Asked the question 'What is the fastest kind of sailing craft?' nine people out of ten will at once answer "A racing yacht, especially when they have in mind the competition for the America's Cup which is now taking place. As © matter of fact, however, the finest racing yacht ever built cannot be compared with some of the big sailing craft in the matter of speed, So long ago as_the '50's the American and British sailing ships engaged in the China tea trade made several wonderfully fast voyages, and the American ship Witch of the Wave on her best voyage made the passage from Whampoa to Dungeness in 90 days, the best day's run being 338 knots in 24 hours, @ very remarkable performance. In the memorable race of 1866 from Foochow to London, five ships, the Ariel. Taeping, Serica, Fiery Cross and Taitsing took part, and though the Ariel and the Taeping reached the Downs two days ahead of the Fiery Cross, the last mentioned had the record for the best day's run on the passage—328 knots in 24 hours. In_ 1869 also, the Sir Lancelot made the voyage from Foochow to Deal in 88 days, her best day's ran being 354 knots in 21 hours. In 1898 the British schooner Rainbow in a race from Borkum lightship to Heligoland, covered the distance of 60 miles within four hours,.and on two occasions during that race the log registered 16} knots; and in May, 1903, crossing from America, the American yacht Atlantic covered 341 miles in a day and a night, averaging 14.9 knots, but she was a big craft. a three-masted fore and aft. schooner, measuring 185 ft. over all. In' strictly racing trim, yachts such as the Shamrocks, Vigilant, Defender and Columbia have been credited with snoods of 14 knots, but only for short spurts.
Dixon Kemp in his Yachting Dictionary of General Information says!—Speaking generally modern yachts attain far greater speed than old vessels in light winds, and the less the wind the greater the difference in favour of modern types.
The following table gives the maximum speed ballasted sailing yachts of certain length and tonnage generally attain.
Length Knots Time per mile 16 5.00 120 9 3.87 16.0 6.25 9.36 41 8.00 7.30 7.50 8.00 9 8.75 651 al 1.25 5.20 4 10.00 6.00 100 12.50 4.48 321 13.75 4.21 144 15.00 4.00 These observed speeds correspond with the theory that speed varies as the square roots of the length
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.