A curious feature in connection with yacht construction is that naval architects should have had so little to do with the designing of yachts. Yacht builders, as a rule, keep draughtsmen, who are instructed as to a design, and thus the builder becomes his own architect. That this plan has succeeded there can be no doubt, and it might even be questioned whether an architect could at present compete with the builder, if the latter bestowed so much time on a design as he ought. But, as a rule, builders are too much occupied with the cares of their business to devote much time to the mathematical consideration of a design ; and it is only their experience, and a prudent purpose not to depart in any radical way from a model which practice has proved to be possessed of undeniable good qualities, that keep them from blundering into failure. If we were asked to give a reason why the business of designing happens to be in the same hands as the business of building, we could no satisfactory answer, if a true one. The truth is that, in the early days of yachting, a naval architect who confined the exercise of his talents to the designing of yachts would have found his occupation by no means a lucrative one , and perforce the builders were compelled to do their own designing, mostly on the pattern of Government cruisers, with such trifling alterations as their experience permitted them to venture upon. Occa sionally gentlemen made models of yachts, and the late Mr. Joseph Weld and Mr. T. Assheton Smith had a large share of success ; it is even claimed for Mr. Smith that he invented or discovered the value of " wave lines" before Mr. Scott Russell did. But, be this as it may, there can be no doubt that he was as clever at designing as the professional builders of the day. Builders were, in fact, compelled to
do their own designing, because the profession of a yacht-naval architect would have been unprofitable. But if builders as a matter of necessity did their own designing fifty years ago, it can scarcely be said that a similar necessity exists now, although the custom does. During the last ten years there have been, on the average, fifty vessels of all rigs and sizes built annually, and it might be assumed that the emoluments for designing these would keep a goodly number of naval architects in the necessaries of life. The few who have made yacht-naval architecture a study and profession have undoubtedly succeeded well enough to lead to the conclusion that, with more opportunities, they would make a very considerable advancement in yacht design. Builders would be relieved of a great source of anxiety, as the responsibility of a vessel answering the requirements or expectations of the person for whom she was built would be shifted from their shoulders to those of the architect. Such a shift of responsibility would unquestionably be an advantage for the yacht owner, as it is much more likely that a scientifically trained architect, who has opportunities of tracing causes of success or failure, would achieve any given object than that a builder would, whose business occupations necessarily restrict the exercise of his attention and experience on the important work of designing. It is, therefore, satisfactory to note that yacht designing is gradually gaining recognition as a profession ; and if improvement is to be made in the form of yachts, we must look for it from the hands of professional yacht designers.