skill than ordinary he can make the bottom of the shape shown in Fig. 38, and the bottom boards will bend up as they approach the stem with a very graceful curve. If they are made of in. stuff, or if they are steamed, they will bend right up to the stem and form the sides there.

The cost of such a boat, complete, ought not to exceed £3 if made at home, or £5 if a country carpenter is employed.

The seams should be made water-tight by a layer of brown paper, smeared with white lead on both sides, being placed between before they are screwed and nailed together.

If the reader is not sufficiently up in the use of tools to be able to comprehend the details,

which we have not space to give, let him refer to the little book, "Boat Building for Amateurs,"

published by the same publishers FIG. 38. BOTTOM OF SAILING as the present book.

In it will

PUNT.

will be found the necessary instructions for building a punt, and the same may be applied to the design now given.

Of course a flat bottomed sailing boat can only be looked upon as a makeshift, but for all that she is a makeshift which will answer her purpose very well and give her possessor a vast amount of enjoyment, as well as initiate him into the first principles and practice of sailing, while the amusement will certainly not be an expensive one either to commence or sustain.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CENTRE-BOARD

CUTTER FOR RIVER AND

SEA SAILING.

THE design in the last chapter was for pockets with but little in them; that which we are about to give is for those better lined. We were about to build a boat for single-handed sailing and for sea and fresh water purposes, also to compete with the sloopyachts of Norfolk, and we wrote to the Field with measurements of a three-ton yacht in order to obtain the opinion of some of their correspondents upon her. This led to a most kind offer from Lieutenant H. S. Tipping, R.N., to furnish us with a design, and he accordingly made a design and wrote letters, with the descriptions which this chapter contains, and he has further extended his courtesy by permitting us to make this use of them. Circumstances prevented us from carrying our building projects into execution, but the design was submitted to several practical authorities, and the general verdict was that "it could not very well be improved upon." We may state that we were much inclined to try the main and mizen rig with battens, but of this proposal Mr. Tipping did not approve for racing purposes. The size was restricted by us to three tons, and to get 4ft. 6in. of head room, which our length of body and limbs required, she had to have a high freeboard and hatch. The club limit (the Yare Sailing Club) was four tons. It will be most useful to our readers if we give the description in Mr. Tipping's own words:

"The draught of water you are limited to is the first thing to

be considered, and good draught seems to me to be the main thing for comfort and for racing, as depth means more sail and generally more speed, as the lines can be kept finer, less beam being required. Of course, stability must be obtained either by beam and light displacement or by depth with more weight, and as the present tonnage rules put a heavy penalty on beam and none on depth, one would be inclined to obtain the sail carrying power by giving as much depth as the water will allow. I think, from experience, that either class of boats are equally fast, broad and shallow, or deeper and narrower, the latter having the finest lines and carrying most ballast, but measuring far less by the tonnage rules. Where I have seen a great deal of racing with these centre-board crafts is on Lough Erne, in the North of Ireland; there they range from twenty tons to the Una. We are limited to not more than 4ft. draught of water, no matter what the tonnage, and the twenty and ten-ton boats draw about the same. Keeping the weights low is certainly a great advantage. We use gin. or in. iron boiler plate for the centre boards, and several have lead on their keels. I do not think it very shipshape to carry much weight outside, but would sooner carry it inboard by lowering the garboards and leaving little or no keel except the centre-board, which can be made as long as you wish and as heavy as you can work. Having settled on the draught of water suitable to the place in which you intend to sail, I should have about one-third of the length over all for beam, a good entrance and good buttock lines, carrying the beam well aft but keeping it well above the water, so as not to come into play until needed. "I should have the keel broad amidships, and a cast iron shoe bolted on underneath with a slot cast in it for the centre-board.

"As to the rig, I do not see the advantage of the battens on the mainsail; they make it heavier, and don't look well. I have tried them on a nine-ton boat and gave them up. I have a

centre-board boat, 23ft. keel by 9ft. beam, sloop rigged, and the mainsail reefs by rolling round the boom, which I find very

handy and quick. There is a drum at the jaws of the boom with a wire rope coiled round it, and a little tackle leading aloft for rolling the sail. I believe that for racing no rig will compete with the cutter or sloop. I prefer the cutter rig of two headsails, keeping the foresail large, carried out on a boomkin alongside the bowsprit, then if caught in a blow you can take in one of the head sails and reef the mainsail easier than change or reef the one large jib. The mainsheet strop in my boat is shaped like a letter C, the boom revolves inside it (Fig. 39). The horns are padded, the topping lift makes MAINSHEET fast to a swivel at the boom end, so does an iron STROP. bar to connect the strop with the swivel, and keep it from sliding in along the boom when running with the sheet off (Fig. 40). I have often knocked my boat about alone. I

FIG. 39.

had her at Fal

mouth for three years, and kept her out all winter, and sailed her in all weathers,

and find her a

good sea boat and

FIG. 40. MAINSHEET BAR AND TOPPING LIFT.

very handy; she only draws 2ft.

4in. amidships, 18in. freeboard,

cabin 9ft. long, head room enough to sit upright under the hatch; the table is on the top of the trunk, which is cut down

as low as possible in the fore part of the cabin, half the hatch slides back; all the ropes lead aft to the well.

66

I have made out a rough plan of a centre-board boat, on the scale of half-an-inch to a foot, to the dimensions which you gave, which makes her just under three tons; the hatch is very high, to get the 4ft. 6in. head room you required, and I have also given all the depth I could for the same reason; the freeboard is also high. I have only shown a bulwark of 2in. high above the deck, but you will have the option of carrying the deck itself higher, and having no moulding, which would perhaps be better in a small craft, as you do not spend much of your time on deck. (Figs. 41, 42, and 43 shew the design).

"The cabin is 7ft. long; half the hatch slides forward on runners, and can be made water-tight, the doors shut back against the after part of the trunk. The floor of the cabin is as low as possible, and the ballast should be cast to fit the skin, and make a level floor, parallel to the W. L. Of course you must arrange the accommodation as you fancy; I only give a rough outline of it. I should be inclined to raise the floor of the well above the W. L., and have steps amidships on each side into the cabin; pipes out of the well leading overboard to carry off water. The pump to throw into the centre-board trunk in the well as shown; two lead pipes, one on each side, leading to the lowest part. We generally raise the iron centre-boards by a tackle of two double or threefold blocks and wire rope over a sheath in the aft part of the trunk. Sometimes a little winch is used aft instead, but the tackle is not much in the way amidships, and the fall can be led out to the well. I should put a good deep beam across the boat at the fore part of the well, to steady the trunk, and tie the sides together, as there is no crossbeam from the mast to the stern post. We have found it answer well to have the fore end of the centre-board on a movable pivot; fixed