Among the most celebrated of the early 5-tonners were three yachts,
the 'Pearl,' 'Torment,' and 'Arrow.' Of the three, the 'Pearl' and
'Torment' were the best known, and are still held in loving memory by
many a yachting enthusiast. The 'Torment,' owned by that well-known
yachtsman the late Secretary to the Royal Irish Yacht Club, was raced
from the day of her birth, some time about the year 1850, and was
always a leader of the van. Her racing career lasted not much less
than twenty years, and it was only the lead keels and the deep bodies
given to the later yachts that brought it to a close. It is when
looking back on such good old warriors as the 'Torment' and the
'Mosquito,' among the larger racers, that lovers of the sport whose
incomes are limited must agree that the old days were good indeed. It
was not necessary then to be the fortunate possessor of a new vessel
each season to enable the lover of yacht racing to win prizes and keep
well in with the flyers of the year. When an old boat appeared to be
not quite up to the mark, or lacking in the requisite turn of speed,
little was done to make her beat some new comer beyond a few
alterations, which as a rule took the form of doctoring up one or
other of her ends, or, perhaps, lengthening her out amidships. The
most remarkable example of how a yacht's racing life could be made to
outlive many competitors and leave her a winner to the last, by
effecting alteration after alteration on her hull, was that of the old
'Arrow,' which belonged to Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne. Alas! the
days when an alteration was quite sufficient to keep a yacht
successful have long since passed away, and from the present outlook
seem as if they will never again return.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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