Though not a versatile boat at all, the British cutter proved on occasion to be deadly efficient against the sloop type of American waters. The Yankee sloop of the same period can be described as the opposite to the cutter, being wide and shallow, with a centerboard, efficient in closed waters and light winds, and by no means an oceangoing vessel either. Captain Nathanael Herreshoff's 37ft sloop Shadow (1871) reigned supreme over other American boats for ten years, until the Scottish cutter Madge (George Lennox Watson design) ended her winning spree in 1880. In 1885, the 20-tonner Clara (William Fife, Jr. design, 1884, captained by John Barr) and the crack yacht Genesta (John Beavor-Webb design, 1884) were brought to the Atlantic Seaboard, and though the latter lost the America's Cup races, both took many prizes over Yankee sloops, proving to be nigh unbeatable, in particular the Clara, which won all races in her first and second seasons. If the Yankee sloop and British cutter of this age did not resemble each other, they did have the straight bow in common, as the following lines show (drawn by their respective designers):

In 1887, George Lennox Watson was chosen by a Scottish syndicate from the Royal Clyde Yacht Club to design an America's Cup challenger, and he borrowed extensively from the Yankee sloop, making his design Thistle wider and shallower than his previous cutters. Both the Thistle and her opponent the Volunteer featured clipper bows, and a much cutaway forefoot which greatly reduced wetted surface. In effect, the Seawanhaka and YRA's new rating rules did not tax beam at all, but simply Length & Sail area, and brought greater attention to the design of efficient underbodies. Most yachts would henceforth feature clipper bows, like the 1889 cutter Minerva (William Fife, Jr. design, 1888, captained by John Barr's brother Charles), which was bought in the UK and brought to the Eastern Seaboard. There she topped the 40-foot class in her first year. America's favoured yacht designer Ned Burgess never produced convincing sloops to beat her until 1890, and even then she was not an easy contender for his designs Mariquita and Gossoon.

The action was taken to a larger scale in 1891 when the 46-foot class was created, which accompanied Captain Nat's great comeback from steamyachts. He had lost his steam license in 1888 due to a lethal accident with a boiler, but he would immediately produce trend-setting designs for sailing yachts. Ned Burgess died in 1891, so Captain Nat. may also have been seen as a timely blessing for American yachting. In 1891 he produced for Edwin Dennison Morgan the 46ft sloop Gloriana, of which a simple diagram (centerline buttock and midship section) may be found in William Picard Stephens' book American Yachting:

The Gloriana featured a distinctive deep fin keel, a relatively narrow body and with very much the first spoon bow, albeit rather straight, and extremely long overhangs. Her wetted surface was very small and she dominated the 46 foot class from the onset. The Gloriana retired from racing that year after only six races, which she won soundly. Herreshoff repeated his success in 1892 with Archibald Rogers's 46ft Wasp, with a more pronounced and deeper fin keel. The Wasp served as a model for his 1893 America's Cup defence candidates Vigilant and especially Colonia. Starting with Gloriana and Wasp, then with his huge America's Cup boats, Captain Nat. set yachting into a new quest to seek the longest sailing length and overhangs to cheat the rating rule of the day.
I have juxtaposed a drawing of counters by Joseph Manston Soper and a drawing of cutwaters by George Lennox Watson to describe the increase in overhangs during this period:


4 comments:
im looking for the William Fife III lines plan for his 8mR Spero.. do you know where i can find?
excellent blog!
FOR ORIGINAL LINES
_the first step is to contact Paul Spooner (from Fairlie Restorations), where rights to all Fife after a certain date should be held, but I donot know if that predates 1908.
_there is a heritage museum in Scotland near Fairlie (one that I have yet to visit) that holds some original Fife designs, I think they would be old ones, so again I donot know if they would have 1908. Mr. Chevalier told me of this place but I have no extra information and I have not dug into it yet.
FOR PUBLISHED LINES
If the plans for Spero were ever published, it is possible that François Chevalier/Jacques Taglang, Christian Février, William Collier, Volker Christman or Luigi Lang have records of major 1908-1909 European magazines in which they did habitually publish lines plans at the time. You should ask them if the first two fail. Unfortunately I donot know any Scandinavian historians or magazines where Spero could potentially be found.
Is Spero in Brazil and how bad is her present condition?
Thank you very much my friend!
In fact Spero is in Brazil. The original structures was useless and got removed, he needs structural cares... I´ll be very happy if I can compare the original lines plan with the ones takem from the the boat!
And sorry by my poor english, Im from Brazil!
I just checked Volker Christmann's online archives of the Die Yacht magazine here: it has references, but no published lines unfortunately...
You should try the other historians and Paul Spooner in any case.
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