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The Sailing Boat
Belfast Lough One-Design Class
Belfast Lough, the northern yachting centre of Ireland, the home of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava is Commodore, is admirably adapted for boat-sailing and yacht-racing; a fine open sheet of water with comparitive freedom from currents inside the 'Heads' and Orlock point.
The Harbour of Carrickfergus affords the safest anchorage inside the Lough, but its entrance shallows at low water to only a few feet, hence limiting the draft of vessels navigating its waters to 6ft 3ins.
At a recent meeting of the members of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. The noble Commodore observed that 'thirty years ago there was scarcely a pleasure-sail upon their lovely Lough, but now every form of maritime division is represented by canoeing, single-handed boat sailing, by yacht-racing and cruising.'
The noble Marquis has all his lifetime been a staunch supporter of yachting and boat sailing, always his favourite recreation, and it was a happy reminiscence, after many years' absence aboard on his diplomatic duties, to find him again presiding at the annual gathering of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club and taking a keen lively interest in the sailing matches of the One-Design classes.
The One-Design and restricted Classes
The new club house of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club at Bangor, which was formally opened by the Commodore in April 1899, is a fine substantial building, a worthy memorial of the popularity to which yachting and boat sailing have attained under the presidency of the noble Commodore
During the last few years great strides have been made in yacht racing under the auspices of the members of the various Yacht and Sailing Clubs in the neighbourhood of the Belfast Lough, mainly due to the formation of the One-Design Classes.
Prior to the year 1897 the idea of a One-Design Class had been acted upon by the Bangor Corinthian Sailing Club (co. Down), which had four 2 ½ raters (Shibbeal I type), by fife in 1889; four 18-footers L.W.L. (Utah type), by fife in 1891; five 18-footers L.W.L. (Uarda type), by G.L. Watson, in 1893; and six 15-foot C.B. 'Tadpoles' (Figet type), by Vincent Craig in 1896.
These were all in their way successful boats and fine racing among themselves was enjoyed during the years they were in commission. The present One-Design Classes were started with the utmost care and forethought, all the experience gained in former years being applied to ensure that the cost of the boats should meet the purse of the majority ; their build combine as far as possible the qualities of a racer with the comfort of a cruiser; and in the junior classes, special saftey of construction for the passages between the local yachting centres such as Larne, Donhadee, Ballywalter, Ardglass, Strangford, Lough &e., a strech of very forebidding coastline, where the easterly wind and the strong currents of the tides, with the attendant choppy seas, necessitate an extra streak of freeboard.
There being six clubs in the Lough, it was determined that owners should be members of at least one of them, and that committees should be formed of all of the owners in each class thus ensuring that every boat received equal representation as regards the formation of the sailing by-laws, whilst the general rules were to be similar for and to govern all classes irrespectively that might be formed.
This enabled one secretary to undertake the complete management and control plans specifications, &c., and educated, as it were, owners in the smaller classes to a method of harmonious working which would in every respect similar in the event of their being possessed of on of the larger boats at a future date.
Class I. The boats of this class were designed by Mr W. Fife, jun., of Fairlie, and are known as the 'Sea-bird Class', each boat being named after a sea-bird , as Flamingo, Haleyon, Merle, Whimbrel, and Widgeon. The dimensions and other particulars of this boat are :- Length over all, 37ft 3in. ; Length on L.W.L, 25 ft ; Beam, 8ft, 8 in ; draft 6ft 3in. ; headroom underbeam of coach roof, 5ft 9in. ; sail area, 848 sq ft. ; tonnage , Thames measurement, 9 tons ; registered tonnage 5.80 ; weight of cast-iron keel, 3 tons 5 cwt. ; coach roof, skylight, full counter, flat keel ; all deck fittings of teak.
Cutter-rig, Sails - main-sail (laced foot 3 battens), top sail, foresail, 1st jib, 2nd jib, spitfire jib, balloon jib, balloon-foresail, spinnaker and trysail. Builder J Hilditch Carrickfergus,
Nine boats were built to Class I. The guiding principal in the design and construction of the boats was comfort not speed; for the fact had been grasped at the outset that a class of boats of the same design would race only among themselves, and that therefore the chance of one ore more being a few minutes slower than the other boats mattered little when the offset was 5ft 9in. headroom under beam of coach roof, plenty of freeboard, and generally an all-round comfortable craft that made such passages as crossing to the Clyde or English waters a pleasant cruise.
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