hat the sloops should not exceed
ninety feet on the water-line.

But the builders have to a certain extent neutralized this rule by
giving their yachts such an overhang fore and aft that they can stand
much more sail than other sloops of larger dimensions. We have probably
reached the limit in expense of yacht-building this year, however, and I
doubt if any cup defender will ever be built to cost more than the
present one. A new class, called half-raters (restricted to 15 feet
racing length), is coming into popularity, and the Seawanhaka-Corinthian
Yacht Club is to hold international races of boats of that kind next
month. This new class in international matches will doubtless claim some
of the interest that has been given to the giant single-stickers, and in
years to come the expense involved in the defense of the _America's_ Cup
ought not to be so excessive.

[Illustration: "DEFENDER."]

[Illustration: "VALKYRIE."

THE CHALLENGER AND DEFENDER OF THE "AMERICA'S" CUP IN DRY DOCK.]

But to return to the yachts themselves, and to what I said about their
uselessness as cruisers. The _Valkyrie_ that sailed against _Defender_
on September 7th was not the _Valkyrie_ that crossed the ocean in
August. The racer is an empty shell, with a towering mast and thousands
of square feet of sail, whereas the travelling _Valkyrie_ was the home
of the forty or forty-five men who constituted her crew, and she was a
two-masted craft--with stubby masts at that. As the one aim of both
_Valkyrie_ and _Defender_ is to attain the highest possible speed,
everything is done that experience and money can do to make the boats as
light and as swift-sailing as possible. The one thought of the builders
from the moment they got the orders to design the yachts was to make the
shape of each boat the best to cut through the water, and the sails the
most efficient to catch every breath of air stirring overhead.

In order that his rival might not know what kind of a boat was going to
be turned out, both the English and the American architects worked with
the greatest secrecy, and even after the boats had been launched and
seen by the public their true measurements were withheld. But enough is
known about the construction of racing sloops in general, and sufficient
has leaked out about the building of _Defender_ in particular, for us to
have a pretty good knowledge of the boat that was depended upon to keep
the _America's_ Cup on this side of the water.