The small centre-board American sloop Truant was brought over here in 1853, and, although only 20ft. on the water line and lft. 2in. draught, beat all the crack 7-tonners in the Prince of Wales' Yacht Club a quarter of an hour in a thrash from Blackwall to Northfleet in a nice breeze, and was very roundly abused for her success. All sorts of stories were current about her shifting ballast, and her crew having their pockets filled with eid shot ! After this success Truant went to the Mersey and Lake Windermere, but what ultimately became of her we do not know. Her rig was as shown in the drawing over leaf (Fig. 57), and is the same as the fashionable sloop of the present day, excepting that the foresail or jib is laced to a foot yard, and tacked at about one-fifth its length from the outer end of the yard on a bumpkin.
The Una was the next importation from America, and, although generally resembling the Truant in hull, differed in sail plan, as the mast was stepped farther forward, and she had no headsail whatever.
The double centre-board was much advocated in America in 1871, but we believe that no large yacht was built on the plan. However, in 1876 the idea occurred to Mr. W. Jeans, of Christchurch, to have a small craft provided with two boards, and he published the following description of the boat and drawing (see Figs. 58 and 59) : The letters a a a a, show the fore trunk ; b, lever ; c, chain ; d, keel ; e, aft trunk ; f, wheel ; 8, chain; h, aft keel.
Mr. Jeans thus referred to his boat : " I found her answer remarkably well, both for speed, hardiness, and weatherly qualities. The keels, which are of iron, are situated fore and aft. The fore keel, having its trunk in the cuddy, takes up no room in the boat, and is lifted by a lever and chain band, which runs over a couple of sheaves on the deck beam to get a straight pull. Holes are bored about an inch and a half apart in the support of the after end of the trunk to take a pin, which regulates the depth of keel. The trunk of the aft keel is the dead wood in the run of the boat. The keel is lifted into its trunk by a small wheel and winch, the wheel being large enough to take up the chain in one turn without overlapping, a dog catching it at any required depth.
" The advantages are these. The keels take up no room in the body of the boat ; they can be regulated to carry any kind of helm. By lifting up the fore keel in wearing the boat is much sooner round. If there is a
doubt of her not coming about in a seaway, wind up the aft keel, when she will immediately shoot into the wind, dropping it again as soon as she fills on the other tack. In beating to windward in a seaway she will fetch where she points, unlike the ordinary centre-boarder, which, having no grip forward, is knocked to leeward with every sea. She is 12ft. long on the keel, and 6ft. beam, and though of such extraordinary proportions, is remarkably fast, which, I am convinced, partly arises from the proper depths which can be given to the keels, whereby the rudder (except for altering her course) is never out of the line of the keel, consequently never helping to stop her way." No doubt the two boards may be found useful under exceptional circumstances, but the single centre-board, as generally in use, is much to be preferred. Such a boat will be more sensitive to slight alterations of her helm, and generally will be more agreeable to sail on a wind. The strongest reason for having two boards would be in the case of a shallow vessel that had to keep the sea, and might have to scud in very disturbed water and generally to encounter heavy weather. However, a yacht of the deep type, with strong fixed keel, would be better adapted for such work.
Two other plans for centre-boards were proposed, in 1877, by Lieut. Tipping, R.N. and Mr. A. J. Lane. The two plans are almost identical, as will be seen by a reference to Fig. 1, Plate II.
Lieut. Tipping, in describing his invention, says : " One of the chief objections to the ordinary centre-board keel is, that the case takes up so much room in the cabin, dividing it completely in half ; if the keel be a large one, it comes up to the cabin ceiling when hauled up. To obviate this disadvantage, I propose a plan of extending the deep keel throughout the whole length of the vessel, as shown in the drawing in the above plan, lowering the case considerably, if necessary keeping it under the floor altogether, and getting the same area by length instead of depth. The only disadvantage of extended length that I know of would be that the staying power would be diminished a little ; but, on the other hand, a vessel would stay well with the proposed keel in shallow water, where she would not do so with only a third of the board down if it were on the short system.