Down to the Sea

In countless shipyards along the snow blown coast, yachts are perched on stanchions like huge huddled birds, shivering, waiting for spring. Yachtsmen puff their pipes solemnly at home, telling stories, wagering on races before summer winds. Yachtsmen pore over specifications, they telephone brokers, they enviously peruse stories in the newspapers of other yachtsmen building palaces that float. Last week arrived in New York the Savarona, longest motor yacht in the world, built at Wilmington, Del., for Mrs. Richard M. Cadwalader, of Philadelphia. Experts, friends, reporters scrambled along her decks absorbing her astounding luxuries, delved in her engine rooms peering at gauges, twiddling gadgets.

Doubtless many famed yachtsmen failed to find time to examine the Sava- rona. Many of the greatest owners are yachtsmen only in spare moments. Arthur Curtiss James, philanthropist, proprietor of the tall black Aloha, longest of sailing yachts, is the largest owner of railroad shares in U. S. He has to work. John Pierpont Morgan, who commands the enormous black steamer Corsair, also works. But last week William Vincent Astor was not working. He was in Germany investigating his newest boat, biggest oil burning yacht in the world, building in Germany. This yacht, probably to be called the Nourmahal, after earlier famed Astor yachts, will be flagship of the New York Yacht Club fleet. This privilege the Club secured by electing Vincent Astor Commodore for 1928. Vincent Astor is not an aggressive businessman. He finds time often to sit dreamily on board his stately craft, properly to devote many of his days to yachting, as any good commodore properly should.

The Astor family were not seamen historically. Less than 100 years ago John Jacob Astor, first of the clan to stamp his name upon U. S., was still selling furs and dealing in Manhattan real estate with such finesse as to rear an historic fortune. He begat William Backhouse Astor, called "Landlord of New York." who begat John Jacob Astor, who begat John Jacob Astor, who begat William Vincent Astor.

Vincent Astor tutored valiantly to enter Harvard, whence after a year undistinguished scholastically, socially tranquil, he departed when his father disappeared with the Titanic. Since leaving Cambridge he has handled, somewhat gingerly, his huge heritage of real estate, an able but not an avid realtor.

His other preoccupation is mechanics. In his late 'teens he acquired a Franklin air cooled automobile which soon became his passion. Cheerfully greasy he dismembered it and screwed it together again. Of late years aviation caught his mechanical mind's eye and he learned flying, planning to commute by air between Newport and Manhattan. The war machinery of ships engrossed him in 1917-18 when he progressed from U. S. ensign to lieutenant and served actively in foreign waters. He loaned to the government for the war his Winchester, fastest large yacht (about 35 miles per hour) yet designed to carry man seaward from the noise of cities.

Of the land because he owns the land, Mr. Astor discovered early the solace of the sea. Reporters cannot infest the oceans. The strain of question and answer to which a public figure is eternally subjected is particularly distasteful to the new commodore. Once, shrewdly said he: "The social gulf between Americans is not so much measured in money as in newspaper headlines."

On the new Nourmahal, building abroad because German shipyards work for less money, Vincent Astor will find gentle escape from the scrutiny and chatter of the world. On it he will find comfort and luxury beyond the dreams of the poor landlubber. On it he will be ruler of the New York Yacht Club fleet, most notable pleasure navy of the world.

On the afternoon of July 30, 1844, John C. Stevens, on his yacht Gimcrack in the New York harbor off the Battery, met a group of men including John C. Jay, George L. Schuyler, James M. Waterbury and founded the New York Yacht Club. Its first clubhouse nestled on Elysian Fields, Hoboken, N. J. Its present home on West 44th Street, Manhattan, is the shrine of social seamen the world over. Member boats over 30 feet on the waterline number more than 600. In the famed grillroom, designed like the salon of a ship, hang reproductions of all the notable ships of its history. Membership requires presentation of a model to this museum. There hangs, also, the stern board of the great yacht America, built by a syndicate headed by James C. Stevens, which sailed to England and raced against 15 British boats around the Isle of Wight. Queen Victoria, scanning the finish, saw the America cross the line. "Who is second," she asked. "There is no second," was the answer. The U. S. invader won by hours.

Succeeding the America, the Atlantic was the first of the famed U. S. racing yachts which defeated the Earl of Dun-raven's Valkyries, and in recent years the various Shamrocks of Sir Thomas Lipton. It is usually a syndicate of N. Y. Yacht Club men who finance the defence. The three winning boats this century have been the Columbia, Reliance, Resolute. In memory of the first great triumph the boats race for "America's Cup."

Each summer the club takes a cruise. The largest sailed in 1906 when some 500 boats went up to Newport and beyond. In 1909 the cruise flotilla fell foul of a blow off Cape Cod and were scattered to ports all over Massachusetts. One man was lost; many boats disabled. Since then the fleet has run less to the open sea.

The backbone of most of these clubs' existences is local racing. From little dinghys raced by children all the way to the largest schooner yachts in the cult of sailing speed is worshipped. Many, particularly inland clubs, race roaring motor boats. The chief international races are between the famed 6 metre sailboats (about 35 feet on deck) for which British boats visit various foreign clubs including U. S. and U. S. boats are carried across the seas to race in foreign waters. This summer there will be a trans-pacific race to Honolulu. The King and Queen of Spain have offered cups for a trans-atlantic sailing yacht race from New York to Santander, Spain. Two classes will race: boats 35 to 55 ft. on the waterline and boats over 55 ft. Many of the notable craft from Eastern harbors are entered including the Aloha, Atlantic, etc. The Atlantic, owned by Gerard B. Lambert (Listerine) holds the Sandy Hook to the Lizard (an English lighthouse) record; 12 days, four hours.

Yachts are rarely wrecked. Only the sturdiest, save in exceptional cases, go far to sea. Others are shrewdly, carefully sailed or navigated. Or perhaps yachtsmen are lucky. Among the rare disasters are: The father of W. A. W. Stewart, one-time commodore of the potent Seawan-haka Yacht Club, Oyster Bay, L. I., was lost with a party in a hurricane off the Florida coast about 25 years ago. The Liev Eriksson, from Norway to Newfoundland, with a party including William Washburn Nutting was lost off Iceland in 1924. Alain J. Gerbault, famed French tennis player, bound around the world, is two months overdue in the South Sea Islands, believed lost. Last week cables reported a minor mishap when the yacht of H. Gordon Selfridge, leading London merchant, grounded on the Dalmatian coast.

The longest yacht in the world is John Pierpont Morgan's steamer Corsair. 304 ft. overall. Steam.

The King of England enjoys himself on the Victoria and Albert, 280 ft. overall. Steam.

The President's steam yacht Mayflower is 272 ft. overall. Steam.

The longest sailing yacht is Arthur Curtiss James's Aloha, 218 ft., noted above.

The biggest yacht in point of view of tonnage is Vincent Aster's building in Germany. A Diesel engine oil burner. Over 2,000 tons.

These craft, queens of their pampered class, compare feebly with their professional big sisters. The Leviathan is 907 ft. long; 59,957 tons.

What Vincent Astor's new boat will cost is variously estimated, up to $2,000,000. She has nine staterooms, eight bathrooms. Her cruising radius is 12,000. Her speed 14 1/2 miles per hour. She requires a crew of 38. Bare running expenses for such a boat are estimated at well over $100.000 a year. Entertainment expenses can easily run the year's budget to $300,000.