vious to commencing her long voyage to Australia, and sailed from the Clyde on Wednesday the 5th of September last, in charge of Captain Wyse, who has already become well known to yachtsmen through the medium of Letters from High Latitudes, having commanded Lord Dufferin's schooner Foam, during her cruise to Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen. She arrived at Madeira after a rough passage of 14 days. The next news of her is from the Cape of Good Hope where she arrived on the 11th of November, after a favourable passage of sixty-three days from the Clyde, Captain Wyse appears to have been much pleased with his little craft, as also with his crew. He remained seven days at the Cape to give his men a run ashore, which, to use his own graphic words, they well deserved, "cooped up from morning till night, and the water washing over them; no place for shelter, and always sitting down and holding on." Captain Wyse seems to have crossed the Line farther to the eastward than is usual, and doubtless had much head wind and heavy seas to contend with, which accounts for the wetness of the voyage. He was to leave on the 19th of November for Hobart Town, and we hope ere long to be able to chronicle his safe arrival there. Should he succeed in taking this little vessel safely out, he will, we think, have fairly earned a duplicate of the gold chain Lord Dufferin alleges he was so fond of wearing a chain earned, it may be remembered, by his taking a small steamer from the Clyde to Australia under circumstances of great difficulty, and sticking by her when her plates gave symptoms of parting, and her wished to desert her. We look forward with much interest in the safe arrival of this little vessel, as we are promised the log by an old and much respected correspondent.

The Diana schooner, 80 tons, Sydney Walker, Esq, was at Marseilles, on Jan. 18th. She was hove-to nine days in the Bay of Biscay, during the great gale of December, and proved herself an excellent sea-going vessel.

The Myth schooner, 122 tons. F. C. F. Gascoigne, Esq., left Malta on the 3rd Jan. for Alexandria.

The Gem schooner, 150 tons, Sir A. Bannerman, arrived at Gibraltar, on the 27th Dec., and sailed next day to the eastward.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

SUMMARY OF WINNING YACHTS.-We regret to have to acknowledge that our account given last mouth was incorrect, however we will endeavour, to make amends for the errors by giving an extra sheet, with the true account, in our next number (March).

W. T. "Would feel much obliged by any of the readers of the Magazine stating the reason why the Aura had such bad luck last season ?"

All communications must be addressed to the Editor, 6 New Church St. N.W.

HUNT & Co. Printers, 6 New Church Street, Edgware Road, N,W:

HUNT'S

YACHTING MAGAZINE.

MARCH, 1861.

YACHTS AND YACHTING*

BEING A DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING, MASTING, RIGGING, SAILING AND GENERAL Management of Yachts.

Erratum in Chapter xv. at conclusion, for "taken in rotation," read "taken in relation."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE yachtsman who will give a little careful consideration to the subject of masting, cannot fail to perceive the immense influence the proper disposition of the mast or masts must exercise upon the performances of a vessel; upon the first trials of a yacht are based the opinions as to whether she is fast and weatherly, and very oftentimes I fear a goodly little ship has fared ill at the hands of her critics, from the misplacement of her crop of sticks; it would be very interesting to know how many vessels have been tried, and altered, and retried and altered again; and of these how many have had proper and correct draughts on board showing their centres of buoyancy, of lateral resistance, and the effort of their sails. How often do we see and hear of these alterations being made in a new vessel, and are such points as the above ever mentioned in relation to such alterations? Which of us have not watched with eager anticipation the fiat of some first rate judge of the good points of a yacht, and regarded him in the light of a sage as he gravely shook his head and pronounced, "her mast must be shifted!"-not one word more-that is *Continued from page 56.

NO. 3.-VOL. X.

P

quite enough for some of us without seeking any further information on the subject we wont oftentimes take the trouble of asking ourselves a simple question "the reason why!" It is assumed that our friend A, who has been yachting all his life, cannot err,—he has been on board the yacht whilst underway, has steered her, pronounced his opinion, and he cannot be wrong: friend B, another excellent yachtsman, comes after A, hears the opinion formed, has an experimental cruise, and thinks with A too; "certainly shifting the mast would improve her!" Two good judges having thus pronounced that the position of the mast is the seat of error, it is shifted accordingly at hap-hazard; now is there the slightest probability of its having been done so with advantage? by the merest chance the happy medium may be hit upon, but the chances are 10 to 1 against it.

What after all if the masting have nothing whatever to do with the faults complained of? but no-this could not be, for both A and B concur in opinion that it can only be the mast.

Now if the reader will refer back to plate 5, chapter IV. he will find there one of the most fertile sources that can exist for causing a vessel to steer and perform badly; in this plate diagrams are given of two vessels, one with flaring quarters, the other with her quarters neatly rounded up; here therefore we have an example of what is technically called "the inequality of the lines of immersion and emersion;" which simply is that the lines of the quarter above water do not harmonize with those beneath, and that when the vessel careens to a strong breeze a greatly increased water line, called the "Inclined Water Line," is submerged, and this being fuller than it should be at the quarters of the vessel, creates a huge wave: this wave being carried along with the vessel causes a drag upon the quarter under which it appears, just as if a hawser or a chain cable was towing overboard from it: in consequence of this drag aft the vessel requires lee helm according as she inclines, but immediately that the pressure of the wind ceases, so as to allow her to sail at a less inclination, and thus lift this faulty water line out of the way of doing harm, she again gives wholesome obedience to the tiller, and the faulty performance resultant upon an error in the construction of the hull is very apt wrongly to be attributed to the spars.

Of all the difficulties that beset a yachtsman's path, perhaps there is none more bewildering than the system, or rather systems, of placing a yacht's spars: almost every builder has a theory of his own

upon the subject, either adopted partly from some existing system, and modified according to circumstances; or else a combination of systems such as may suit his ideas, but perhaps have no relation whatever to the form of the yacht to which they may be applied. In this way is much mystery engendered and perpetuated, and in fact it may be said that this mystery is not confined to the question of spars alone, but casts its baleful cloud over many other matters connected with yacht building and sailing; a mystery which can only exist from motives of self interest in some cases, in others from sheer ignorance, and in many from a dogged resolution of following old custom, and a reckless determination to ignore all improvements.

In the state of transition which the science of Yacht Building has of late years been, and may be said still to be in, this mystery of sparring has been disporting itself most fantastically; we have seen vessels with knife-like entrances sparred apparently without the slightest regard being had to the sweeping alteration that modern improvements have effected in the shape of the hull; the old "cod's head and mackerel's tail stern" did well with sticks so placed, and accordingly when both ends of the ship became revolutionized in shape, and the "mackerel's tail and cod's head" had changed places, masts were stepped as of old, without any reference to the totally dif ferent circumstances under which the modernized hull met with and overcame the resistance of the water. Masts were placed in sharp ships were there was no hull to support them, and good wholesome vessels received the name of wet dangerous boats, solely from the fact that in our eagerness to embrace the novelty, we took neither the care nor trouble to become acquainted with its principles and peculiarities. It is in respect to this I think our builders and yachtsmen have been steering remarkably wild, and that instead of looking in the proper place for the failures that we complain of, we have attributed them to causes that have led us still further into error, and possibly useless expense, without the most remote probability of even blundering on ultimate success.

Would a man who had to carry a heavy weight for a considerable distance, sling it at the further end of a stick placed across his shoulder, and then hope to husband his bodily strength for surmounting the inequalities of his path, and at the same time enable him to accomplish his journey with the greatest possible speed. And yet this is what is practically done in the sparring of many

vessels. It may be said that there is no analogy between the movements of a laden man on land and those of a vessel in the water, but if the burthen on the man's back is not so placed as to enable him to carry it to the best advantage without crippling his powers of travelling with ease to himself, he wont travel at all; and if the vessel is not enabled to meet and overcome the resistance of the water, which impedes her progress, without being dragged one way by her canvas and another way by her rudder, neither will she travel either; at least so as to realize the hopes of her constructors.

In order to arrive at a correct understanding of the object we are desirous of accomplishing, viz. the most effective system of placing a vessel's mast or masts, so that the canvas set thereupon may propel her at the greatest attainable speed, and to the best advantage under all circumstances of wind and weather, it is necessary that two or three particular points should be kept prominently in view,-with regard to the canvas and with regard to the hull: first then let us remember that every sail, no matter what its size or shape may be, when acted upon by the wind, has its "centre of effort; or, as a distinguished writer on naval architecture, more correctly defines it, "centre of propulsion." To use a homely, and I trust not inapt illustration of this centre of propulsion, I may assume that many of us have not forgotten the pastimes of our boyhood, and amongst them that of sending up mimic balloons made with a square of silver paper, having threads brought from each of its corners to a centre, suspended from which was a cork attached to a single thread, by way of a body to be carried by our ærial craft. Now that single thread represented the centre of propulsion of that sheet of silver paper, and the cork the hull of our vessel; or in other words the power of the wind exercised all over the whole sheet became, so to speak, concentrated at this point, and thus carried our cork away.

Thus it is also with the sails of a vessel, no matter how they are spread to the wind, each and every one has its centre of propulsion, but unlike the balloon, each has not its special cork: there is a common cork for them all to tug at, and this common cork is the hull of the little ship; this common cork therefore involves a common centre of propulsion, so that no matter what may be the number or locality of a vessel's sails there is one common centre, at which all their efforts are united, and this is called, par excellence, THE centre of propulsion, or centre of effort of the sails..