So our foreign cruiser, snugly sparred and moderately canvased, need not be nearly so stiff as when she used to fly up and down the Channel, straining and quivering as if acutely jealous lest any other craft should outstrip her; and she can now be relieved of a considerable portion of her ballast. It is of such importance that the 50-tonner should be light and buoyant, so that she may leap over the Atlantic storm waves and not plunge into their curling crests, that I think the less ballast one can do with the better. I lay stress on this, because I know that the usual wiseacres and others, who frequent the shipwright's yard to proffer all manner of advice to the yachtsman while he is preparing for his voyage, will shake their heads if he speaks of lightening his craft to the extent I should advocate, and warn him that a perilous crankiness will be the result. There is, of course, a limit to this lightening process which must not be overstepped; but that limit--at any rate so far as my practice is concerned--does not, as a rule, find favour in the eyes of the forementioned advisers. If the vessel be ballasted with lead when she comes into one's possession, the weight can be reduced to the exact amount that is required by selling a sufficient quantity of the lead and substituting the same bulk of iron, the specific gravity of one metal to the other being roughly as 11 to 7. A spare chain, spare anchors, and any iron implements not liable to be damaged by damp, can with advantage be employed as ballast in this way, but must, of course, be stowed so that they can be got at without difficulty. Whilst adjusting the ballast it is necessary to remember that, unlike the coasting yacht, the ocean cruiser will have to be laden with a considerable quantity of water and other stores--probably some six tons weight of these.