Magic , then owned by James Fairfax , was a good example of a yach1 de ·
~ igned for inside ballast . boat builders thought that long , narrow hulls would offer ICS $ resisiance to the water . 1be product of Ibis theory was a crali with so little beam it was said 10 be a balancing fea1 10 stand on deck . This type , which was colloquially known as tb . e ' plank on edge '. had a habil of diving up to the mast when working to windward in a seaway . Sydney had modified examples of this 1ypc of yacht in Jola111he and Asscgal . Buil1 in England of Fife design . 38 fl 6 in OA , witl1 6 n 2 in beam and an oak bouom and timbers of elm , Iolanthe was a beautiful vessel .
In the h11e 1880s more modern ideas were im J ! oned from England nnd Europe , and instead of trying to lxmer the sea in10 their way of thinking , designers succumbed to the dictates of natural laws and acted accordingly , the object being IO prodooe a type of hull which would offer the least resistance to water and cause the minimum amoum of surface friction in a given diSplaccmen1 . Hence we find the forefoot being cut away and a icndency towards a hollow section . With the culling away of the fore · foot , less hcadsail was required and consequently the bowspril was shonencd considerably .
From the board of naval achitect Walter Reeks came the famous Era , rating 35 for Alfred Milson ; Thelma , rating 15 , for J . F . Hoare ( later bought by Sir Alexander Maccormack ) and Volunteer , rating 29 . built for W . P . Smnirl . Era did very weU and won the lntcrcolonial Race in Melbourne in 1888 .
Whilst the lorgc yoch .., were geocrally iu tl1e foreground . a smaller lypc had often been favoured . Such was the case for a few years from 1890 onwrudswhenlhc2 l / 2-ratersbecarneverypopular . ln this Oec1 were well-known names like Jenny Wren , lahloo . Astroea , Norna , and Sirona . The mos1 famous of this type of boa1 were Bu / bu /, a Ftfedesigned boa1 owned by J . Fairfax , and Bronzewing a 2 1 / 2-ratcr designed by G . L . Waison for lhe
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Astrota was nn excelleni example of the 2 1 / 2 raters of the 1890s .
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