AQUATICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 849, 8 June 1888, Page 14

AQUATICS.

SELF-RIGHTING UNSINKABLE BOAT BOR ROWING AND SAILING. (THE FIELD.) The following is a description of a 17ft. centre-board boat for rowing and sailing, and which is also a self-righting lifeboat. It contains several novelties which I believe have never been used before in boats, and as she has now been well tested during last year in different weathers, I can recommend the type to anyone wanting a boat of this ■Duo boat is an improved model of the Mersey sailing canoe, 17ft- long, 4ft. 9in. beam, and 2ft. depth, and is one of two twin boats built here for. the use of the J. of W. Corinthian Sailing Club ; planking, threeeighth yellow pine, garboards and top strake elm, timbers American elm spaced lOin. Stp'art, deck of i-in. matchboarding, covered over all with ope piece of unbleached calico frotp stem to sternposfc. The eeutre-boar 1 is made of three-eighth boiler plate, galvanised, and weighs SOlb. ; it work 3 in a case made of two pieces of sheet iron, as described in ‘ Yacht and Boat SailIng/ Nothing could look neater than this case, which is oniy lin. wide, and does not poige above the level of thwarts. The bpard is .raised or lowered its depth of 15in. by a flexible wire.-rope runuing oyer $ sheave in the after” upper corner of the case, worked by a small tackle under the after thwart. By this means no water can possibly splash.into the boat from the case and wet anybody. A hand pump discharges the bilge-water into this case. A water-tight bulkhead cuts eff the after 3ft. of the boat ; this is made of a sheet of tho thickest \yillesdon paper, clamped by battens and screws against the f<? re 9 C an extra etout timber cut to fit the plankipg, and bedded in red lead. Tho paper is protected from injury by a guard board. The bnoyaucy of the fore part ofjthe boat is obtained by an air case each side under the fore thwart, and reaching up to within 2ft. Sin. of the stem, so as not to interfere in any way with the stowing ofthe oars, spars, and gear forward. Those cases are made of Willesden paper, tacked round a light wood skeleton frame, built up to fit close against the planking. They arc lashed in their places, and a guard-board protects the inner sides and tops from injury, the outer sides foqing protected by fitting close against the timbers all al.ong. I bavo filled and capsized this boat several Hm.es, but she cannot fail to right herself, and her buoyancy is .such that when full of water she floated her ballast, centre-board, &c.(weighingsome42olb.), with myself and another person (22 stone total) standing dry footed, one on the fore {feck arid one on the after degk, We kept

i her thus for forty-five minutes, before pumping her out. 2461 b. of cast lead stow under the floor on each aide of the centre-hoard case, making, with the latter, a total weight of. 4001 b. The rig consists of staysail, mainsail, and mizen, made of duclc and oehred. Ihe staysail is hoisted and lowered by the same rope ; pulling one way it is a halyard, and the other way a down-haul, when a turn round a pin with tho slack stows the sail snug, supposing it is not practical to get up right forward and unhank it. The mainsail is cut on the Monte Yideo .plan, as shown in * Yacht and Boat Sailing ; ’ the yard is a male bamboo, fleshed with an elm batten ; the claw is of galvanised iron ; the boom is a hollow bamboo, and revolves to reef the sail ; the sheet hooks on to a gooseneck on the mast ; a small hump on the gooseneck fit 3 into a recess iu the boom end, and prevents it from revolving. In reefing, therefore, it is only necessary to Black the halyard a little (thi3 leads aft close to the seat),-the boom is then unshipped along its gooseneck an inch and a half, when it can easily revolve, and the sail is then rolled up or unrolled ; the boom is then pressed home again, the bump on the gooseneck fits into its recess, and a pull- on the halyard joins the boom, so that it becomes unshipped. This form of sail seems to me to ba peculiarly adapted for small boats, a 3 it sits wonderfully flat without the excessive strain on tho halyards necessary with a lug. The mizen is a jib-header, with a boom at the foot ; the step of tho mast is round instead of square, so that to reef it is only necessary to -turn the mast round in its step and roll up the sail ; the outbaul leads through a sheave in the boom end, and is rolled round the mast the opposite way to the sail, so that if 6in. of e nvas be rolled up on the mast exactly din. of outhaul are slacked up, and vies versa. Besides, leading as they do, one balances the other, and the mast has no tendency to revolve itself, though it can easily he made to do so with one hand. The tiller works the rudder as usual in these boats with two yokes, but improvement is added in the form of a mahogany boss containing a nut, which screws down on the spindle on which the tiller works, so that half a turn will lock the tiller in any position it is placed iu. This is particularly useful for taclciug, wearing, mackerel or pollack fishing, and reefing. With the above tiller and reefing gear I have, as a matter of fact, repeatedly put the boat about, and taken a reef in the mainsail and mizen before 3he filled on tho opposite tack. As everything leads aft, a waterproof apron buttons over the well for bad weather. At moorings it completely covers in the latter, and when under way the portion unbuttoned comes up under one’s chin, making a very snug boat of her. ,In calm weather she is easily sailed along, and she can be shoved over the sand in 9in. of water. A locker is fitted aft, between the backboard, which is hinged, and the watertight bulkhead. It has a perforated zinc bottom, so that everything inside is perfectly ventilated, and instead of things getting mildewed they actually dry if put away wet. I will only add that Mr Damp, the wellknown boatbuilder of thi3 place, can build these boats for £35 complete, and that I shall be very'pleased to give information on any point not clearly shown here to anyone wanting it. Ernest Du Bo'ulay. Bembridge, I. of W-, Feb. 13.

Trickett, tho sculler, says that he has every hope that .he will win the coming match against Hanlan.