BOATS OF THE IRISH MODEL YACHT CLUB AT Kingstown the Irish Model Yacht Club have instituted races for boats of 18ft. length on the load-line, and the contests between these small craft are very keen, and in a breeze some fine examples of boat sailing may often be seen. The rules require that the boats shall not exceed 18ft. length, and that they shall have no counter. The club have also instituted a class for "three toners," and it occurred to Mr. Ardagh E. Long, one of the many good boat sailers at Kingstown, that an 18ft. boat might also be a three-tonner. With this object in view he designed the exceedingly nice-looking boat Heathen Chinee, depicted on Plate XXX.
Generally the proportion of beam to 18ft. length is from 5ft. 6in. to 5ft. 84in., and two considerations have thus limited the beam. In the first place it has not been anticipated that a three-tonner with only 18ft. length could compete with a three-tonner of 25ft. or upwards, and so the beam of the 18ft. boats has been kept down to that necessary to make two tons, for the sake of time allowance ; in the second place, in the 18ft. class time is allowed by a rule of length and beam added together. For these two reasons beam has usually been limited to the proportions named. The boats have, however, not been successful in the three-tons class, and it is a moot point whether they would not have been better for a little more beam. They have about the same displacement as Heathen Chine, but are a trifle deeper in the body; they are undeniably fast along the wind, but do not carry their canvas quite so well as they might, that is, in comparison with the three-tonners. Whether Heathen Chinee, with her greater beam, will be successful against her narrower compeers in the 18ft. class, and in the three-ton class as well, has yet to be put to the proof.
The Ianthe is the narrowest boat of the class, and is cutter rigged; but the hitherto most successful boat, Shrimp, has a few inches more beam, and is sloop rigged, as will be Heathen Chinee. The one headsail is set flying with tack to bowsprit end like a jib, and Heathen Chinee will have as many as four jibs to suit different points of sailing, strength of wind, or reduced mainsail. The forestay is set up to the stem by a lanyard, and on going about the clew of the headsail is, of course, hauled round this stay.
The topsails are very peaked, similar to Alert's (see Plate XI.), the tack being fast to the heel of the yard. A spinnaker is carried, and the booms for the same are usually longer than the boat—the Shrimp's being about 24ft. long.
The boats are actually only half open, as they are decked forward and aft, with a large cockpit amidships. The Ianthe had a movable deck (formed with cockpit) so as to be qualified as a real open boat. The deck was a heavy one of 2in. pine, screwed down to a stout gunwale with strips of india-rubber listing between.
In the 18ft. class counters are not allowed, even though they be included in the 18ft. length; but, nevertheless, counters are found to be of such service to the boats, and so convenient in working the long boom that most of them are fitted with movable counters, which are fixed when it is not de rigueur to sail without one.
The counter is usually about 4ft. long, and is framed and planked. The fore end corresponds to the transom, but is fitted with a rudder case or trunk, of which t in Fig. 103 is a section. Fig. 104 represents a fore end view of the counter; a, a, a, a, are large lin. washer plates screwed to the end frame ; b, b, b, b, are lin. bolts with large heads, so as to have a good grip of the washers. On the fore side of the transom frame of the boat similar washers are fitted, and the bolts thereon are screwed up tightly by thumb screws, as shown by s s, Fig. 105. The counters are securely held by this arrangement; but if additional strength were required to meet any unusual strain, a tye rod might be used similar to that recommended for the Winder mere boats (see Fig. 106).
If accurately and securely fitted these counters look well and answer well, but viewed end on appear rather narrow on account of the " tuck up " and narrowness of the transom, necessary for sailing as a square-sterned boat. (See remarks on this subject in reference to fitting counters to the lichen boats. D. 3401.
The lines of the Heathen Chinee are represented on Plate XXX., but the following table of " offsets" will be referred to in making moulds for building.