The scandals of the past few years have at last moved the yachting world
to concerted action in regard to “bat” boat racing. We have been treated
to the spectacle of what are practically keeled racing-planes driven a
clear five foot or more above the water, and only eased down to touch
their so-called “native element” as they near the line. Judges and
starters have been conveniently blind to this absurdity, but the public
demonstration off St. Catherine's Light at the Autumn Regattas has borne
ample, if tardy, fruit. In the future the “bat” is to be a boat, and
the long-unheeded demand of the true sportsman for “no daylight under
mid-keel in smooth water” is in a fair way to be conceded. The new rule
severely restricts plane area and lift alike. The gas compartments are
permitted both fore and aft, as in the old type, but the water-ballast
central tank is rendered obligatory. These things work, if not
for perfection, at least for the evolution of a sane and wholesome
waterborne cruiser. The type of rudder is unaffected by the new rules,
so we may expect to see the Long-Davidson make (the patent on which has
just expired) come largely into use henceforward, though the strain
on the sternpost in turning at speeds over forty miles an hour is
admittedly very severe. But bat-boat racing has a great future before
it.
Crete and the A. B. C.
The story of the recent Cretan crisis, as told in the A. B. C. Monthly
Report, is not without humour. Till the 25th October Crete, as all our
planet knows, was the sole surviving European repository of “autonomous
institutions,” “local self-government,” and the rest of the archaic
lumber devised in the past for the confusion of human affairs. She
has lived practically on the tourist traffic attracted by her annual
pageants of Parliaments, Boards, Municipal Councils, etc., etc. Last
summer the islanders grew wearied, as their premier explained, of
“playing at being savages for pennies,” and proceeded to pull down all
the landing-towers on the island and shut off general communication till
such time as the A. B. C. should annex them. For side-splitting comedy
we would refer our readers to the correspondence between the Board of
Control and the Cretan premier during the “war.” However, all's well
that ends well. The A. B. C. have taken over the administration of Crete
on normal lines; and tourists must go elsewhere to witness the “debates,”
“resolutions,” and “popular movements” of the old days. The only people
to suffer will be the Board of Control, which is grievously overworked
already. It is easy enough to condemn the Cretans for their
laziness; but when one recalls the large, prosperous, and presumably
public-spirited communities which during the last few years have
deliberately thrown themselves into the hands of the A. B. C., one,
cannot be too hard upon St. Paul's old friends.