At Shanghae the completely battened lug sail is in much favour, and the description of yacht in use there will be found illustrated on Plate VIII., which represents the Charm, Mr. C. J. Ashley.
• It will be seen that the keel in form is crescent-shaped, or, in other words, the curve given to the keel tends upwards instead of downwards, as is usual in ordinary vessels. In the East this kind of keel is common, and we find it carried out to an enormous extent in the model of a Bombay yacht (the property of the Duke of Edinburgh) in the Naval Museum at South Kensington. The keel of this yacht is quite like a half-moon, but the draught forward is much greater than aft. There is no advantage in thus giving a vessel " gripe," as the centre of lateral resistance could be got forward without such an extraordinary and, when a small draught is necessary, inconvenient contrivance.
The Charm, it will be seen, is extremely shallow, and would take little ballast, as her weight of hull, spars, fittings, and stores would bring her down nearly to the load water-line. The floor timbers in the fore-body, it will be seen, are lower than those of the midship body, and abaft the midship section the timbers retain the flatness of the floor in the middle body. One peculiarity of the after-body is, that the timbers are projected at right angles from the dead wood, and the gentle curve which we find in English yachts (made by filling up the angle in the runs) is not found in the Charm.
The length of the yacht is about three times her beam, and she thus has great stability; and this she needs, looking to the loftiness of her canvas. The chief excellence of the Chinese lug consists in the flatness of its surface. This flatness is brought about by battens, which are extended across the sail, as shown by 4 (Fig. 73) on the plan, and by the use of bow line-bridles the whole way up the after leach of the sail. These bridles lead
into two bowlines, and the bowlines again into one part, the latter leading to a double block on the bumpkin extending from the taffrail, so that a hauling on this single part brings an equal strain on each bowline-bridle. These bowline-bridles are numbered 7 in the drawing. To keep the sail into the mast a lacing (5 in the drawing) rove through parrels which extend from the lull of the sail to well into its belly; these panels are distinguished by 6 on the sail plan. Beyond this, a hauling parrel is used to keep the yard into the mast, marked 12 on the drawing. The standing part is made fast to the yard, passing round the mast, then through a block on the yard, the hauling part leading to the deck. The topping-lift shown by No. 9 explains itself, the line denoted by figures 10 being the topping-lift on the port side. The topping-lift passes through a single block at the masthead. The other figures indicate as follows : 1, the mast ; 2, the boom; 3, the yard ; 11, main halyards; 13, forestay ; 14, shroud. The mast can be unshipped at pleasure, as the drawing shows ; and, as there is neither bowsprit or topmast, such a vessel could be dismantled in a very few minutes. The Charm has a booby hatch, and under this there is a great deal of room. The centre-board is shown in the sheer plan lowered to its full depth, and the lines — . — show its case. When hauled quite up, the board would protrude above this case ; but this need never be done, as the draught could not thereby be made less than it is at all times aft. The dotted lines above the keel aft show the intersection of the timbers with the dead wood ; the dotted lines in the middle-body show the plan of the cabin, and the cockpit forming tne entrance to the cabin.
The following table refers to Plate VIII., representing the yacht Charm :