Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/180

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152
Boating.

In order to do justice to this experiment, the weights should tow at a pace equivalent to about four miles or more an hour. It will then be seen that this docked model leaves a whirlpool’ behind her stern, which is retarding her. This experiment of course exaggerates the principle of full afterlines, and their evil, but it may none the less serve to illustrate the importance of a finer run aft from a point further forward than amidships, Z% passant, the boat built by Salter of Oxford for the O.U.B.C. in 1865 may be mentioned ; her dimensions are not to be traced, but she was specially designed to carry the heaviest man (E. F. Henley) at bow. She was certainly never surpassed by any other boat which Salter built. She won in 1865. In 1866 a heavier crew were in training, and the 1865 beat was supposed to be toa small. She was not tried at all at Oxford with the crew. A new boat was built, this time to carry E. F. Henley at 5. When the crew reached Putney the writer felt dissatis- fied with the movement of the new boat, and persuaded the crew to try the old one, even though she would be rather too small for them. They sent for her, and Jaunched for a trial paddle the Monday before the race ; so soan as they had rowed a dozen strokes in her they stopped, and declared she was the only light boat they had felt that season, They rowed the race in her, and won, and never took the trouble te set foot again in the new and rejected boat,

‘This victorious boat was then bought by the Oxford Etonians, They won the Grand Challenge of 1866 and 1867 in her, took her to Paris, and there won the cight-oared race at the International Regatta. She was sold and left bebind in Paris. ‘The writer suspects that her undeniable speed was mainly owing to the fact that Salter designed’ some extra displacement at No. 3, in order to carry E. F. Henley at that seat.