Still more significant are the measurements
of Valkyrie III. and Defender, both keel Craft:
Length L. W. L. Beam. Feet. Feet.
Valkyrie III 88.85 26.20
Defender 88.45 22.20
It will be seen that not only did the American designer discard the centerboard, but he gave his craft less beam than the British boat. I remember when both vessels were hauled out in the Erie Basin, Brooklyn, the American yacht was generally mistaken for the English, and vice versa; this, too, by experts looking on from a distance too remote to distinguish the names on their sterns.
In 1892 the leading yacht designers of Great Britain, realizing the rating rule then in vogue, wrote to the Yacht Racing Association suggesting that the rule be so modified that a type of vessel having more body be evolved. In the same communication they said, defining what the general public requires in a yacht:
"That she shall be safe in all conditions of wind and weather, that she shall combine the maximum of room on deck and below with the minimum of prime cost, and that she shall be driven as fast as may be, with the least expenditure of labor, i. e., that she shall have a moderate and workable sail area. Therefore, as but few men can afford to build for racing, and for racing only, and as the racer of to-day is the cruiser of a few years hence, any rating rule should, by its limitations, encourage such a wholesome type of vessel."
