All persons on board who cannot swim 100 yards are requested to _wear_ life-jackets.
The following are the limitations of a 'Water Wag' 13-footer:
Length over all, 13 ft.; beam, 4 ft. 10 in.; depth and lines, that of model A.
Centreboard to be of iron and pivoted at forward end of casing. Length shall not exceed 4 ft. When hauled up flush with top of casing, no portion shall project below keel. Immersed surface below keel shall not exceed 2-1/2 sq. ft. Thickness at any point shall not exceed 3/8 of an inch.
Keel outside garboard strake, inclusive of thickness of keelband, if any, shall not exceed in depth 1-1/2 in. Keelband of iron, brass, or copper, not to exceed in thickness 1/4 in.
Stem and stern post.--Moulded depth of, to be clear of hood by not less than 2 in.
Kedge not to exceed 15 lbs. No metal cable allowed. No ballast of any description save water.
Mast not to exceed over all 13 ft., measured from top of keel to truck, and not to be stepped above keel more than 3 in.
Fore and aft sails not to exceed 75 sq. ft. in area.
Spinnaker not to exceed 60 sq. ft. in area, and is only to be used before the wind, and in no case as a jib.
A full-sized tracing of the builder's moulds can be obtained by sending 2_s._ to the Society for Employment of Women 21 Kildare Street, Dublin.
[Illustration: Commodore Thomas Taylor, of the Cumberland Fleet, 1780.]
BY EDWARD WALTER CASTLE AND ROBERT CASTLE
In the year 1775 was founded the 'Cumberland Fleet,' and as the Royal Thames Yacht Club is its lineal descendant, the latter may with all justice claim the title of the 'Mother of Yacht-racing,' at least in Great Britain.
The year 1770 was a most important epoch in Thames yachting, and we think the lines and drawing of our first cup-winning yacht should be given here. The 'King's Fisher,' as the sketch shows, was clinker built. Her owner, Commodore Thomas Taylor of the Cumberland Fleet, was so thoroughly the practical founder of yacht racing on the Thames that his statue should be placed on the Thames Embankment--with a bronze plaque of his yacht and the cups he won--and if times are too bad to go that length, a medallion portrait plaque could go on the Temple Embankment Arch, for the 'King's Fisher' was built close by. Her dimensions, as shown in her lines, were, length 20 ft., beam 7 ft.