UNA BOATS Those wonderful little crafts called " Una " boats were introduced to us in 1853, in this way : the late Marquis of Conyngham (then Earl Mount Charles), was in America in 1852, and in the boat building yard of Robert Fish (now well known as a yacht designer), saw the boat since celebrated as the " Una." He sent her to London by steamer, whence she was transported by rail to Southampton, and then towed to Cowes. The Una, we believe, spent a summer on the Serpentine, but she did not there excite the interest she did at Cowes. In fact, the Cowes people almost regarded the Una as a little too marvellous to be real. To see the Una dodging about on a wind and off a wind, round the stern of this craft, across the bows of that one, and generally weaving about between boats where there did not look room enough for an eel to wriggle, astonished the Cowes people, who had never seen anything more handy under canvas than a waterman's skiff with three sails, or an Itchen boat with two. In short, the Una with her one sail showed such speed, and was so handy, that in less than a year there was a whole fleet of Unas at Cowes, and about the Solent. The genus was named Una after Lord Conyngham's importation, and to this day no class of boat is a greater favourite for smooth-water sailing.
In America, the Una or " cat-rig " as it is termed, is a great favourite, and at Newport, where the rig is mostly seen, the boats enjoy a great reputation for handiness, weatherliness, and speed. There is no doubt that the one sail plan is the best for weatherly qualities and for handiness, if there be no sea, and if it is all turning to windward. In a sea, however, the heavy mast, stepped so far forward, makes the boats plunge dangerously, and the boats themselves are so shallow that they are not very well adapted for smashing through a head sea. Off a wind they are extremely wild, and show a very great tendency to broach to.
This tendency of coming to against the helm is common to all shallow boats when they are sailed off the wind ; and if the rudder of a boat has to be kept right across her to check the tendency, speed is of course very much retarded. As a rule it is found that lifting the centre board greatly relieves the weather helm ; and as the board is not wanted off a wind, to increase the lateral resistance it is always better to haul it up ; the boat will steer all the better for it, and there will be leas surface for friction.
Some boat sailers have used a small jib on a short bowsprit when sailing off a wind ; the bowsprit would run out through an iron fitted to the stem head, and the heel could be lashed to the mast if no bitty were fitted, as there need not be. A shroud would be required each side, and a bobstay, but if the bowsprit were a mere bumpkin only three or four feet long, no shrouds would be required. If it were found necessary to luff up in squalls, the head sheets should be the first to be started, there fore they should lead aft. A few years ago a boat built on the model of the Una, had her mast shifted to 5ft. abaft the stem and a jib or foresail added and mainsail reduced ; she was found very easy on her helm when sailing off the wind, as might be expected; but on a wind she would not lie so close, and quite proved the inferiority of the two sails, so far as sailing in smooth water went. The advantages of the one sail are almost wholly confined to sailing to windward in smooth water, and, as sailing to windward under such conditions is the principal charm of sailing a small boat at all, the Una rig will retain its popularity.
A shallow boat like the Una is a little more unsafe perhaps than an ordinary sailing skiff, because they carry so much sail; and a person might be tempted into pressing them, because of the enormous stiffness they show up to the time that their gunwale or deck becomes level with the water.
However, with skilful management " Unas " are safe enough, and on the whole are not so dangerous as an open boat of similar length. They should always be lulled to squalls before their deck has a chance of being immersed, and a foot or two of main sheet (which should be held in the hand) given them if they cannot be relieved sufficiently without their being brought head to wind—a course never desirable if it can be avoided, as the boats soon lose steerage way. It is never advisable to let the main sheet go altogether with a boom sail, as it is with one without a boom, as the sail will not spill, and the boom may get in the water, which would be awkward, to say the least, if the boat got stern way on.