+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Prizes | Figure | | 1890 | Starts |-------+-------+-------| of | | | | First | Other | Total | merit | |-------------------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+--------| | _5-Rating Class_ | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Glycera | 43 | 19 | 12 | 31 | 37 | |Alwida | 40 | 14 | 16 | 30 | 29 | |Archee | 14 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 20 | |Valentine | 26 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 15 | |Quinque | 39 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 4 | |Fair Geraldine | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | | | | | | | | |_2-1/2-Rating Class_ | | | | | | | | | | | | | |The Babe | 27 | 15 | 6 | 21 | 44 | |Humming Bird | 33 | 12 | 3 | 15 | 29 | |Dolphin | 26 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 21 | |Cock-a-Whoop | 33 | 4 | 18 | 22 | 10 | |Thalassa | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | |Mliss | 34 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 5 | |Troublesome | 22 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 3 | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ Lord Dunraven became Commodore of the Castle Club in the spring. He was already an avowed champion for and a generous supporter of small yacht racing, and during the winter--to be precise, on November 23, 1889--he wrote an epoch-marking letter to the 'Field' which produced good fruit. In it he said:-- May I add a word about the small classes on the Solent? Your remarks in your issue of the 9th inst. were, I think, rather unfair upon the 5's. Roughly speaking, I suppose the cost of a 20 is about three-fifths more than the cost of a 10; a 10 costs nearly two-thirds more than a 5, and a 5 would come to about double the expense of a 2-1/2. The proportional initial expense diminishes according to size; but the converse is the case in respect of working expenses. The crew of a 2-1/2 can sail a 5, but double the crew of a 5 will be found in a 10, and a 20 will require another couple of hands and a pilot in addition to the crew of a 10.