Yachting on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand is less agreeable; there is no convenient centre from which to start on many cruises, and between the harbours are long distances of usually stormy sea.
Once inside the Kaipara Harbour a large expanse of rather uninteresting water is available, but the rivers which flow into it are wide and picturesque, afford excellent wildfowl shooting, and are the home of the trade in Kauri timber. The huge logs are cut up by sawmills with giant circular saws. The trunks of the Kauri trees may be seen floating down the rivers from the forests above till they are caught, as they pass the various mills, by baulks stretched at an angle across the stream to intercept their progress. In the same way, once you get across the bar of the Hokianga River, many days may be spent in the land of oranges and lemons.
Travelling to the southern end of the North Island to the harbour of Port Nicholson, we come to Wellington, the capital, where the Port Nicholson Yacht Club have their headquarters.
An annual regatta is held here in January. The harbour, though magnificent for steamers or vessels of large tonnage, is subject to the gales and sudden squalls which blow through Cook's Strait as through a blast pipe, and therefore not always to be trusted. Not a few sad accidents have happened to small craft sailing on the waters of the harbour.
Most enjoyable excursions may be made from Wellington to the sounds on the northern shores of the South Island, but great care should be exercised in crossing Cook's Strait, though the distance to the first sound is but a few miles. The winds are local, and almost invariably north-west or south-east. Yachts running through the Straits should, therefore, be on the look out for a rapid change from the south-east to north-east, or from north-west to south-west, as they open out either entrance. Queen Charlotte and the Pelorus are the most picturesque of these sounds. They resemble somewhat the fiords of Norway, and though they have not the grandeur of the sounds on the west coast of this island, they are remarkable for the soft green contour of their slopes and the striking contrast between sky, shore, and sea which they present in clear weather.
Picton, at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound, is picturesquely situated, with a good wharf. Like those in the south, the sounds are so deep (20 to 25 fathoms) that, except in the coves, of which, fortunately, there is no lack, vessels have difficulty in finding an anchorage. Like the harbour of Wellington across the strait, these sounds are liable to many gusts from the mountain gullies, and care should be exercised whenever it is known to be blowing hard outside.
Pelorus Sound has even more coves and bays than Queen Charlotte Sound, and no inconsiderable time is necessary to explore the whole of it.
There is abundance of both wood and fresh water; in every part excellent fishing with the line may be had. Most of the catch will be new to English fishermen. Rock cod, blue cod, schnapper, the giant hapuka, a sort of cod, and the game kahawai, which will run like a salmon, are the best from a gastronomical and sporting point of view. Enough has been caught by a single line in a day to feed the whole crew of a man-of-war. Every sort of necessary provision is obtainable both at Havelock and Picton, at the heads of the respective sounds.
From the northern sounds every traveller will wish to proceed through the remarkable French pass to Nelson in Blind Bay. This bay is singularly free from gales and storms. Often, while a hurricane is tearing and raging through Cook's Strait, calm weather will be found to prevail without disturbance in Blind Bay.
The harbour of Nelson is formed by a very remarkable bank 4½ miles in length, covered with huge boulders and forming a natural breakwater to the harbour. There are one or two gaps in the bank at high water where boats and very small vessels may pass over, but the tide runs with such force that it is not advisable to attempt it.
The entrance is not more than 50 yards wide, and lies between the bold pinnacle of the Arrow Rock and the barrel beacon at the edge of the Boulder Bank. The entrance is easily effected on the flood, but the tides run very strong inand out of the narrow entrance. The climate of Nelson is perhaps the most perfect in all New Zealand, and the scenery of the bay, with its blue waters and background of snow-covered mountains in winter and early spring, excels anything that can be seen on the Riviera, while the climate closely resembles that of the French littoral of the Mediterranean; the only unpleasantness being the Waimea wind, felt in early spring down the valley of the Waimea, but it is neither so continuous nor so unpleasant as the Mistral of the Riviera.
Very pleasant expeditions may be made to Motueka and Collingwood, on the opposite shores of the bay. The Californian quail exists in great abundance on these shores; so much so that the little steamers plying weekly bring sackloads of the birds to Nelson, where they are preserved whole in tins for export.
The yachtsman should spend a sufficient length of time in exploring the indentations of the northern coast of the South Island, for next to that of the surroundings of Auckland he is likely to meet with the best weather for his pursuits to be found in New Zealand.
If he then wishes completely to exhaust the opportunities which the colony affords him, he may, choosing a fine day and favourable barometric indications, venture on the ocean to the southward. Let him, however, avoid the west coast, where the harbours are few and far between, and where those that exist are rendered difficult of access, save where great expense (as at Westport and Greymouth) has been incurred by the local authorities to erect breakwaters and dredge the bars. It is noteworthy that the harbours on the west coast of both islands, where they are also the estuaries of rivers, have dangerous shifting sand-bars, while those on the east coast are comparatively free from this objection.
If the yacht be taken down the east coast to Lyttelton, the traveller will pass in full view of the grand range of snow-covered mountains, the Kaikouras. With a north-easterly wind the sea does not get up to any extent, but if it shouldchange to south there is convenient shelter for small craft at Kaikoura.
The harbour of Lyttelton is an indentation of considerable depth and width in Banks Peninsula, which, rising from the flat plains of Canterbury to a height of some 3,000 feet, juts out into the ocean and extends twenty miles from the mainland with an average width of sixteen miles. This peninsula affords plenty of facilities for yachting. Lyttelton has a yacht club, and is connected by eight miles of railway with Christchurch, a town that has always borne the reputation of resembling those of the old country more closely than any other in New Zealand.
Inside the harbour are many pleasant anchorages for yachts, especially Quail Island and Ripa Island; also Governor's Bay, a favourite holiday resort of the people of Christchurch. It should be borne in mind that with a north-easterly wind a heavy swell comes rolling up the harbour, but a secure inner harbour of 107 acres has been formed by moles of rubble, where there is perfect safely for vessels of every kind.
There are many pleasant cruises to be made from Lyttelton to the various bays and harbours in the peninsula, such as to Port Leny and to Pigeon Bay, formerly a favourite station for whaling vessels; but the most interesting as well as the most beautiful is the harbour of the old French settlement of Akaroa. This harbour penetrates the peninsula to a distance of eight miles. The town of Akaroa is the centre of a fine pastoral district, most picturesquely situated on the slopes of green hills turned into fertile gardens. The French language is no longer to be heard in the streets, but the green 'persiennes' and the white fronts of the older houses bear witness to the nationality of their builders. Lucky it was for the Anglo-New Zealander of to-day that Captain Hobson, Lieutenant-Governor at Auckland in 1840, was both of hospitable intent and impressed with the necessity of 'pegging out claims' for the future of the English race. Lucky, too, that Captain Lavand, on his way to prepare for a shipload of French colonists, stayed to enjoy Captain Hobson's hospitality in Auckland, while the latter,having ascertained his guest's intentions, had time to despatch H.M.'s brig 'Britomart' with all possible speed to Akaroa, so that when the gallant Frenchman arrived he found the smart sailors of the 'Britomart' sitting at the foot of a recently erected flagstaff admiring a Union Jack flying from the top; by virtue of which they claimed the South Island of New Zealand for Queen Victoria in the same manner as Captain Hobson had recently done in the case of the North Island. These same French emigrants, stopping at St. Helena on their way out, visited the tomb of Napoleon, and piously preserved sprays cut from the weeping willows that surrounded it. From these sprays, planted and cherished on their arrival at Akaroa, sprang all the beautiful willows which grow with such rapidity, thrive so remarkably, and are so conspicuous a feature throughout New Zealand. In December of every year a regatta is held at Akaroa, and yachts from all parts of New Zealand, as well as boats' crews of one of H.M.'s ships, come to take part in it.
The yachting grounds proper of New Zealand may be said to be completed by the exploration of the peninsula below Christchurch, and yet the most remarkable waters of the colony remain unvisited.
These are the sounds of the south-western extremity of the island. To get to them, however, many miles of open ocean must be sailed over. Rarely does the wind blow from the east, and hard threshing against the wind is the usual condition of sailing from the 'Bluff' to the sounds. When they are reached, the giant mountains which hedge them in on every side shut out from some, for days and weeks together, the least puff of wind to fill the sails of the yacht; while the deep gullies running down the sides of the mountains in others admit sudden and violent gusts of wind full of danger to the small sailing craft.
There are interesting places to be visited on the way, such as the harbours of Timaru and Oamaru, where man at vast labour and expense has wrested from the violence of the ocean a small space of calm water in the long straight coastline, well named the Ninety-mile Beach, on which the rollers break and roar with ceaseless monotony; or the beautiful harbour of Port Chalmers, leading to Dunedin, the Scotch capital of Otago. The uninviting looking harbour of the Bluff, where the traveller may touch the most southerly lamppost in the world, lies opposite to Stewart's Island, and is separated from it by Foveaux Strait, one of the most extensive oyster beds in the world. There are several fine harbours in Stewart Island, especially the spacious port of Paterson's Inlet, full of coves and bays.
Yachts bent on visiting the sounds should be warned that a strong current consequent on the quantity of water pouring down from the mountain torrents is usually found to oppose the entrance of a yacht into each sound, and that it is very rarely that the wind blows strong enough to bring yachts in. Generally speaking, within a mile of the entrance a dead calm with heavy swell will be found, rendering it both difficult and dangerous to make the entrance.
Once inside the depth is so great that, except where a river runs in at the head, there is little chance of anchorage, and the vessel must be made fast by tying her to a tree.
There is land communication with one sound (Milford) alone, and that only by a foot track. One or two men manage to eke out a hermit's existence in certain of the sounds, but are chiefly dependent on the periodical visits of the Government steamer; otherwise the only living things on the land are the wingless kiwis and kakapos, and an occasional seal lying upon the rocks. Probably no one visiting New Zealand will care to omit a trip to these sounds; but let the yachtsman leave his vessel snugly berthed in the harbour of Lyttelton or Port Chalmers, and pin his faith to the screws of the Union Steamship Company's well-found vessels, rather than to the sails of his own craft.
For a yachting expedition to New Zealand the month of January, February, March, or April should be chosen. During these months in the northern parts of the colony and on thecoast a N.E. sea breeze sets in daily about ten in the morning, and dying away at sunset is succeeded by a westerly or land wind. The yachtsman may generally reckon on these winds; but if the land wind should not set in towards evening the sea breeze may increase to a gale, when he can remain safe at his anchorage till it has blown itself out—a proceeding which generally occupies not more than twenty-four hours. These gales occur on an average but once in six weeks, and should be looked for when the moon changes or comes to the full.
I have already spoken of the winds of Cook's Strait; those likely to be met with between it and Banks Peninsula will be chiefly north-easterly and light in summer. Southerly and south-easterly gales, known as 'southerly busters,' often last three days, and bring cold rain and dirty weather. Very strong, hot north-westers blow across the Canterbury plains to Banks Peninsula, and are particularly drying and unpleasant. Their approach can generally be foretold by a remarkable clearness of the atmosphere, and an arch of cloud over the Southern Alps, showing blue sky between the cloud and the snow peaks.
The climate in the central and southern parts of the colony is remarkably like that of Great Britain, with more wind and more sunshine, while the northern part resembles that of the shores of Europe washed by the Mediterranean. Indeed, if one takes the map of New Zealand and turns it upside down, imagining the two islands joined together at Cook's Strait, its general similarity in outline and configuration to Italy will at once become apparent. The Southern Alps, the Spencer Mountains, and the Ruahine Mountains, like the Alps and Apennines in Italy, form the head and backbone of the country. The rich plains of Otago and Canterbury answer to those of Lombardy and the Campagna, while the palms and fern-trees of Auckland wave against a sky as blue as that of Naples.
The coast is more indented, the harbours more spacious than those of the Mediterranean; the islands in the north are more numerous, and though the winds blow stronger and thesea runs higher when gales come on, the weather is far less treacherous than that of the Mediterranean, and gives better warning of its approach. For those who wish to enjoy two summers without a winter, to see some of the most remarkable natural phenomena of the world, and the most interesting and most developed savage race with which Englishmen have come in contact; to explore fresh waters; to find an ample supply of good provisions, suited to European requirements; to live among fellow-countrymen who will assuredly give a hearty and hospitable welcome, and to realise something of the extent, the variety and the vastness of the Queen's Empire, I can suggest no better nor more enjoyable cruise during the English winter months than one round the beautiful islands of Antipodean Britain.
Frascati and pierhead at Havre.
Frascati and pierhead at Havre.
The year 1891 will be memorable in the history of French yachting as the date of the beginning of a thorough organisation for the encouragement of what in France is called 'navigation de plaisir,' a term which will soon contract to our simpler word 'yachting.' The French have long, however, had a taste for the sport. For half a century at least Havre has beenen fêtein the month of July with a great deal of rowing and sailing, encouraged by crowds on the quays of the port, whence they could enjoy the sport much more than if they were afloat. All this is due to the energy and encouragement ofthe Société des Régates au Havre, under the patronage of the Minister of Marine and the City of Havre.
HAVRE REGATTA CHART. HAVRE.
HAVRE REGATTA CHART. HAVRE.
In the year 1891 the regatta was first conducted in a business-like manner. A yachting tribunal was instituted in Paris to make rules and arrange the details of racing. The society, styled 'Union des Yachts Français,' 45 Rue Boissy d'Anglas, Paris, was very heartily taken up by all the best men in France, and absorbed the other clubs. The President is Contre-Amiral Baron Lagé; Vice-Presidents, M. E. Pérignon, Baron Arthur de Rothschild, Comte Alain de Guébriant, and M. Henri Menier, with a Council of twenty-eight, and a tremendous administration of commissions or committees for everything. The list of members amounts to 520, and their yacht list comprises over 300 vessels of sorts and sizes.
Harbour at Havre.
Harbour at Havre.
NICE REGATTA CHART.
NICE REGATTA CHART.
After Havre, Nice ranks as a French yachting centre. The regatta is always held about the 12th to 15th of March—a time of the year when we are generally experiencing a kind of weather which totally removes any idea of yachting from our minds. The Union des Yachts Français patronise thisfête nautique, which is sometimes assisted by English yachts that are in the Mediterranean; for instance, Lord Dunraven's'Valkyrie' has been amongst them, and Lieut. W. Henn's 'Galatea,' he being a member of the Club Nautique, 8 Quai Masséna, Nice, a club founded in 1883, with rather more than one hundred members. At the present time several English gentlemen belong to it. Their 'Siège' is No. 12 Rue St. François de Paula à Nice. These foreign yacht races do not offer any inducements to our finer and larger craft, as few of the competitors are over 20 tons. The City of Nice gives good prizes, as under:—
The courses are very short—about 11½ miles in the triangle once round; and in the race from Nice to the flagboat off Monaco the course there and back is only about 19 miles. The whole arrangements are carried out according to the rules and regulations of the U.Y.F., which have given great satisfaction at Nice as well as at Havre.
It was at Nice that the idea of a race for steam yachts was first carried out. Two vessels entered, and only two; and as the 2nd prize and medal was 120l., they both had something to try for. The two were the 'Eros,' 850 tons, Baron A. Rothschild, and 'Francisca.' The 'Eros' won the first prize, 600l.and medal.
'VALKYRIE,' NO. 1.53 tons(Commendatore Florio, Nice Yacht Club).
'VALKYRIE,' NO. 1.53 tons(Commendatore Florio, Nice Yacht Club).
His Majesty the Emperor William having bought the English yacht 'Thistle,' 170 tons, and Prince Henry of Prussia having built a new 40-rater, the 'Irene,' designed by G. L. Watson (as also a small rater, the 'Niny,' from Arthur E. Payne), the idea of an Imperial German Yacht Club naturally arose, and in 1891 one was established at Kiel, a place admirably adapted for the purpose. The whole matter was taken up so heartily along the coast that there are at the present time more than 550 members belonging to the club. Of course the number of yachts is not in proportion as yet, but this will gradually develope, and in the meantime it is very pleasant to know that the 'Thistle' has become the mother of such a club.
The Swedish Club, established 1832, is very strong, having five yachting stations—Stockholm, Goteborg, Norrköping, Malmö, and Ornskoldsirk—the members owning vessels of good tonnage, schooners, screw steamers, cutters and yawls, numbering over 170.
Yachting in Canada dates back as a pastime almost to the first days of its colonisation. Halifax, Toronto, and Quebec can boast of yacht clubs which were formed long before the seventies, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, being the Royal Canadian Yacht Club at Toronto, which was started as far back as the year 1852, and now has a fleet of forty yachts and more. On Lake Ontario, a superb sheet of water some 200 miles long by 40 in breadth, with a depth in places of over 100 fathoms, and well adapted for either cruising or racing, the sport has been cultivated as a sciencefor many years, so much so in fact that, in 1873, a leading authority on such matters wrote, 'Yachting is fast becoming the national pastime of Canada.'
In 1872 there were yachting stations at Toronto, Coburg, Kingston, Hamilton,—the club at Hamilton was made a Royal Club in 1888—Belleville, and other ports on the confines of the Lake, where numerous regattas have been held each season; but, as the prosperity of colonial yachting entirely depends on the state of trade, these small communities have seen many ups and downs. During Lord Dufferin's tenure of office as Governor of Canada a great impetus was given to things maritime, and the author of 'Letters from High Latitudes,' who owned and sailed a small 7-tonner at the time, lent a very able helping hand to all that concerned yachting in Canadian waters. Yachts of all descriptions are to be found there, from the small skimdish of a 'sharpie,' with its enormous centreboard and cloud of canvas, to the stately schooner of 200 tons and over. In 1872 there were only one or two vessels of English design or build on Ontario (which is practically the chief yachting centre), of which the best known was the little 'Rivet,' 17 tons, that had been built at Glasgow and was brought out in frame some years before. At the present time, however, anyone visiting Ontario would see many old Scotch and English favourites cruising about; more than one of our smartest 10- and 5-tonners are now registered on Canadian books, while most of our principal yacht designers have representatives of their skill flying racing flags and built to the Canadian tonnage rule.
As there is communication with the ocean by canal and riverviâMontreal, Quebec and the St. Lawrence, besides through canal with New York, yachts from outports are not infrequent visitors, and they take part from time to time in the several local regattas. The lake, as might be expected, is often troubled by severe squalls, which now and then, if of long continuance, create a very heavy sea disturbance. Luckily, this does not occur very often, though moderately greasyweather sometimes has its advantages in giving tone and colour to the enjoyments of open sea navigation.
Of the principal Canadian outports, Halifax and Quebec are the oldest and most sporting. The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Club, which was established in 1875, and is stationed at Halifax, is one of the leading clubs in the Dominion; that at Quebec dates back over twenty years; and the St. Lawrence Club, at Montreal, with its fleet of eighty yachts, some five years. At Halifax there used to be a very sporting club, called the Royal Halifax Yacht Club, which would hold precedence of the R.N.S.Y.C., as one of the oldest societies of the kind in Canada, did it exist as such, but it is believed to have been blended into the latter club and to have assumed its new name.
Canada is rich in all the necessaries that are called into play in ship- and yacht-building, the woods she provides for the purpose being some of the finest in the world. Nothing can come up to her timbers, such as the spruce, yellow and red pine varieties, either for length, evenness of grain, or freedom from knots, and it is to Canada that we in England are so deeply indebted for most of the timber used in our shipbuilding yards.
In Australia yachting has had, and in some places still has, a hard fight to assert itself against the exciting sport of horse-racing. The oldest yachting community is that stationed at Sydney, New South Wales, where the two leading clubs date back to the years 1863 and 1867, viz. the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, and the Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Yacht-racing, however, was carried on long before those years, and perhaps owing to the fine piece of water, some twelve square miles in area, enclosed within Port Jackson Heads, which lends itself to aquatic pursuits, yachting here has taken greater hold of the inhabitants than at any other place in the Southern Ocean. No finer boat sailers exist anywhere than at Sydney. There are a goodly number of yachts connected with the Port, and no moneyor care has been spared to keep the Sydney fleet up to date. Both Messrs. G. L. Watson and W. Fife, jun., to say nothing of other well-known designers, have from time to time given a helping hand towards furthering this end. The classes, however, which give the most sport, and which can draw together 5,000 or more onlookers during a racing day, are those that include the open boats. These are altogether a speciality of Sydney.
The limits of the three principal classes are—for the
First Class.—24 ft. length, with not less than 7 ft. beam, and 3 ft. depth.
Second Class.—19 ft. length, with not less than 6.5 ft. beam, and 30 in. depth.
Third Class.—17 ft. length, with not less than 5 ft. beam, and 20 in. depth.
These boats are all centreboarders. When in Australia the writer was shown the 'Victor' as the finest example at that time of the large class. She was 34 ft. long, had 8 ft. beam, and a depth of 3 ft. A description of her was given in 'Hunt's Yachting Magazine' some years ago. She was built of colonial cedar, and of ½-in. planking. Her frames were of bent elm, the sternpost and knees of tea-tree, while her keel was of tallow-wood. Her draught aft was 21 in., and forward 2 in., with the crew of sixteen men on board. She carried a racing centreboard of ¼-inch plating, 9 ft. long, and 6 ft. deep, with a double drop, allowing the plate when lowered to hang with its length horizontal to the keel. For ordinary occasions the racing centreboard was unshipped, and a smaller one substituted in its place. No dead ballast is allowed in these boats, and two air-tight or cork cushions are carried under the thwarts, because no boat is permitted to start for a race unless she possesses sufficient buoyancy to keep afloat should she happen to turn turtle or capsize. The 'Victor' was fitted, like all the boats of her class, with stringers running fore and aft, about two feet from the gunwale, which allowed the crew to sit double-banked, the outside contingent on the weathergunwale, with their feet under the stringer, the inside on the stringer itself. When shifting from the starboard to the port tack, orvice versâ, both outside and inside men go over at the same time, the inside men becoming outside, and the outside of the previous tack becoming inside. The 'Mantura' and 'Craigielee' are also fine specimens of the 24-feet class. Photographs of these two boats under way are hung in the billiard-room of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club House.
The wood these boats are planked with is fine, hard, durable stuff; and lends itself, when finished off, to the formation of a beautifully smooth surface, which readily takes a good polish. This colonial cedar is used for deck-fittings, &c., and takes the place of mahogany with us. New South Wales is certainly very bountiful to yacht-builders in its supply of timber for all purposes connected with their trade, though New Zealand has to supply the pine-wood for yachts' decks. For floors three native woods are employed—honeysuckle, white mahogany, and tea-tree—while iron bark, so well known for its value in the building of whalers, is excellent for knees and suchlike. All these woods offer strong, naturally grown shapes, and forks of the most acute angles. Spotted gum is generally employed for bent timbers; another wood is found in the tallow-tree, which is very suitable for keels, owing to its hard yet oily nature.
From its position the harbour suffers from uncertain winds, but should there be a clear sky and a hard north-easter there need be no fear that the racing will not prove of the very best. The regatta course forms an obtuse-angled triangle, and as a short stretch has to be taken across the mouth of the harbour, it not infrequently happens that a very uncomfortable sea has to be negotiated before the second buoy can be rounded for the run home.
Hobson's Bay is a much larger tract of water, being close upon ninety miles in circumference. It is not, however, navigable in all parts owing to extensive shoals. These, though very much in the way of navigation, help to form a kind of breakwater to the anchorages off Sandridge and Williamstown,which are open to southerly and south-westerly winds, and would accordingly, but for them, be often swept by very heavy seas. The principal yacht club is the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, established at Melbourne; but there are numerous small yacht and boat clubs scattered about the colony at various towns, such as Sandhurst, Bendigo and Ballarat, where there are lagoons or lakes varying in size from three to many miles in circumference. The Albert Park Yacht Club, at Melbourne, is a good type of one of these inland institutions. The yachts or boats employed on the Albert and Ballarat lagoons range from 14 feet to 30 feet over all, They have great beam, and because the depth of water is as a rule shallow, have rarely over 4 feet to 5 feet draught. Good sport is obtained out of them, and races are continually taking place.
At Geelong, which is a fine natural harbour about forty miles from Melbourne, and off the open anchorages of St. Kilda and Brighton, yachts are moored during the season, and at these places are to be found any number of yachting enthusiasts.
The club course is a very good one for trying the respective merits of competing yachts, and many an exciting race has been sailed over it. Intercolonial regattas have been held, which have proved great successes, and for these, owners of yachts of 40 tons and under think nothing of working their way from port to port over an expanse of a thousand miles or so of ocean. The yachts built in the colony are framed and planked with the wood of the red gum-tree, which is, in fact, the only wood the colony produces that is of any real value for the yacht-builder's use. It takes the place of larch or pitch-pine with us.
Both Adelaide, in South Australia, and Auckland, in New Zealand, possess yacht clubs, and are the homes of many keen lovers of yacht racing. The Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron, at the former place, has been in existence for almost a quarter of a century. The New Zealand yachtsmen can boast of possessing in their midst perhaps the finest woods in the world, and nothing can beat the kauri pine for decks, though in England and other countries it is generally knownonly for the excellent masts and spars that can be got out of it. A Scotch builder once reported that he found it very apt to twist and warp; but most likely the wood had been cut badly, for that is not the general opinion regarding it in the colonies, where it is almost invariably employed for decks. New Zealand, however, has been treated at length in the preceding chapter.
At Bombay, Malta and Hong Kong regular annual regattas are held, besides numerous matches and races during the yachting seasons. British built or designed yachts, to say nothing of those produced by local talent, are to be met with in all three ports. At Malta and Bombay very flourishing Royal Yacht Clubs exist.
Lateen yachts, Bombay Club, 1887.
Lateen yachts, Bombay Club, 1887.
The yachts at Malta are principally cutter or Bermuda rigged vessels, and range from 20-tonners downward. The Royal Bombay Yacht Club possesses a house beautifullysituated near the Apollo Bunda, or main pier, and the yacht anchorage is within hail of the club lawn. About two dozen or more yachts make use of it, among them being steamers and vessels of every method of fore-and-aft rig. Two or three are British built, and among these is the easily recognised little 3-tonner 'Senta,' so well known in Kingstown during the palmy racing days of the 3-tonner class. One of the latest additions to the fleet is a small Clyde-built yacht something under 5 tons, with the fashionable fiddle-headed bow. This boat the writer saw under way. There were a number of dhows, large enough to carry three or four such yachts inboard, making up harbour with a fine sailing breeze just a point abaft the beam, which placed them on one of their best points of sailing. They appeared to be slipping through the smooth water at a high speed, leaving it as clean as if it had never been disturbed, and everything was in their favour for making a quick passage. The little Clyde boat had been knocking about the harbour and was well astern of the dhows, when she was hove round and made to stand on after them. Favoured with the same wind, gradually she began to draw up to them, and bit by bit overhauled and passed each one, leaving them in a manner which made me doubt very much whether the rate of speed with which dhows are so often credited can really be so great. The dhow-rigged racing yachts make very good reckonings. They have considerable draught forward, with a small draught aft, and the foremast (the masts rake forward) has its step almost over where the largest body and the greatest draught happens to be. These yachts, like all vessels of a similar rig and build, are never tacked, but are always gybed, and naturally in a triangular course they lose much time when racing against cutters and schooners.
ROYAL BOMBAY YACHT CLUB.1886. Sailing Course.
ROYAL BOMBAY YACHT CLUB.1886. Sailing Course.
The rules of the Yacht Racing Association, with the measurements, regulations, and time allowances, have been adopted by most of, if not all, the clubs mentioned in the Australias and elsewhere, and nothing can equal the cordial reception accorded to all lovers of yachting who visit their colonial cousins. It isonly to be desired that, as in rowing and cricket, so in yachting, a systematic and frequent interchange of friendly contests may soon be inaugurated between them and their mother-country which shall eventuate in a general enlightenment all round on things pertaining to yachting.
The Bermudian's hobby is going to windward, and to be really happy he must have a semicircular fin or plate on his keel like that described by Lord Pembroke. Bermuda has a Royal Yacht Club which gives prizes and holds regattas at Hamilton. There is also a Dinghy Club, of which the Princess Louise is Lady Patroness. Lord and Lady Brassey each presented a Challenge Cup when they visited Hamilton in 1883 in the 'Sunbeam.' One class here deserves special notice.
'Fitted Races' are the chief joy of the true Bermudian. The owner apparently gives up his boat to the fiendish devices of his 'pilot,' as the nigger boatman is called, who gets the biggest mast, spars and sails he can find, often a 50-foot mast in a 25-foot boat, and a 35- or 40-foot boom topping up with a huge square-sail as big as a ship's maintop-gallant-sail. He then collects all the other niggers he can find, dresses them in striped jerseys and caps, puts them up to windward, over a ton and a half of shifting ballast, serves out a lot of rum all round, and off they go, generally with the head of the mainsail lashed (no halliard) to the masthead, so that she must carry her whole sail all through the race or swamp. The present writer's experience is confined to many good dustings in that admirable craft the 'Diamond,' with her very able skipper Burgess, coloured gentleman (bien culotté), both of which were lent to Lady Brassey by Admiral Sir Edmund Commerell. She was built of cedar, and her lines and midship section are given in Dixon Kemp's 'Boat-sailing.'
Fitted races at Bermuda, 1863.
Fitted races at Bermuda, 1863.
Dimensions of average Bermudian boat of 5 tons
Mr. Charles Ricardo, Secretary of Upper Thames Sailing Club, who sailed with the owner of the 'Cara,' a 28-foot boarder, kindly furnishes the following description of a Fitted Race.
The morning of the race it blew hard, and we sailed out to the leeward mark-boat half under water, the 'Cara' having only about 14 in. freeboard, and on board there were six hands, a big spinnaker boom, and some two dozen so-called sandbags for shifting. These had been apparently filled with mud, not sand, and as they rapidly got soaked, we looked more like navvies fresh from a clay-pit than boat sailers. There are many gradations of dirt and various degrees of saturation from salt water, but this combination is unapproachable. We caught a line from the mark-boat and shifted jib, owner going out on the bowsprit for this function, and getting a couple of green seas well in the small of his back—it didn't matter. We were well soaked already, so more or less was quite immaterial to us. We were hanging on to the stake-boat some time, waiting for the other craft to arrive, with nothing particular to do but bale out and try to dodge the things kicking about in the bottom of the boat. I had no shoes on, and there was one baler. I thought I had put it into a locker three times, and was watching the wretched thing edge out again and prepare to fall on my toes, sharp edge down of course, when the owner sung out lustily, 'Boat bearing down to hang on!' She was a regular Bermudian with 'fitted' gear, enormous spars, and her big sail up, a crew of coloured gentlemen crowded up to windward, and foaming through it like a tugboat after a homeward-bounder. She had to gybe under our stern and run lip alongside the mark-boat, and—Swish, over came the boom again; swish,went the end of it into the water. She heeled over tremendously, and did not seem to right, as she ought to have done. We guessed at once what had happened: her ballast was to leeward—those mud bags—it had not been shifted in time as she came round, and of course kept her on her beam ends; she gradually settled down and sank in about four minutes. The water was full of yelling niggers, who mostly swam for us; there seemed to be some hundred of them—anyway they yelled like it. They nearly swamped us scrambling in; finally we got rid of them on to the mark-boat, and very glad we were, as a few dozen damp niggers all asking at the same time for drinks are not much fun in a small boat with a bit of a sea on. At the time it was not enjoyable; still it is an episode in yachting experiences which grows more pleasant to refer to as it looms astern and becomes ancient history. When one starts for a day's sport, it is weak to allow a trifling incident like this to mar the even tenor of its way, and at Bermuda one dries so soon.
A great deal of dinghy racing is done at St. George's, and it will be well to notice here the peculiarity of these boats and their gear. The normal dimensions of the dinghy are as follows:—
Dinghies are fearfully and wonderfully made things, with their plate on as in the big boats, the sails lashed up and set in. Five lunatics come next in the prescription; these embark very gingerly indeed—quite a bit of fancy work—while some one holds on to the mast from the top of the wharf to prevent accident, and when they think they are ready and balanced they are shoved off. Directly she feels the wind over she goes, and four hands stretch out to windward as far as possible, the fifth being busy baling, which is a most important feature of dinghysailing. A very exciting amusement it is. As long as the boats can be kept right side up they do go a tremendous pace. Waiting about before the race and gybing are the most exciting and dangerous times, as three dinghies have been known to capsize in one race before starting. Bathing costume is considered the correct thing, and is well adapted to the climate; it is also desirable in this sport to be able to swim, as there is no room in the boats for such superfluities as life-belts. The 'Diamond' was a very fine boat, and splendid in a wind; as the mainsail represents the usual mainsail and jackyarder all in one, the whole sail-area forms the desirable equilateral triangle a little aft to send her up to the wind.
Bermuda rig.
Bermuda rig.
The fitting of the boom is different from any other rig, as it passes on one side beyond the mast; a tail block haulsthe boom right aft, and counteracted by the mainsheet gives a very flat sail indeed; great results are obtained, all the advantages of a standing lug on a large scale being secured, while the tension can be increased and the canvas made flatter. Space cannot be afforded for her lines, midship section and sail-plan, good as they are, still 'Diamond' is decidedly a good cedar-built representative craft:—
The extravagances of Bermudian water frolics have been given here as very extreme instances of yachting enjoyments; still Bermuda is a splendid place for sailing. You can leave the island on a Friday for New York, arriving on Monday; leave New York on Tuesday, and in a week more be back in the old country.