"MACHINE" YACHTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 233, 1 October 1936, Page 6

"MACHINE" YACHTS.

» THEIR DAY PASSING? r s There are plenty of yachting men who j[ believe that the day of the racing machine i is nearly over, remarked a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" when commenting on the fact that only four of the biggest class of yachts were to compete at the reccnt t Cowes Regatta. i The champions who restored the prestige r of the great cutters in the early postwar i years have all slipped from the scene — i Britannia, White Heather. Luhvorth, Candida, , Cambria anrl Shamrock. This year the battle ; is between the two Endeavours, Velsheda and I Astra. There must be a reason for this, I and a large section of the yachting world is convinced that the present-day J-class design and the regulations which govern it are all wrong. It is being said frankly that the regulations require complete revision, and the introduction of a new and smaller type of cutter is advocated. An indication of this trend of opinion was given some time back when the suggestion was made to the Xew York Yacht Club that a smaller type should be engaged in the next races for the America Cup. The American authorities were not able to accept the suggestion, and their attitude was a reminder that yacht racing is nowadays so much an international affair that the qpinion of British yachting men cannot be the sole arbiter of design. Expensive to Maintain. The trouble with the "J" class is delicacy. They are seaworthy enough. They are fast enough. They are habitable enough. But they are expensive to maintain, and when repaiis are necessary the cost is a heavy item. The accident to Velsheda and Endeavour a few weeks back, when both lost their masts in the same squall, must have involved their owners in considerable expenditure. Moreover, the present-day owners, though men of wealth, are not men of leisure, and consequently there is a tendency for them to enter the yachts : only at those south coast regattas which they 1 can personally attend. " (

This "delicacy" of the big cutters is a wellknown factor. Rough weather, of which Britannia made nothing, is to tliein a source of constant anxiety. It is probably fair to say that none of the four now racing would be expected to come seathlcss through such a squall as hit the big class in Cowes Roads during racing one day in the regatta of 1927. Shamrock lay down so flat that it seemed iitipossiVle she could ever recover. Britannia, too, heeled to an angle that gave everyone a fright, and White Heather for a moment or two was completely blotted from view in the mist of spindrift. But nothing carried away in any of them. Faster but Less Hardy. Designers have given us a tvpe of big cutter that is definitely faster than the earlier craft. They are probably eight seconds per mile faster. Their rig, however, which gives them the speed, is not as storm-proof as was that under which cutters sailed in the 'nineties, nor does it stand up to stresses in the same way. Satanita, for example, once did an average of 13.7 knots for 50 miles. To drive a modern J-class boat under such pressure would wrench the mast out of her. An average of 11.7 knots is about as hard as anyone would care to drive her. The J class, in fact, are racing machines, with all the attendant characteristics of such specialised designs. They have not the hardiness of the true yacht. Ocean Races Popular. One symptom of the revolt of yachting opinion has been the revival of interest in the true cruisers and in the sport of ocean racing. The entries for the Cowes-St. Malo

1 race, for the Benodet-Santander, the Fastnet I and the Channel races have all gone up year by year. In these one sees the beamy, oceangoing craft competing, vessel? built originally perhaps for pilotage work or for deep-sea fishing. Even in the Little Ship Club we get this demand for real sea-going work, and their Brightlingsea-Ostend course, some 92 miles in length, will probably see at least thirty craft of from 25ft to 4oft in length competing. The Channel race will see nearly forty vessels crossing the starting line bent on covering the 220 miles to Le'Havre and back whatever the weather. The racing machine is not designed for that sort of worlf, and yet the whole sport of yachting is fundamentally bound up with real seafaring. Admittedly the old hands of 1593 condemned Britannia and Valkyrie 11. as hideous machines, a description that few of the present generation would ever have applied to the King's yacht, but those old hands were instinctively right. "Machines" was to be the right word for the big class for the next forty years. \our true yachting man is not enamoured of machines, even though he does accept the motor engine as an auxiliary. New Tendencies. There are plenty of yachting men who l>clieve that the day of the racing machine is nearly oyer. If this is so, yachting as a spectacle will lose one of its few attractions for the uninitiated. But yachting is not a public spectacle. Jt is one "of the few sports one can call to mind which has not fallen into the clutches of the commercial "promoters," the only one that is entirely free from gate money. Its devotees can please themselves what types of craft shall take part in the sport. The two trends of opinion are both away from the J class —the one towards the small racing craft, the other towards the ocean-going, hard-weatlier cruiser.