SELECTING A YACHT.
IN selecting a yacht, a man, as in making other purchases, will be guided by his tastes and his means. If he is really fond of the sea, and looks forward to the sailing with the professional keenness of a middy or apprentice, his desire will be to get something which he can manage himself. If, on the other hand, the dawning yachtsman has boundless wealth, is a little of a sybarite, and determines to spend two or three months afloat because it is the fashion, he, too, will get a yacht to his taste ; but she will probably be a big stately schooner, or an equally big, but little less stately-looking yawl, as big cutters are no longer fashionable for cruising.
The man who desires to eventually become a thorough yacht sailor should begin his apprenticeship on board a cutter, and she will not be bigger than 5, 10, 15, or 20 tons. If she is as big as 10 tons, he should make all the passages in her when shifting ports, and not bid farewell to her at one pier head, and welcome her arrival from another pier head at the next watering place on the coast. If a man goes about attended by the uncomfortable feeling that he shirks all the real daring and adventure of yacht cruising he is not likely to make a perfect yacht sailor; as sailing in ten or twenty matches during a summer, and sleeping in a snug berth in smooth water for a couple of months or so, are of little value compared with the under-way drill inseparable from making passages, it being understood, of course, that the owner does his " trick at the wheel." But it is not only the ten-ton ship that is big enough to convey the manly form of the youthful yachtsman from port to port ; many owners of 5-tonners as bold as Will Watch, " take the helm and to sea boldly steer"; and these are the ones we always find to be the best sailor-men, even though they do not win so many prizes. Of course, living in a 5-tonner to the majority of yachtsmen would be utter misery, and perhaps death. The budding yachtsman has been in the habit, pehape, of spending a couple of hours every morning over his toilet, surrounded by all the 1 uxuries of the upholsterer's art—velvet-pile carpet, satin damask, cheval glasses, watercolour drawings, Dresden china—and perhaps a valet-de chambre. The man that has been used to this sort of thing must have
the big schooner or yawl, for he will find no room for them inside a 5-tonner. He must carry his clothes in a bag, or cram them into a locker 2ft. by 6in. ; go on his marrowbones to shave ; into the sea for his bath— it is only one step and overboard ;—and if he is addicted to cosmetique, he will probably find a piece of "common yellow " a good substitute. The cuisine, of course, would not be such as would raise water bubbles in the mouth of a valetudinarian; the carnivorous propensity will mostly be gratified by steak which, when cut, will resemble the Mudhook Yacht Club burgee of rouge et noir; and savoury soups and luscious salmon will be luxuries only obtainable in " canister " form. With all this, the five tons man will very rapidly become a sailor, and the little ship below will be as neat and cosy as a women's boudoir ; he will have a place for every thing, down to a housewife ; and at the end of one summer there will not be a part of the ship, from the breast-hook forward to the transom frame aft, that he will not know the use of.
Of course, for real comfort at sea, the bigger the yacht a man can afford to have the better ; but it will seldom be advisable to go beyond 300 tons, as very large sailing vessels are more or less, according to size, unhandy in narrow channels and crowded roadsteads. A yacht of 150 tons and upwards should be schooner-rigged; and we are inclined to think, if her size reaches 300 tons, or say 120ft. in length on the load water-line, that she should have three masts, with all fore-and-aft canvas. " Square rig forward " is generally recommended for a three-masted vessel, as square topsails may be of occasional use in backing and box-hauling, or in scudding in a heavy sea, when small trysails set on the lower masts might get becalmed whilst the vessel was between the crests of two seas ; but the extra weight aloft, and the extra gear, are to some extent a set-off against these advantages.