BERMUDA YACHTS AND DINGHIES.1

by charles e. clay.

dinghies “on the wind.”

“ We sail the ocean blue, diadem amid the deep blue waves of theAnd our saucy ship’s a beauty, breezy Atlantic. Here there is no “ close

We’re sober men and true,And attentive to our duty. ” — Pinafore.

season,” when the icy breath of blusteringBoreas warns the enthusiastic sailor that

For a yachtman’s ideal paradise com-mend me to the fairy islands of the “ still

the year’s pleasure is fast drawing to anend, and his taut little craft will have

vex’t Bermoothes, ” nestling like an emerald to be dismantled, and lie idle for longdreary months together:her shrouds and standinggear festooned in the piti-less draper of ice andsnow, while her impa-tient owner huddles dis-consolately over a blazingfire and dreams over thereminiscences of happy,bygone cruises, or, infancy sketches a new pro-grame for the short-livedsummer, that seems solong in coming . No ;there’s hardly a day, thelong year round, whenthe hardy mariner cannotleave his moorings, cast-ing the cares and worriesof earth behind him, tobe picked up again whenhe ranges ’longside of hisbuoy, and feel his spiritsrise as quickly and as gay-ly as the snowy breadthsof his canvas fly up aloft,and proudly swell and fillto a pleasant breeze.

There is but one type,build, and rig of boat inBermuda; but it is soeminently adapted to thebermuda yacht-cruising rig.

1 These drawings are from photographs placed at our disposal through the kindness of Mr. N. E. Lusher of Hamilton,Bermuda.

BERMUDA YACHTS AND DINGHIES. 643peculiar requirements of its waters thata long experience has taught the nativesto prefer it to any more modern improve-ments. Bermudian boats are short, broad,handy vessels, with one mast stepped verymuch in the bows, and raking aft consid-erably. They carry scarcely any rigging,the larger boats only being supplied witha single pair of shrouds, while even theseare discarded when the craft are put under

Bermudian cedar; the knees and timbersare all of natural growth, and especiallypicked for the requisite shape and bend.Such a thing as steam-bent timbers areunknown, there not being a steam-boxin the islands; moreover, the cedar willnot stand anything like the bending strainthat is put on oak and other northernwoods. They are also decked and plankedwith cedar, and the outsides above the

“ a good full.” “ in stays. ”

racing spars and canvas. Their cruising-suit is simply a leg-o’-mutton mainsail andjib, with a ring-tailed gaff topsail and spin-naker for fair and light breezes. They takea wonderful fore-reach in stays, and it is nouncommon thing to see one of them, withgood way on shoot head to wind througha channel of considerable length, and sonarrow that she could not possibly havebeat through it. In fact, in this quality,and in that of being able to lie closer to thewind, they excel any craft I am acquaintedwith, not even excepting the saucy littlecat-boat.

They are entirely built of the beautiful

water-line are kept oiled and varnishedwith a preparation of linseed oil, red-lead,and copal varnish, which in color verynearly resembles the rich hues of the wood,and the boats look as brightly polished andas smooth as a mahogany table. Expertsand naval men declare that this cedar ismore lasting and buoyant after long pro-tracted immersion, in salt-water than anyother wood used in ship-building ; andsome of the fastest yachts, as well as manyof the fishing and pilot boats, are over fiftyand sixty years of age, and their timbersand hull are just as sound and hard as theday they were launched. Only the gov-

rounding the stake-boat.

644

the admiral’s yacht “diamond” cruising and racing sail plan.

ernment boats are coppered ; all othercraft have either brown or red metallic painton their bottoms, and a couple of coats aear, with a scrubbing every three months,keeps them in good condition.

The ballast is all carried inside, and butrarely is any of it moulded to fit in betweenthe timbers, but is composed of 112’s and56’s, a certain number of the latter beingshifted to windward in tacking should thestrength of the wind require it, and alwayswhen the boats are racing. The nativecolored pilots and boatmen are magnificentsailors, quick, handy, smart, active fellows,bold as lions, but careful, and with a won-derful knowledge of reading the weather.

No boats that I have been shipmateswith sail so finely on the helm ; and if thecraft is correctly ballasted and her sailstrimmed properly, the tiller can be easilymoved by one finger, no matter howrough the sea or how strong the wind.Indeed, it is a common feat with the pilotsto sail their boats for miles in every direc-tion by the use of the jib and mainsheetsalone, without touching the tiller. Thespeed of the yachts is very greatly in-creased or retarded by a judicious placingof the ballast, and a change for the betteror worse is instantly noticed by the per-formance of the boat. Bermuda boats are,in fact, what I may call more “ sensitive "

to ballast and positionof crew than any othercraft.

In the art and scienceof modern boat-building,our friends the Bermu-dians are certainly farbehind the age, and, al-though the work is strongand sound, and the ma-terials the best that canbe procured, the finishand tout ensemble of thecraft are not a patch onEnglish or Americanworkmanship. Nor isthis to be wondered at,when one sees the primi-tive kinds of tools andmethods in use. The’ M u d i a n boat-buildernever sets up “ a frame,”but simply lays down thekeel, fastens in his tim-bers, leaving plenty ofspare wood to plane andchisel off when he comesto the planking. Not a

man there can build from a plan ; and theywould be utterly at a loss to lay down thelines according to scale or to work up adesign. Their governing faculty is the lawof “ presume and guess. ”

Although the price of labor sounds verysmall when compared with what is paid inAmerica, yet, when you come to take intoconsideration the style and finish of theworkmanship and the length of time in

dinghy, “taut full.”

BERMUDA YACHTS AND DINGHIES.

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execution, you become more reconciled tothe higher prices here. In fact it is be-coming more and more the fashion everyseason for the members of the differentdinghy clubs to get their boats built inNew York ; but the model is always moreor less Bermudian. The price for buildingdecked boats is, roughly speaking, about£10, or $50, per ton, Bermuda measure-ment ; while for open boats the figure is£1, or $5, per foot. Of course these pricesonly include the hull, etc. The sparring,rigging, and canvasing can be done agreat deal more cheaply and almost as wellas in America, the gain being made by thedifference in the cost of labor.

One very noticeable feature in Bermu-dian craft, great and small, is the length ofspars and the immense area of sail carriedin comparison to the length of boat. To astranger in these waters the boats seem tobe altogether over-canvased, and so, infact, they really are, and were it not for theuniversal practice of shifting ballast towindward, and the superb seamanship ofthe crews, both professional and Corin-thians, and the excellent qualities of themodel, disastrous casualties would oftenoccur. And it is only fair to say that, al-though capsizes, sometimes of big, andvery much oftener of little boats, do occur,they are seldom attended with serious con-sequences, because the ’Mudian, young orold, white or black, male or female, isalmost as much at home in the water as thefish that are his daily food.

In a small community like that of Ber-muda, whose chief, and in the summermonths the almost only, means of pleasantrecreation is boating, it is not surprisingthat the science of yacht-racing is largelydeveloped and keenly enjoyed by allclasses ; and the man that has not got aboat of some kind, and don’t race herevery chance he gets, is rather the excep-tion than the rule. Like their craft, theircustoms, their habits, and their modusvivendi generally, the Bermudians have aset of rules, a way of measurement, astereotyped course to sail, that is emphati-cally and undeniably quite their own, andentirely different from the rest of humanity.It is enough for them that their forefathersoriginated the rules, sailed the same course,and were satisfied: so are they. Theirrules for horse-racing read “ as adapted forBermuda ; ” their pianos are imported “ asadapted for Bermuda ; ” their legislativeenactments are always “ as adapted forBermuda ; ” and their Council and Assem-

bly representatives are invariably chosenbecause their capacities and qualificationsare “ so adapted for Bermuda. ”

The “ Old Bermuda Course, ” as it iscalled, is six miles to windward, and a runof three, and is a first-rate test of bothboats and crews. Sailing to windwardmust always be regarded everywhere asthe truest test of a boat’s qualities : so inBermuda, where, one would say, the peoplewere constantly struggling against a head-wind and falling tide, it is not to be won-dered at that “ winding ” is the only

running to leeward.

point of sailing worthy of paramount con-sideration. In the “ Sound, ” where allregattas are held, there is not room for alonger straight course than three miles ; sothat the two turns of that distance to wind-ward and the run back are the best way ofsolving the difficulty. The “ rule of theroad ” at sea, where the port tack invaria-bly gives way to the starboard, finds nofavor with Bermudian yachtsmen, thepractice being that when two boats cometogether on opposite tacks, and neither canfairly cut the other, both boats shall “ goabout ” — a good rule in theory, but prac-tically unfair and often grossly abused.For instance, the pilot of one boat willfrequently hail another to go about andshake his boat in the wind even, when

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really, if he had sailed a “ good taut full, ”there would be no chance of “ cutting ”her; then again he will edge his craft aa trifle “ off ” the wind to cut and put aboat about that intended to pass astern.Another Bermudian deviation from En-glish rules is, that boats on a wind give wayto those running with spinnakers ; theformer being far more manageable than thelatter.

under side of deck to inner and lower edge or gar-board streak; 3d, at a point two-thirds the distancefrom under-side of deck to inner and lower edge ofgarboard streak.

Depth to be taken from level of the under side of

The measurement rule is cumbersome,inaccurate, ridiculous, and peculiarly Ber-

deck at the to sides to the inner and lower edge ofgarboard streak at midship section at a point one-fourth of extreme length (as above), measuring fromstern-post, and the same from stern-head, the mean tobe taken as actual depth.

This monstrous conundrum was pro-pounded to determine a mysterious qualityknown vaguely as power, and which is

sail plan of american c.b. “ cruiser ” and bermudian yacht “ julia ” compared.

mudian. My readers will pardon myquoting it in extenso, but, as an ingeniousramification of absurdly impracticabledimensions to arrive at precisely, it is areal curiosity, and on that account only isit worthy of production. L × B × D where141the letters stand for length, breadth, anddepth respectively, is the basis.

rule.Length to be taken from foreside of stem (say from

wood-ends not extreme length of cutwater) to after-side of stern-post on deck.

Breadth to be measured at widest part in threeverticle sections ; 1st, at level of the under side ofdeck ; 2d, at a point one-third the distance from the

supposed by old Bermudians to vary withthe fullness of the sections below thewater-line. As a satisfactory basis to workupon, it is not worth a moment’s considera-tion, but, like man other make-shifts, itmeasures fairly — I had almost written veryfairly — the existing boats which are of thesame type. Like many rules, it can beeasily evaded ; and if we look at the designfor “ Windermere ” yachts, in “ Yacht andBoat Sailing ” by Dixon Kemp, we find aboat that cheats the Bermuda measurementto the uttermost, besides being a better boatthan any in their waters.

The tonnage of No. 3 design (thedimensions of which are L.W.L 26’ 6”,

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647

beam 8’, draught 6’ 6”) would be 4.47tons, or exactly the same as the Bermudianclipper Julia, measuring 20’ 9” × 8’ × 5’,the 26’ 6”, the former being “ all boat ”as against at least 9” of dead wood andrake of stern-post in the latter. The lakeboat might be sluggish in very light winds,but in any breeze that would put her gun-wale “ awash ” and upwards she wouldprove too fast for anything ’Mudian towindward, and would run and reach withnative boats half as long again as herself.

The sail area rule could nowhere bebetter applied than here, the triangularsails being easily laid down on shore, andaccurately measured; and there is no top-sail nor jib topsail to bother about. Thesail area rule would have another verybeneficial effect, as it would tend to reducethe over-canvasing of the boats, which Ihave already pointed out as being carriedto excess. And here it will not be out ofplace to remark that so materially does thisabuse affect the sailing qualities of theboats that I have frequently known in-stances of the regattas being postponed onaccount of too much breeze for the racers,when the pilot and freight boats were sail-ing comfortably under their ordinary suits.The fact, too, that shifting ballast in beat-ing to windward enables boats to carrymore sail on a wind than they could possi-bly spread when running to leeward is nota fair test of a boat’s weatherly qualities.

It cannot be denied, however, that Ber-mudian yachts are excellent hard-weatherboats, and, under proper canvas, such ascarried by the fishing and pilot craft, noth-ing can be more dry and comfortable. dinghy before the wind.

The Bermudian yachtsmen have a uniquebut very clever method of getting theirmainsail to spread perfectly flat, and as“ taut as a board. ” The main boom, in-stead of being fitted with jaws, in theusual manner, has an eyehole in the for-ward end of it which runs from 3 ft. to 4ft. the foreside of the mast; the after endof the boom is strongly secured to the clewof the sail ; the boom is then boused tautaft with a small tackle taken from the eye-bolt to a strop round the mast, and thesail is stretched as much as required. TheBermudians also lace the mainsail tightto the mast, and when once thus laced thecannot reef ; if a boat starts for a race witha whole sail, she must carry it, no matterhow hard it may come on to blow, andwhen she cannot, they cut it away.

In running dead to leeward, the boats, onaccount of their shortness, have a decided

tendency to run their noses under ; but thisis counteracted by piling the shifting ballastaft, and also the crew. The peculiarityof the rig makes them lie very close to thewind, and in moderate steady breezes theymake 31/2 points on either tack ; that is tosay, they beat to windward at a smallerangle than 90°. A naval officer carriedone of these boats to England, and a fewyears since, in a dead beat to windward,up Dartmouth harbor against 26 ft. and27 ft. boats, she left everything astern, win-ning a cup each day. Captain John du T.Bogle, Royal Engineers, also took onehome the summer before last, and I hearshe holds her own very fairly against hersisters on the Medway.

The accompanying sketch and lines ofthe admiral’s yacht the Diamond, I takefrom Dixon Kemp ; the drawings beingby Mr. Wm. Prattent of Devenport,England.

The plan adopted in starting all races inBermuda is a good one, and might bepursued with advantage by other clubs.Instead of starting all competitors at onceand deducting the time allowance at thefinish, each boat ranges alongside the lee-ward stake-boat, and is sent off at the properintervals, and the first boat rounding thewindward mark boat is, barring accidents,the bona fide winner. This arrangementhas this decided advantage over othermethods, namely, that the uninitiated spec-tator can easily keep track of the contend-ing boats’ respective performance, and canat once ‘ spot ’ the winner, without waiting

BERMUDA YACHTS AND DINGHIES.

648 TO AN AMATEUR

for the corrected time record to be promul-gated.

The sizes of Bermuda racing yachts varyfrom about 3 to 10 tons; but there is veryrarely more than one class.

Dinghy sailing and racing is a verygeneral and favorite pastime of aspiring

PHOTOGRAPHER.

the native craft. The venturesome visitorwho takes anything in the shape of a boatdown to Bermuda need not fear that timewill hang idly on his hands, if he wants todo any racing. He has only to mentionhis wishes, and races for very modestpurses, or even the fun of the sport, will be

dinghies setting spinnakers.

young Corinthians, and the fearless dex-terity with which the youngsters handletheir tiny craft is simply marvelous. Therules and conditions under which thedinghies compete are similar to those ofthe decked boats, but the distance ishalved, and the time allowance modifiedaccordingly.

In sailing against Bermudian boats, theAmerican sloops and center-boards wouldstand but a poor chance over an oldBermuda course ; but over an all-roundcourse, with plenty of running or sail-ing with “ eased sheets, ” and in lightwinds and smooth sea, the shallower, beamyAmerican models would get away from

arranged on the slightest provocation andthe shortest notice. The expense of get-ting to and from Bermuda is moderate, theaccommodation good, the residents hospi-table and extremely polite, and the cost ofliving cheap. The steamship companymake very liberal arrangements for thetransportation of such sized boats as wouldjust suit the place and the tonnage of theb oats they would be pitted against. If anyAmerican yachtsman should like to attemptthe trip, I feel sure he would be amply re-paid for the trouble and outlay he wouldbe put to, besides enjoying the mostglorious climate and the finest boating anyland can afford.

TO AN AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER.

If shadows come on Life’s broad field,To turn thy day to night,

How wise to use them as they pass,And write their way with light.

M. H. S.