[Illustration: Frascati and pierhead at Havre.]
The year 1891 will be memorable in the history of French yachting as the date of the beginning of a thorough organisation for the encouragement of what in France is called 'navigation de plaisir,' a term which will soon contract to our simpler word 'yachting.' The French have long, however, had a taste for the sport. For half a century at least Havre has been _en fête_ in the month of July with a great deal of rowing and sailing, encouraged by crowds on the quays of the port, whence they could enjoy the sport much more than if they were afloat. All this is due to the energy and encouragement of the Société des Régates au Havre, under the patronage of the Minister of Marine and the City of Havre.
[Illustration: Havre Regatta Chart. Havre.]
In the year 1891 the regatta was first conducted in a business-like manner. A yachting tribunal was instituted in Paris to make rules and arrange the details of racing. The society, styled 'Union des Yachts Français,' 45 Rue Boissy d'Anglas, Paris, was very heartily taken up by all the best men in France, and absorbed the other clubs. The President is Contre-Amiral Baron Lagé; Vice-Presidents, M. E. Pérignon, Baron Arthur de Rothschild, Comte Alain de Guébriant, and M. Henri Menier, with a Council of twenty-eight, and a tremendous administration of commissions or committees for everything. The list of members amounts to 520, and their yacht list comprises over 300 vessels of sorts and sizes.
After Havre, Nice ranks as a French yachting centre. The regatta is always held about the 12th to 15th of March--a time of the year when we are generally experiencing a kind of weather which totally removes any idea of yachting from our minds. The Union des Yachts Français patronise this _fête nautique_, which is sometimes assisted by English yachts that are in the Mediterranean; for instance, Lord Dunraven's 'Valkyrie' has been amongst them, and Lieut. W. Henn's 'Galatea,' he being a member of the Club Nautique, 8 Quai Masséna, Nice, a club founded in 1883, with rather more than one hundred members. At the present time several English gentlemen belong to it. Their 'Siège' is No. 12 Rue St. François de Paula à Nice. These foreign yacht races do not offer any inducements to our finer and larger craft, as few of the competitors are over 20 tons. The City of Nice gives good prizes, as under:--