After the success of _America_ a change was made in the old type of yacht. The _Alarm_ which had been built in 1834 as a cutter of 193 tons, was in 1852, consequent on _America’s_ victory, lengthened 20 feet by the bow and converted into a schooner of 248 tons. The illustration in Fig. 113, which is reproduced by kind permission of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Ryde, shows the _Alarm_ after she had been rigged after the manner of _America_ with one headsail, having its foot laced to a boom, with a foresail having gaff but no boom, and with a mainsail with both gaff and boom. As here seen she justified the alterations made in her and remained for many years the fastest schooner of the fleet. But not only in rig and design did _America_ make a complete revolution. Hitherto our sails had been mere wind-bags, but the _America_ had her sails made so as to lace to the spars, while ours had been loose-footed on the boom. The American yacht’s canvas thus set flatter and she could hold a better wind than our craft. Henceforth English sail-makers adopted the new idea. Schooners at least took to the new shape at once but the cutters were a little time before they followed the lead thus given to them. It was to America, therefore, that the last existing relic of mediævalism in British ships was banished off the face of the waters for ever. [Illustration: FIG. 114. THE “OIMARA.” BUILT IN 1867.] In 1852 the famous cutter _Arrow_, for the same reason as had transformed the _Alarm_, was rebuilt. Her previous length when she was first built as far back as 1823 was only 3·35 times her beam. In 1852, also, Mr. William Fife of the famous “Fife of Fairlie” firm came into prominence with the _Cymba_. Sail-making in the hands of Lapthorn & Ratsey proceeded along scientific lines, and eventually cotton was used instead of flax. In the ’sixties, following the example set by the builders of the clipper-ships, iron framework was used in combination with wooden skin, and from the early ’seventies to the ’eighties the clipper-bow had attained such success on big ships that it became of great popularity on yachts. But during the ’sixties the old straight-stem cutters were at the height of their fame. The _Oimara_, seen in Fig. 114 with the long bowsprit of the period, was a famous racing craft of the south coast. Built in 1867 by Mr. William Steele of Messrs. Robert Steele & Co., Greenock, the well-known builder of clipper-ships, her tonnage was 163. She sailed a memorable race round the Isle of Wight in August of the following year against the American schooners _Sappho_, _Aline_ and others. Going east about, _Oimara_ led the fleet until the Needles were rounded, but running back to Cowes against the ebb tide, she was beaten by the schooners. This fine ship is still afloat in Poole harbour above the bridge, and is used as a houseboat.