroll.