They can lay to, but it is on the same principle as that of a Una boat, and they would not remain on one tack all the time but for the little jib they carry, while they forge ahead at a great speed, and cannot be stopped unless a man is left at the helm to look after it. If properly trimmed the rater can be steered by the lightest hand when beating to windward and close hauled, and she is remarkably quick in stays. Experience, however, shows that, though the rater rarely ships a sea, still, when she does put her nose in the water, it becomes a general question on board her whether she will ever bring it out again. This is not altogether enjoyable, and such sensations were never experienced in boats built under the old rule. The one large lugsail, too, and little jib form a most unhandy rig. Experience has also proved that, with regard to the two factors, sail-area and length, the tendency is to make the body of as small displacement as possible, taking the length into account, so that with the small area of canvas employed there may be very little weight to propel. Thus, though the early raters were big-bodied and roomy boats, with good head-room below, the boats built lately are inferior in those qualities, and those which will be put on the stocks in the future will be merely big canoes with bulb-keels. Experience prefers for Channel seas a boat that can be driven through the water when necessity compels without any sense of danger, and that, if allowed to do so, will ride over the waves when no object is to be gained by making a short cut through. A yacht of four beams to her length or more will do this far more comfortably and with less commotion and fuss than one of three beams or less to her length. Experience furthermore says that, though the lugsail requires very little gear, and can be hoisted with a certain amount of ease, yet if sail has to be shortened, or the lugsail to be taken in hurriedly, it requires more than three men to do it smartly; at no time is the job an easy one, but if any sea is running, or the weather squally, three men have as much as they can do to handle it. This is never the case with the gaff-mainsail. In a 5-tonner a man and a boy could have shortened sail easily, and though the sail-area was great, one man and the owner could always sail her from port to port. Money may be saved through a small sailmaker's bill, but it must go out in wages to the crew and extra hands. It is a good point to have very little gear about, but the 'Wenonah' and 'Wee Winn' both prove that a gaff-mainsail is quite as suitable as the lug and a better all-round sail.