A DESIGN for a centre-board boat, somewhat shallower than the Brighton Beach boats, and one admirably adapted for smooth-water sailing, is shown on Fig. 85. It will be seen that the mid-section is very much further aft than in any of the other centre-board boats of which lines are given, and in this respect the design more agrees with the American model. The bow is long and well formed, and no doubt a boat built on the lines would be fast.
stations in the sheer plan; in the sheer plan every other station has been omitted.
The rig it will be seen by Fig. 87 is the ordinary sloop. The mainsheet is thus worked : one end fast to the boom end; the other leads through a block on the counter, then through another block on the boom, and belays inside the boat close to rudder head or on one side of the rudder head.
Of the many successful centre-board sloops and other boats which Burgoine of Kingstown has turned out, none have been more successful than the Alert, whose lines, by the kindness of Mr. W. M. Dunnage (her owner), we are able to give. These small craft are built specially for lake or river sailing, and it is not expected that an Alert would be able to successfully compete in a sea-way with a deep-bodied yacht, or even with a boat of the Itchen type. Nor can it be said that the Alert would be at home on such a river as the Mersey, where the New Brighton boats compete ; but on rivers where the stream is less rapid, and the wave disturbance very small, we do not think a better type of boat could very well be designed. In fact, the Alert may be said to be the production of expediency, as a long course of experience has taught Mr. Burgoine the best type of sailing boat, whether it is of the sloop rig or balance lug rig, for such smooth-water sailing as can be had on the Thames between Teddington and &whiten. The Alert, it will be seen, is a kind of combination of the shallow, the deep-keeled, and the centre-board type, and she appears to have, judged by her performances, a fair share of the good qualities of each type.
The Alert is sloop rigged, with main and fore sail, and her sail area strikes one as being very small ; but some of her success to windward is attributable to her snug sail plan. The sails are made of American cotton duck. The topsail is cut on the lateen plan, the yard being up and down the mast. The halyard is made fast to the yard, so that it comes nearly chock-a-block with the halyard sheave in the mast when the sail is hoisted. The heel of the yard
comes 9in. or so below the foot of the sail ; a heel rope is fast to the yard, which serves as a tack, and (with one turn round the mast) is belayed on deck. Another plan is to have a thimble-eye seized to the heel of the yard, through which the topsail halyard is rove; the halyard thus serves as a kind of jackstay for the topsail yard, and does away with the heel rope or tack. A heel rope, however, is, we think, to be preferred, as in the hurry of hoisting one might forget to reeve the halyard, and there is always the possibility of something going wrong when a hauling rope is made to do duty as a stay as well. As will be seen, Alert has no topmast, the lower mast having a " pole," or mast head, 8ft. 6in. long, which serves to set the lateen topsail.
The spinnaker gear is thus fitted. The boom has iron jaws to fit the mast, but no parral. At the outer end is a shoulder; inside the shoulder is a good-sized hole through the boom. Two or three inches from the hole are two thumb cleats. The fore guy passes through a block at bowsprit end, and each end of the guy has an eye-splice, one end being kept on board on port side, and the other on starboard ; when in use one of the eyes is put over the boom-end, and back to the thumb-cleats. On the tack cringle of the spinnaker is a grommet strop. To set the spinnaker, the eye of the fore guy is shoved over the boom end back to the cleat ; then the after guy is put on ; next the grommet on the tack of the sail is shoved through the hole, and the bight brought up and put over the small end of the boom formed by the shoulder before spoken of. This arrangement effectually prevents the eyes of the guys slipping off. The sail is then hoisted, and the boom launched forward as the sail goes up. Of course the guys and sheet must be attended to as required, but the boom is not squared until the jaws are got to the mast. For lowering, the boom should be eased forward and unshipped before letting go the halyards ; the sail can then be easily spilled, and gathered in as the heel of the boom is brought aft.
The iron keel is 14ft. long, measured from sternpost, 4iin. deep, with an average thickness of 4iin. The keel shown in the drawing (Plate XI.) includes the iron keel.