"It is astonishing what a weight of wind these boats will bear; they rarely sail without a topsail, and I never yet took a reef in my mainsail. They have lft. 6in. waterways, and 6in. coamings to cockpit ; still, when very hard pressed, the water sometimes comes in over the coamings. The boats, however, are probably doing their best when only two or three inches of the deck are immersed. In sailing before the wind only fore and-aft canvas is allowed, and no booming out permitted. As the boats have a tendency to bury their bows in running and reaching, all hands are put on the counter, until the taffrail is almost level with the water; and the more weight there is put on the counter under such circumstances, the better they seem to go. As the boats flare out a great deal above water at the foreside of the rigging (being so short and beamy), they `shoulder' to leeward, and by trimming aft the shoulder is lifted out of the wave on the lee bow. On a wind the tendency of the boats is to lift their stern and depress their bows, but shouldering' does not appear to such an extent." It is quite clear that a yacht which requires so much weight shifted aft whilst she is moving must be wrong somewhere, and in the case of the Windermere craft we have not long to search for a cause of the defect. The midship section is placed only eight or nine feet abaft the fore side of the stem ; and this fact, coupled with 8ft. beam, necessarily gives the yachts a very short and full bow. The bow is given a slight hollow at its extreme fore end ; but this of itself is not an important relief, and the bow is essentially one that will bury itself, and be incapable of very high speed, excepting under a propelling power * out of all proportion to the size of the boat. The Windermere yachts have, as may be supposed, a com paratively long and fine after-body, and if they were driven stern first at a speed of nine knots what was the bow end would still subside ; only, under such conditions, it would form the stern of the vessel. Most American yachts, which have comparatively short after-bodies (generally the pro portion of after-body to fore-body is as 4 to 5) subside by the stern at high speeds, and many English yachts which have long bows and comparatively short runs do the same—notably the cutters built by Fife do so. On the other hand, yachts of the cod's head and mackerel's tail type with short entrance and long run, bore by the head—that is to say, the hollow of the wave forward is so large that the bow sinks into it.
The depression by the bow is, no doubt, in the case of the Windermere yachts, much aggravated by the sail pressure ; they have enormous sail areas (about 15 per cent. more than any five-tonner), and as the head resistance they encounter at high speeds is very great, the depression due to the leverage of the sails alone must be very considerable (see page 28). Also the depression may be increased through inequalities in the wedges of immersion and emersion, and these latter influences will always have to be regulated by trimming. However, there is not much doubt that if the Windermere craft were propelled nine or ten knots an hour by steam, in an upright position, they would still " bore," on account of their midship section being placed so far forward. Still the forward position of the
midship section need not be an unmixed evil ; on a wind, when the speed is necessarily low, the shorter and fuller bow may be a positive advantage, and no doubt there is some reason for the old saying " A full bow eats itself to windward." However true this may be, so far as the ardency of the pressure on the lee bow assisting the boat to windward is concerned, there is now no room for doubting that a long entrance (of course of the proper form) is better for sailing on any point than a short entrance.
As the immersion of the counter is countenanced by the Windermere club, there is no reason why it should not be treated as an integral part of the vessel, as it was in the Jullanar. But, strangely enough, most of the Windermere craft are designed as if they were to be only 20ft. on the load line, with the counter clear of the water at the stern post, the counter being subsequently immersed according to the trim required in sailing. In the design, Plate XVI., the whole length (26ft. 6in.) allowed by the club rule has been appropriated, and the midship section was placed, as it would be in any ordinary yacht of similar length, a little abaft the middle of length of the load water line. The bow is consequently about 4ft. longer than the usual length of bow of a Windermere yacht, and the stern if shorter but not so much as the bow is longer, because the whole length (excepting a couple of inches) has been taken for the permanently immersed length.
Most of the Windermere yachts show a little less bilge, and are fuller near the garboards, than the designs (Plates XVI. and XVII.) ; but all, we believe, have the greatest beam at the deck.
The No. 1 design (Plate XVI.) has 8ft. 9in. beam, and would show a hollow line of immersion at 20° heel ; but the No. 3 design is very clean on the line of immersion at that inclination.
No. 1 design is possibly of too great displacement to compete with success on Lake Windermere, and would be more suitable for coast sailing, where beaching is not necessary.
No. 2 design (Plate XVII.) has less displacement, and ought to be able to successfully compete with the Windermere yachts.
No. 3 design (Plate XVII.) is of still lighter displacement, and generally (excepting in the form of bow and position of the midship section) is more like the Windermere yachts. The centre of buoyancy is a little farther forward than in either of the other designs ; still the entrance is very mach longer and finer than that of any Windermere yacht, and the afterbody, for mere fineness, closely resembles the after-body of such a yacht.
As to the capabilities of the designs for competition against the Windermere craft, No. 3 would probably turn out the most successful. So far as theoretic principles go, either design ought to be capable of beating the Lake craft, if the handling were equal ; and if No. 3 did not succeed, because her bow is too long and her stern too short, we should have to begin to study the subject afresh, and all the knowledge acquired during the last thirty years in the way of naval science may be regarded, so far as the requirements of Lake Windermere are concerned, as utterly useless.