The Plank-on-edge.—These changes led to a decline in yacht-racing, the new measurement exercising a prejudicial effect on the sport, as it enabled vessels of extreme length, depth and narrowness, kept upright by enormous masses of lead on the outside of the keel, to compete on equal terms with vessels of greater width and less depth, in other words, smaller yachts carrying an inferior area of sail. The new type was known as the “lead mine” or plank-on-edge type. Of this type were the yawls “Lorna” and “Wendur,” the cutters “May,” “Annasona,” “Sleuth-hound,” “Tara,” “Marjorie” and “Margarite”—the most extreme of all being perhaps the 40-tonner “Tara,” six times as long as she was broad, and unusually deep, with a displacement of 75 tons, 38 tons of lead on her keel, and the sail-spread of a 60-tonner like “Neva.”
In 1884 two large 80-ton cutters of the above type were built for racing, the “Genesta” on the Clyde and the “Irex” at Southampton. Having been successful in her first season, the former went to the United States in 1885 in quest of the America’s cup; but she was beaten by the “Puritan,” which had a moderate draught of 8 ft. 3 in. of water, considerable beam and a deep centre-board. The defeat of the “Genesta” was not surprising; she drew 13 ft. of water, had a displacement or weight of 141 as against the “Puritan’s” 106 tons, and a sail area of 7887 sq. ft. to the American’s 7982—a greater mass with less driving power. Still, she did not leave the States empty-handed, as she won and brought back the Cape May and Brenton Reef challenge cups, though they were wrested from her by the “Irex” in the following year. The same thing happened to the “Galatea,” which was beaten by the “Mayflower” in 1886. In all classes in British waters the narrow type was not carried to excess; indeed, as the narrowness of the new yachts increased annually, so did the popularity of racing decrease.
Plank-on-edge Type abandoned.—Prior to 1886 it had been the custom in Great Britain for several reasons to build the yachts deep, narrow, wall-sided, with very heavy lead keels and heavy displacement. The system of measurement had been a tonnage measurement, and under this system designers found, from the knowledge they had then attained from racing trials, that a narrow heavy vessel would beat a wider and lighter craft when both were measured by the tonnage rules. In America this was not the case. There a much lighter and wider form of yacht had been in vogue, having shallower draught and relying upon a centre-board for weatherliness instead of a deep lead keel. Hence in the International contests from 1884 to 1886 for the America’s cup and other events the trials were between deep and narrow British yachts and shallow and broad American yachts. Even in 1867, when G. L. Watson built the “Thistle,” much broader than “Genesta” and “Galatea,” this vessel was met and defeated by a far wider and shallower American sloop, namely, the “Volunteer” above referred to. British yachtsmen claimed that their narrow deep-keeled vessels were more weatherly and better sea-boats than the light American sloops, but racing honours rested with the Americans.
In 1887 the plank-on-edge type was completely abandoned in the United Kingdom. Thenceforward, therefore, the old spirited contests between deep British yachts and shallow American sloops ceased. Whilst Britain abandoned her narrow deep type, America soon also began to modify the old shallow centre-board sloop type, and so between 1887 and 1893 the rival types began to converge very rapidly, until the old idea of a race for the America’s cup being a test of a British type against an American type completely died out. Races sailed for that trophy, after 1887, were less and less trials of opposing national types, but merely contests between British and American designed yachts built upon the same general principle of similar type.
Dixon Kemp in 1887 induced British yachtsmen to abandon the system of measuring yachts by tonnage and to adopt a new system of rating them by water-line length and sail area. The new system contained no taxes or penalties upon beam or depth nor upon “over all” length. The only factors measured were the water-line and the area of the sails. All the old tonnage rules taxed the length and the breadth. The effect of this change of the system measurement was electrical. It crushed the plank-on-edge type completely. There was not another boat of the kind built.
Revival of Yacht-Racing under Length and Sail Area Rule.—Yachtsmen were greatly pleased with the broader and lighter types of yachts that designers began to turn out under the length and sail area rule. They were more comfortable and drier in a seaway than the old vessels. The first large cutters built with considerable beam were “Yarana” and “Petronilla” in 1888, and in 1889 the first of Lord Dunraven’s Valkyries was a vessel that was much admired. Then in 1890 “Iverna,” a handsome clipper-bowed cutter owned by Mr Jameson, came out and raced against “Thistle.” Meanwhile, up to 1892 a host of splendid 40-raters had been built; “Mohawk,” “Deerhound,” “Castanet,” “Reverie,” “Creole” “Thalia,” “Corsair,” “White Slave,” “Queen Mab” and “Varuna “' formed a class the like of which had never been surpassed in British waters. Watson, Fife and Payne were the most successful designers.
While a revival of yachting in the larger classes was notable under the rule Dixon Kemp had originated, the sudden popularity attained in the small classes in the Solent was even more remarkable. Under the tonnage rules deep narrow 3-tonners, 5-tonners and 10-tonners had raced about the coast, but the Solent did not seem to attract a greater number of yachtsmen as small boat sailors than the Thames, Mersey or Irish ports. Moreover, the Clyde really remained the most advanced centre of small yacht sailing. At Southampton, prior to Dixon Kemp’s rule being adopted by the Yacht-Racing Association in 1887, there were some sporting classes of so-called Itchen Ferry boats which raced on a rating consisting of length on the water-line only. As there was no tax upon their sail, they were built (according to the ideas of designers in 1885 or 1886, who had not by that time absorbed the knowledge of the value of bulb-keels) with great beam, immense displacement and very thick heavy lead keels and huge sail-spread. A sail area of 2200 sq. ft. was crowded on to a 30-foot yacht, and one 30-footer even carried a jointed spinnaker boom 56 ft. in length. It was not surprising that such a type never became popular; indeed the Southampton length classes in the ’eighties were no better than the extremely narrow 5-tonners and 3-tonners. The 5-tonner “Doris,” built by Watson in 1885, was 33 ft. 8 in. L.W.L., 5 ft. 7 in. beam, 7 ft. draught; displacement of 12.55 tons; 1681 sq. ft. of sail. The “Yvonne,” built by Fife in 1889, was 34.1 ft. L.W.L., 9 ft. beam, 8.1 ft. draught, with a displacement of 12.9 tons and a sail area of 1726 sq. ft. The difference in dimensions between “Doris” and “Yvonne” shows how the beam and sail-carrying power was increased in the new type, for “Yvonne” could beat the “Doris” with the greatest ease. With the advent of the length and sail area rule the Solent at once became the fashionable rendezvous for small racing yachts, and the craft known as the Solent classes, 5-raters, 2½-raters, 1-raters and ½-raters, flourished greatly.
The Second Great Era in Yachting.—As the years 1870 to 1880 will always be remembered for the great schooners and the glorious fleet of old-fashioned cutters and yawls, which showed such fine sport before they were outbuilt by the planks-on-edge, so will the seasons following 1892 be identified with the big cutter racing. In that year it was commonly said that yachtsmen would build no more very large cutters. The revival under the length and sail area rule had so far extended to “Iverna,” “Tarana,” “Petronilla,” and “Valkyrie I.” being built in the first class, but then there had been a pause of some years during which large numbers of 40-raters, 20-raters and the Solent classes had been built. Just when the critics were declaring that in the future no yachtsmen would build a class racer larger than a 40-rater (60 ft. L.W.L. with 4000 sq. ft. of sail), the prince of Wales (afterwards Edward VII.) gave an order for the cutter “Britannia,” while Lord Dunraven built “Valkyrie II.,” Mr A. D. Clarke “Satanita” and Mr Peter Donaldson “Calluna”; and in this same season (1893), an American yachtsman took the Herreshoff yacht “Navahoe” over the Atlantic. The new vessels averaged 87 ft. L.W.L. and carried about 10,300 sq. ft. of canvas, their beam being as much as 23 ft. They were an entirely different type from “Iverna” or
