to Norfolk to try his fortune, he may depend on a welcome and fair play.

We have had no personal practical experience in sailing the little yachts which add so much to the beauty of Windermere, but we may state that the rig is exactly the same as that of the Norfolk sloops. The form of the hull is also strikingly alike, but the Windermere yachts have more of the counter immersed, draw much more water, and have an enormous weight of lead on their keels. This is necessary on account of the sudden and heavy squalls which sweep down from the mountains. These may throw the yacht on her side, but the weight of lead will raise her again when the sheets are eased or the wind pressure removed. Mr. Kemp says these boats are uncapsizable, and may be made unsinkable by means of water-tight compartments or full decking.

Their great draught of water, however, unsuits them for river sailing, and for sea other types of boats have their advantages over the Windermere ones. Their spars and sails are unfitted for sea work, for the same reason as the Norfolk craft, and if these are reduced to seagoing size the boats would not sail so fast, owing to the bluffness of their bows; their great displacement in comparison with their length and their general "tubbiness," which requires an enormous quantity of sail to drive them. These boats, therefore, are not likely to come into general use, except on lakes like Windermere. At the same time we should state that these deductions are not from our own experience, but from the information derived from others.

CHAPTER X.

LUG SAIL BOATS-CLYDE BOATS-THE COBLE -CRAB BOATS SPRIT-SAILS

MUDIAN-SLIDING GUNTER.

LATEEN

THE old fashioned lug sail without a boom is scouted by many because it is old-fashioned, so that its use is now chiefly confined to fishermen. The exceptions that now occur to us as within our own knowledge, are the amateur sailors of the Clyde, and a Club of coble sailors on the Northumberland and Durham coast.

to us,

The fishermen are very fond of the lug. As one of them said "When you let go the sheet the sail is nothing more than a flag," meaning that it did not hold any wind as a sail, as a boom will, in some degree, even when the sheet is eased off to its utmost or let go altogether.

At sea, there is, of course, much more room than on a river, and there is seldom any necessity for frequent and short tacks. Therefore in the lug sails used by the fishermen the tack of the lug is carried past the mast and made fast to the weather bow. More effect is given to the sail when stretched out in this way, and the mast need not be stepped so far forward, as the centre of effort of the sail is carried forward with the luff, but there is an inconvenience and a danger attending what is termed the "dipping lug." At every tack the sail has to be lowered, the sail shifted to the other side, and the sail again hoisted. This is a trouble and inconvenience which would be inadmissible in narrow channels. The danger is, that if the boat is luffed too

quickly she may shoot off on the other tack, or may be thrown off by a wave, before the sail is down or its tack unbent. The result of this would be that the sail would be a back sail, and a capsize would be almost sure to occur. However much the fisherman may like their dipping lugs, which they use on all sizes of craft, the amateur should either have a boom or make

FIG. 27. THE CLYDE LUG-SAIL BOAT.

the tack of the sail

fast to the mast or the mast thwart.

For sea work, where beaching is not necessary, the Clyde type of lug sail boat is the best that we are aware of. They are boats of 18ft. or 19ft. long, with a beam of about one-third their length, a good draught of water, and iron or lead keels. They have plenty of freeboard (the height of the hull above the water line), which is an ad

vantage in keeping the water out, although it must be remembered that it offers great resistance to the wind when it is unusually high. They have square sterns, that is, they have no counter. The mast is of great height and stepped well in the bows; the yard is a long and heavy spar, and supports an enormous sail; the sheet traverses a horse on the stern. The drawing (Fig. 27) is to

scale, although owing to the number of figures we have to introduce, and the space they occupy, it is necessarily very small.

The Clyde sailing boats are not usually decked, owing to regulations in their racing clubs, but where these regulations do not apply we think that a Clyde boat with a lead or iron keel, and well ballasted, and with a half deck, waterways and water tight compartments to make her unsinkable, would be one of the best boats to knock about in a seaway that we could have. And for such a purpose we should much prefer the lug sail without a boom to

the other rigs which the Clyde men try from time to time. We know that the lug is not generally considered a handsome sail, and that many have adopted the cutter rig because it is prettier,

but we have a long standing affection for

FIG. 28. THE COBLE.

the lug, and, in our eyes it is beautiful. Certainly we may say "handsome is as handsome does," and the lug has done well by us.

If any of our readers live on the open and dangerous coast of Northumberland they cannot do better than adopt the local rig if boat sailing is their object. The coble has stood the test of many a stormy sea, and for the triple advantage of sailing well, rowing lightly and beaching well it is unrivalled where the waves are high.

Fig. 28 gives its outline. The bows are very sharp and very high, with a great sheer to throw off the sea and depth, to give

lateral resistance. The sharp bows rapidly fall away, until all the after portion of the boat is quite flat and shallow. The keel, which commences with the bow, ends amidships, and from there to the stern are two keels or draughts, one each side of the flat bottom. The stern is very raking, and the rudder projects a considerable distance below it, as shown in the cut. Thus the entire lateral resistance of the boat is given by the deep bow and the deep rudder. These boats are very sensitive to any touch of the helm; they will go wonderfully close to the wind, and at a perfectly marvellous speed; their sharp flaring bows throw off any reasonable sea, and altogether they are admirably suited for the work which they have to undergo. Then, when they have to be beached, their bows are turned to the sea, the rudder is unshipped, and the boat backed ashore, where she sits high and dry, as far as her stern is concerned. The amateur coble sailor should use the standing lug without a boom.

Further particulars about the coble will be found in an article by the writer in the Field, No. 1398, and in the three subsequent numbers.

If

Coming further south, where the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk is flatter and sandier, and not often swept by such high seas as the coast north of the Humber, we come to a very capable little boat, the Cromer crab-boat. This is a light little boat, 12ft. on the keel, and 16ft. over all. Stem and stern are exactly alike. you take the half of a walnut shell, give it an inch or two of keel, and some deadwood at the stem and stern, so as to make the keel straight, you will have an exact model of a Cromer crabboat. Their usual rig is a single dipping lug, without a boom, but in one of these boats, rigged like a sloop, an acquaintance of ours sailed round England, stopping each night at some port or village. The boats are very light, and when they are beached the ballast, consisting of bags of stones (shot bags might be used