Another craft of this type which was deservedly popular last year is of larger size than the one described above. She is 25 feet on the load water-line, 38 feet over all, with a beam of 8 feet 6 inches, and 5 feet draught with centerboard up. The boat, which was designed by Mr. B. B. Crowninshield, of Boston, has a commodious cabin with six feet head-room, a seven-foot cockpit, and 800 square feet of duck in mainsail and jib. A very able and roomy boat nearly twice as costly as the Stearns craft, but indeed quite a little ship.
SAIL-PLAN OF SEAWANHAKA KNOCKABOUT—550 SQUARE FEET. ]
Personally I favor a short bowsprit in a knockabout, it being convenient for hoisting the anchor, keeping it clear of the hull, and preventing unseemly dents from the flukes.
I fear that knockabouts, or raceabouts, even in restricted classes, are destined eventually to be fitted with fin-keels. As a speed-inducing factor the fin has fully demonstrated its capacity since the first edition of this little book appeared. I have not, however, altered my opinion one iota since my remarks on the ballast-fin made in the chapter which precedes this. In my judgment the fin is admirably adapted as an adjunct to a racing machine, but for cruising craft I like it not. Brand me as an old fogy, if you will; half a century behind the times, if it so pleases you, shipmates, but give me credit for sincerity.
The keen sense of rivalry inherent in every American will not permit him to be content with a good, honest sailing boat for cruising purposes only. If one of his chums comes out with a faster craft, whether a fin-keel or a modification thereof, he will become dissatisfied with his own boat, no matter how seaworthy and comfortable she may be, and will promptly discard her for a new-fangled design in which speed is the principal characteristic. The so-called restricted classes, which are so popular just now, are, I think, sure in the end to become purely racing classes, something after the fashion of the Herreshoff 30-footers now so fashionable in Newport. As racing boats, none afford more sport than these wonderfully smart flyers, and I can well understand what fascinating toys they have proved to their owners. But, after all, they are only toys, vastly expensive, too, with no accommodations for cruising and apt to be uncomfortably wet in a breeze.