Yachtsmen and those in any way connected with yachting heard last week with deep regret that Mr. MichaeL Ratsey, the builder of the first America Cup challengers, has passed away. In the 'sixties and in the early 'seventies Mr. Ratsey's name was a house hold word in every yachting home. He designed the famous schooner Cambria for Mr. Ashbury in 1868 and she turned out to be one of the fastest yachts of her tonnage afloat. In 1868 the big American schooner Sappho came to Cowes and many people feared that she would like the America, “clear the deck" when she met the British yachts. On this her first visit she was beaten, and the fact that, later on (in 1870), when she had been “hipped out" and rebuilt, she managed to defeat Cambria, stands for very little when we remember that the American schooner rated at 394 tons, and the British yacht at 193 tons. The Cambria was beaten in the first Cup race (no series of races was held in 1870), but we must remember that she was compelled to sail against the whole N.Y.Y.C. fleet. The Americans contended that, as the America won the Cup in 1851 against a fleet of yachts, the challenger of 1870 must do likewise. Some years ago a well-known American writer, referring to the first British challenger, said that there was no model in the Model Room of the New York Yacht Club with better lines than Cambria, and he believed that she was beaten because her sails and rigging were too heavy for New York waters.

Mr. Ashbury tried again in 1871, and he commissioned Mr. Ratsey to build him a new schooner. After much discussion the New York Yacht Club gave up the “fleet sailing” idea, but they claimed the right to name their champion on the morning of the race. Thus, if it happened to be blowing hard, the powerful Sappho was pretty sure to overpower the British craft, and, if it was fair weather, a light-wind yacht could be chosen. In a letter written to the Times, in 1871. Mr. Ratsey explained that, in building Livonia, he was unable to follow out his light displacement idea as he would have wished to do, but even so it must be remembered that his fine schooner was the only British yacht (if we leave out the race in which Valkyrie III. finished first, but which she lost on protest), to win an America Cup race. This race was won from the schooner Columbia.

Mr. Ratsey's fame does not lest upon the two Cup boats, however, for he built many of the fastest yachts of the 1870-1880 era, including Kriemhilda, Vol-au-Vent, and Formosa. He was a bold and skilful designer, and would not be bound by tradition.