- Yachting Monthly International Model Races for 1926. HB Tucker. Although last year’s races are not long over, preparations are already afoot for next year’s meeting.
Yachting Monthly International Model Races for 1926 By H. B. TUCKER Ae last year’s races are not long over, preparations are already afoot for next year’s meeting. As you know from the account published in YACHTING, the original Yachting Monthly Cup was won outright this summer by Mr. Scott Freeman with Crusader, skip- pered by Mr. W. J. Daniels. I have now much pleasure in announcing that the proprietors of the Yachting Monthly have very kindly offered to present us with a new cup. The conditions for this are exactly similar to those of the old with the exception that the dates between which the contest must be held have been altered to between July 15th and September 15th, and that the latest date for receipt of entries is now February 15th. meters models for Mr. F. D. Trapp, of the Rhode Island Miniature Yacht Club. Vanity is a charming model, typical of the type we have produced under the Y. M. Rule. She was built by Mr. Tom Powell, from the designs of J. G. Feltwell, one of our best model yacht designers. The yacht is now being refitted by her builder. She is a cedar planked model and an example of the model builder’s craft. As you know, the type produced by the Y. M. Rule is powerful and desirable alike for models or real yachts. Also the models are of convenient size and quite cheap to build. Once more I repeat a very hearty invitation to you to send a challenge. This coming contest will be a very important event and we do not want you to be out of it. The Royal Danish Yacht Club has promised to challenge, and we are also promised a challenge from France, where three boats are being built in order to select the French representative. Under the circumstances we are more than anxious that your country should also challenge, as a model yacht race between the States, France, Denmark and Great Britain would be a wonderful event, which could not fail to bring the sport of model yachting into prominence throughout the world. Under the circumstances, I was particularly sorry to see Cap Stan’s article, in which that able writer belittled the benefit likely to accrue from a contest between the States and Britain. It is perfectly true that your clubs sail mostly from skiffs and that we sail from the bank, and it is also perfectly true that when he visited the States, the contest between Daniels and Polka Dot was a fiasco owing to Daniels’ lack of proficiency in skiff sailing. When, however, Cap Stan states that Mr. Weaver’s defeat at Gosport was due to his lack of skill in lake sailing, he not only makes a very great mistake, but does a very able model yachtsman a grave injustice. Throughout the race, Mr. Weaver handled his boat with the greatest skill, and had she been anything like as good as the British craft, a very close contest would have resulted. The sole cause of defeat was that Slipper was not nearly good enough for Crusader. Shipper’s inferiority was amply proven when she was sailed in a race held the day after the International. On this occasion she was sailed by two of our best model yachtsmen, one of whom was well acquainted with the boat, having officiated as mate to Mr. Weaver. She could not get into the first eight. I have previously commented on Slipper’s inability to find her head, but even had she been perfectly balanced, she was taking such a big penalty for lack of freeboard that the boat was really a great deal under rating, and it was a case of a 51%4-meter model tackling a 6-meter. It is true that Slipper beat all the boats you had designed to the Y. M. Rule, but that simply proves that your designers had not got the utniost out of the formula. Frankly, I consider that lake sailing is a far better test for the boats than skiff sailing, for a number of reasons. You have all commented upon the frightfully rough The 36” over all model, Chispa, built by A. R. Brown. W. J. Daniels Designs a Six-Meter Yacht A British yachtsman has just turned to the well-known model yacht designer, Mr. W. J. Daniels, of London, for plans for a full size yacht. The boat is a new 6-meters, I. Y. R. U., which White of Cowes is to build for Sir Philip Runciman from designs by Daniels. She will be sailed by Mr. Colin Newman, who raced here in the Belty in 1924, and who is a first-class man, so the boat will have every chance. This is Mr. Daniels’ real chance, as it is his first ‘‘class’ racing boat. Those who have seen the plans have confidence that the boat will be a very fast one. weather we started our elimination races in. Now, although we managed to carry on, your skiff sailing could not have been indulged in for the simple reason that the skiffs could not have lived in open water, or even in a decent sized lake, not to mention the fact that under such conditions the yachts would have been uncontrollable from skiffs. A second very good reason is that in skiff sailing, con- stant trimming and course correction prevents the boat from ever being really forced to sail on her own merits. I recently arranged the purchase of one of our best 6- Another model yacht club in the vicinity of Boston which is planning a very active racing season is the Melrose Highlands Model Yacht Club, situated at Melrose Highlands, Massachusetts. The club is composed largely of high school boys who are very much interested in the sport, most of whom are building their own boats under the direction of A. R. Brown. One of the youngest members of this organization won third class in the Charles River Basin race here with a boat which he built himself.
