WHAT BOAT TO USE
Through countless centuries since man first made and used boats, an
almost infinite variety of craft has been developed. In every land where
boats of any sort are used the inhabitants have gradually evolved boats
adapted to their special needs, the conditions of their seas or water
courses and the work in which the boats are to be used.
In a great many countries the types of boats in use today have not
changed or altered for hundreds of years, but in many other places
forms, construction and other details of the boats have been changed,
ideas from other lands or races have been adopted and we now find a
great many different kinds of boats used for the same purpose. Moreover,
with the migration of man from one place to another, boats of one nation
have been introduced to the people of other lands and sometimes, in one
locality, we may find boats from widely separated parts of the world
being used daily side by side.
Of course these remarks apply mainly to boats used for commercial or
business purposes for wherever boats are used for pleasure one may find
an infinite variety of craft whose models have been culled from every
corner of the maritime world.
In every case, however, there are certain definite reasons for one type
of boat being more generally used than another, and every boat-builder
and user, since boats were first invented, has aimed to combine certain
qualities in the construction of boats.
The three most important matters to be considered in any boat are
seaworthiness, stability and speed. Which of these is of the greatest
importance depends very largely upon the local conditions, the purposes
for which the boat is to be used and the ideas of its builder or owner.
In some places speed is the prime consideration, in other places
seaworthiness is the most important factor, while in still other
localities the ability to carry heavy loads and not sink or upset is of
more value than either speed or the power to resist winds and waves
safely.
Thus the men who depend upon piloting vessels to an anchorage and whose
earnings are large or small according to whether or not they reach the
incoming vessels first, must have fast boats and seaworthiness may be a
secondary consideration. Again the toilers of the sea who spend days
upon the stormiest oceans fishing, lobstering or in similar pursuits
must have boats which are safe in any weather and speed is of little
importance, while those who use boats for transporting heavy cargoes or
many passengers from place to place in fairly smooth waters, find
stability of greater value than either speed or seaworthiness.
Many times, however, in fact, as a general rule, the most seaworthy
boats are the most stable, while usually both stability and
seaworthiness must be sacrificed to a certain degree in order to obtain
great speed. But there are exceptions to all rules and many boats have
become world-famous because they combine all these three qualifications
to a remarkable degree.
[Illustration: TYPES OF SMALL BOATS ADAPTED TO SPECIAL USES]
1—Whaleboat. 2—Lifeboat. 3—Dory. 4—Sharpie. 5—Skipjack.
6—Block Island boat.
The _whaleboats_ used by the Yankee whalemen for chasing and capturing
whales, are splendid examples of this. These boats are light, strong,
stable, seaworthy and very fast and in these respects are probably the
most perfect type of small craft ever designed. They are thirty feet in
length and six feet wide, barely two feet in depth amidships and yet are
capable of breasting the heaviest waves of midocean, withstanding the
most terrific gales and weathering the most severe storms of any seas.
Pulled by five oars they attain the speed of a motor boat; they are
light enough to be pulled upon a beach or easily hoisted to a ship’s
davits. They sail rapidly, are easily handled and hold together when
towed at express-train speed by a harpooned whale.
Moreover, their construction is so simple that even when smashed or
“stove” by a whale they can be repaired easily by a carpenter and best
of all they are very cheap, a new whaleboat costing complete only one
hundred and twenty-five dollars. In these boats shipwrecked whalers have
made some marvelous voyages and several instances are on record of men
navigating the stormiest parts of the ocean for six thousand miles in
these boats in perfect safety.
Somewhat similar to the whaleboats in shape are the _surfboats_ used on
the coasts of many sea-girt localities, notably on the Atlantic seaboard
of our Middle States, and while not as speedy, light or staunch as the
whaleboats, they ride the roaring surf and towering waves as buoyantly
as seabirds and are ideal boats for use where there are heavy seas.
_Lifeboats_, such as those used on steamships and by the coast guard,
are really modified whaleboats and surfboats, combining the good points
of both and with slight alterations in proportions and construction to
enable them to carry large loads with safety.
They are not as easily handled or as speedy as the whaleboats, but they
are far more roomy; they are almost non-capsizable, are unsinkable and
are built both of metal and of wood. The are rather heavy, however, and
expensive.
For one who wishes a perfectly safe, roomy, strong boat capable of
withstanding almost any weather and with good sailing qualities it is
hard to find anything better than a standard lifeboat.
At Block Island, off the tip of Long Island, there is a peculiar sort of
boat used by the native fishermen, which is known as the _Block Island
boat_. In some ways this craft resembles a whaleboat and in some ways it
reminds one of a surfboat, while in many of its characters it is much
like a lifeboat and yet it is totally different from all. They are
wonderfully staunch and seaworthy, they have great carrying capacity and
sail very well. Formerly a great many were used as small cruising
yachts, but of late years they have almost disappeared.
Somewhat similar to the whaleboats are the big _seine boats_ used by the
New England fishermen for pulling the great, heavy seines when catching
mackerel, herring, menhaden, etc. They are very stable boats with
immense carrying capacity, are easily handled and are seaworthy, but
have no advantages over the whaleboats except in point of size. They do
not sail as well nor are they are as seaworthy as the whaleboats.
All of the above are round-bottomed boats of the double-ended type in
which both bow and stern are sharp. One would therefore assume that this
style was the most seaworthy, especially as the spongers of the
Mediterranean, the pilot boats of many islands and the typical
fishing-boats of the European countries are also double-ended. Such,
however, is not necessarily the case for the fishermen, pilots and other
inhabitants of other countries use round-bottomed boats with broad
sterns and some even use flat-bottomed boats and brave as heavy weather,
as hard storms and as tumultuous seas as their fellows in the
round-bottomed, double-ended craft.
Probably no men in the world ply their trade in rougher seas and in
stormier weather than the Gloucester fishermen who fish for halibut and
cod on the banks of Newfoundland and on George’s Banks. The boats used
by these hardy fishermen are known as _dories_ and are flat-bottomed,
high-sided, odd-looking craft which one would never imagine were
seaworthy, yet in them the Gloucester fishermen ride out terrific storms
and mountainous waves; they haul halibut weighing hundreds of pounds
over the boats’ sides without capsizing, and they sail or row them
safely through winter storms in midocean when laden with fish until the
gunwales are almost level with the water. Dories used by the fishermen
are not beautiful nor graceful boats, but they are wonderfully well
adapted to their use, and many builders have adopted so-called dory
models for pleasure craft, both for motor boats and sailboats. As a
rule, however, there is little resemblance between these “improved”
dories and those of the banks, and the stability and other qualities of
the real dories are usually lost in altering the lines for the sake of
appearances.
Still another type of flat-bottomed boat which is used all along the
Atlantic coast is the _sharpie_. The sharpie is merely a modified skiff
equipped with a centerboard, but when properly handled these boats will
stand a great deal of rough weather and knocking about and, moreover,
they sail remarkably well. One usually thinks of sharpies as small boats
but they are often forty or fifty feet in length and are sometimes built
as large as small schooners and of twenty to fifty tons capacity. The
great objection to sharpies and other flat-bottomed boats is that they
“pound” or slap the water when in a heavy sea or among choppy waves, and
to overcome this a type of boat known as a _skipjack_ was evolved.
Skipjacks are a sort of connecting link between true flat-bottomed and
round-bottomed boats, for the after part of the bottom is flat while the
forward portion is V-shaped and thus they cut through the seas instead
of pounding on them while at the same time they slip over the surface of
the water rather than through it. Many of the fastest racing boats and
the fastest motor speed boats are nothing more nor less than modified
skipjacks, and for all-around use, especially in shallow waters, there
are few better boats where roominess and sea-going qualities are not
essential.
Just as the men whose living depends upon their boats have agreed upon
the craft best suited to their needs, so the man or boy who is selecting
a sailboat for pleasure should consider all the types and should choose
that which best fulfills all of his requirements.
If you want a roomy boat or a boat on which to live or sleep you should
choose a round-bottomed craft, for only in these can you obtain much
depth or “head room” unless a very high cabin is built above the deck
which always makes a boat top-heavy and unseaworthy. If the waters in
which you are to use your boat are stormy, if heavy seas are common, or
if you expect to make long trips out to sea or from place to place,
select a boat which is noted for its seaworthy qualities, such as a
_whaleboat_, _seine boat_, _lifeboat_ or _Block Island model_.
If you are obliged to run ashore or to pull your boat upon a rocky or
sandy beach select a flat-bottomed craft which can be hauled out readily
without injury; while, if you want a boat for general utility, to use in
bays and harbors and in sheltered waters and yet capable of standing any
reasonable seas and ordinary storms, select a fairly deep, beamy,
round-bottomed hull such as the _Cape Cod_ or _Block Island catboat_, or
a similar model.
If your boat is merely an open boat for day sailing and short trips
almost any type will serve, such as a _dory_, a _sharpie_, a _skipjack_
or a round-bottomed or _yawl_ boat. As a rule, however, you should avoid
the true “open” boat for sailing, for in a boat without any deck it only
takes a slight puff of wind, an instant’s carelessness or a small sea to
bring the rail under water and swamp the boat.
Even a very narrow deck is far better than none at all and if the deck
has a good high “combing” or raised inner edge, the safety will be
increased a hundredfold.
Very few boats will capsize if decently handled and not equipped with
too much sail unless “tripped” by getting water over the side; but once
the rail of an open boat _is_ under water the boat will upset very
quickly, for each pound of water taken in stays on the lowest side of
the boat and has a tendency to carry the craft over still further.
A great deal depends upon the construction of the boat itself and still
more depends upon the rig or sails to be used, and before selecting or
using any boat you should be thoroughly familiar with the various parts
of a boat, its construction, its fittings and its rig and should know
what each and every part is for, as well as how to use, repair and care
for it.
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