ENGLISH YACHTING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 865, 11 July 1910, Page 8

ENGLISH YACHTING.

Prospects for the coming yachting season (says/tho London' "Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News") are in every way excellent, for tho various classes schcdnlcd under the International Rules will be, with but few exceptions, strongly represented. A capital programme has beeu arranged for the largo yachts that tour round the coast, with tho time-honoured Southend-to-Harwich matches, and culminating in a great international regatta at Ryde on August 8 and 9. Interest will he divided this year hetween tlie big cutters and A class for schooners, yawls, and ketches, exceeding 23 metres rating. The former, being for vessels of 23 metres rating only, is, of course, a scratch class, the first boat home being tho winner. But tho yachts in the A class, which is nowadays composed entirely of schooners, sail under the international time scale of four seconds per mile for oath metre of rating. Although the leading craft at the finish is not necessarily the winner, the sport is of a much higher order than ordinary handicap racing, as the time allowance, which attaches to the rating and not to tho individual yachts, has been calculated upon a scientific basis, and merely servo to place vessels of different sizo upon terms of equality. Although the racing of the first-class cutters Shamrock and White Heather last summer was the finest that has over been witnessed between largo yachts, the reappearance of the Nicholson-designed Brynhild, after a season's idleness, will be warmly welcomed. When two vessels, as evenly matched, in point of speed as the Fife cutters, are engaged in a series of duels, all the excitement is crammed into tho five minutes between the guns at the start; for when one has got clear away, the match usually resolves itself into a procession. The yachts may be within a stone's .throw of one another throughout tho match, but, barring such contingencies as flukes of wind and accidents, tho one that has tho best of the start will retain her advantage- to tho finish. But when a third competitor enters the lists tho position is at once- changed, for no yacht can "mark" two opponents at one and the samo time. The presence of Brynhild, therefore, should have the effect of opening up the racing, and Sir James Vender's yacht will have many a chance during the season of slipping away -with a nice lead whilst the old rivals Shamrock and White Heather are engaged in jockeying one another. Although Brynhild was in 1908 as fast as either of tho Fife cutters in certain conditions of weather., she could not quite hold them in light breezes, and Sir James Tender has had her altered during the pa-st winter with a view to improving her in soft winds. The additional canvas will amount to approximately 1000 square feetj increasing the total sail area to some 10,400 square feet, or about the same as that carried by Britannia in her racing days. To accommodate this extra sad, the yacht has shipped a new mast somo ' 4ft. longer than the old one,, and her bowsprit has been lengthened by about 2ft. Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock, which has bended the class for the past two seasons, has also hud some modifications effected to her hull with a view to enhanced speed. Her garboards have been padded out with tnahongany, in a similar manner to that employed in tho case of White Heather last year, and her alterations will enable her to carry more sail.