A snug cutter of 80 tons can be as easily handled and as cheaply worked (six A.B.'s would be required for either) as a yawl of 80 tons, and a cutter should be preferred on account of her grand sailing qualities. The line is drawn at 80 tons for this reason : a gig's crew must be had out of either yawl or cutter, and if four hands be taken away in the gig, two will be left on board to work the yacht with captain and mate ; and even a 60-tonner cannot very well do with less than six A.B.'s for the reason just given. But, whereas six men may work an 80-tonner, whether ()utter or yawl, six would be hardly enough for a 100-tons cutter, although they might be quite equal to a yawl of that tonnage ; and moreover, if there was anything like a breeze, and four men had to leave the cutter in the gig, it would be hardly prudent to leave the sailing master and mate with two men only on board.
Of all the rigs which the ingenuity of man has devised, not one is equal to the cutter, whether for clawing to windward, reaching along the wind, or running down wind. A cutter with a true wind will beat as far to windward in a day as a yawl will in a day and a quarter ; will walk of with a light air when the medley-rigged craft is as good as brought up ; and in a breeze under topsail is even more comfortable and easy than the yawl. But the cutter must be snug ; there must be no aping the racing cutter, and all the spars must be pretty nearly reduced to the dimensions of the yawl : that is, the boom end must about plumb the taffrail ; the bowsprit—say for a 100-tonner—must only be about eighteen inches longer than the yawl's ; the mast must only be a little heavier; the topmast must be no longer ; and the gaff must be in due proportion to the boom. A common argument in favour of yawls as against cutters is this : a racing cutter of 80 tons is said to be an expensive vessel to work, is an awkward vessel to tackle in a sea, and is wet and uncomfortable, therefore do not have a cutter. But, on the other hand, if you wish to do a little racing without sacrificing comfort or incurring expense you are disinclined to, have a yawl of 80 tons ; the allowance for rig will put the vessel on an equality with the cutter, and she will win plenty of prizes; this means that, in the yawl rig a really comfortable cruiser can be had combined with qualities good enough for racing successfully.
There is possibly a very great delusion about this. A yawl to be a successful racer must be ballasted and canvassed pretty much as a cutter of equal size, and the expense of racing such a yawl will differ very little from that of racing a cutter; probably, tonnage for tonnage, the expense would be the same. There is as much difference between a cruising yawl
and a racing yawl as there is between a cruising cutter and a racing cutter, and it is a great mistake to suppose that a racing yawl includes the comforts of a good cruising cutter of equal size.
a2 The ultimate conclusion is, that the particular rig will depend upon the size of the yacht, and for cruising the rig should be : cutter up to 80 tons ; yawl from 80 to 150 tons ; schooner above that tonnage.
In deciding on a yacht for racing, the first thing to exercise the mind is, of course, which is the best size to have ? A builder will not unnaturally recommend something very large—something that one can live in with comfort and with all the luxuries of shore life, and at the same time strike an imposing figure in the yachting world. But, as a rule, very large craft are disappointing. If a schooner is decided upon, it will be best not to go much beyond 200 tons; and a yawl should not exceed 150 tons, nor a cutter 120 tons. It can be argued that years ago, in the latter half of last century and at the commencement of this, very large cutters, sometimes exceeding 200 tons, were afloat, and were so much superior in every good quality which a sailing vessel should have, that they were always referred to with pride as the " national rig." This is very true ; but the 200-tons cutter of fifty years ago was a very different kind of craft from what a 200-tonner of the present day would be. These old cutters were only about 80ft. long on the load line, with an extreme beam of 25ft. ; they had taunt masts, and what appeared to be long main booms, as so much projected over the taffrail aft ; but in fact their main booms were comparatively short—about 65ft., or no longer than Kriemhilda's, which we reckon as of only 106 tons. A 200-tons cutter, built according to existing ideas as to proportion of beam to length, would be a very different kind of ship indeed; she would be about 100ft. long, and have no more than 22ft. beam ; but, instead of being weighted with stone for ballast, she would carry probably 100 tons of lead, and her main boom would be at least 80ft. long. Having had some experience in handling a cutter's main boom that was a little over 70ft. in length, we are quite of opinion that a 200-tons cutter, or even one of 150 tons of the modern school, is not a desirable kind of racing craft; and 120 tons—which means about 90ft. length of load line, or more than the length of the old Alarm when she was a 193-tons cutter—is quite a prudent limit to strike.