VALKYRIE II: DATA TABLE & LINES

Category: VALKYRIE II

Unlucky challenger for America's Cup 1893

Valkyrie II was a gaff-rigged cutter. She was designed by George Lennox Watson and built alongside HMY Britannia at the D&W Henderson shipyard, Meadowside, Partick on the River Clyde, Scotland in 1893 for owner Lord Dunraven of the Royal Yacht Squadron.

American yachtsmen believed they had in Valkyrie II a boat worthy of die best we could put against her. Like Thistle, she was preceded by stories of victories on the other side that showed her to be "a demon in light airs and a very devil in a blow."

From The sun., September 19, 1893 : Valkyrie II is 85.50 feet on the water line, 126 feet over all, 20 feet 6 inches beam, and drawn 16 feet 6 inches. In her races on the other side she used 90-foot main boom, while her bowsprit outboard was 16 feet, and the spread something like 9,300 square feet of canvas.

She has a long, finely drawn out upper body, with her greatest beam at the load water line. Her bow, which is a cross between that of the English cutter Dora and the Herreshoff fin keel Wenonah, bears a close resemblance to Queen Mab’s, while her counter is somewhat drawn out in comparison with that vessel. Her lead keel, which weighs about seventy-five tons, is carried well forward in a ***k body with a gradual rise, while aft it is flattery tapered in the way of a fin down to the heel, giving her a great grip in the water.

Valkyrie II is of composite construction, steel frame, and planked with wood, and a pine deck. She has perforated web frame, such as are sometimes used in steamers for her framing, adding great strength and lightness to her construction. The Valkyrie shows a line deck plan, with very little bulwark: in fact, a few inches of solid rail describes all she has by way of an outer rim. Her canvas is supplied by Lapthorne & Ratsev of Cowes, the famous English sailmakers, and is the best that money can buy.

As soon as she got into form on this side all could see that she was a fine powerful boat, with good lines, and a generally business-like air. Her forefoot was cut away even more than Vigilant's, and her underbody was more graceful, though her coppered bottom did not present the glassy smoothness of the defender's bronze plates. If there was any one point upon which Americans criticized the new-comer, aside from the fact that she was a keel boat, and thus open to criticism from adherents of the centre-board type, it was that she appeared heavier in hull and rig than the American boat, though smaller in beam, length and spars.

Hand-crafted plank-on-frame wood hull

Her draft was somewhat more than the Vigilant's, it being 16.30 feet. Her length on the water-line was 86.80 feet, beam 22.33 feet, her overall length 117.25, and racing length 93.11; f against an overall length of 124 feet and a water-line length of 86.19 in Vigilant, a beam of 26.25 feet, racing length of 96.78, and draft of 13.5 feet. Valkyrie's sail area was 10,042 square feet, while that of Vigilant was 11,272. Valkyrie was of composite build, steel frame and wood planking. She was designed by George L. Watson and was built by D. &: W. Henderson & Company at Partick on the Clyde. She hailed from Glasgow, and her sole owner was Wyndham Thomas-Wyndham Quin, Earl of Dunraven and Mountearl, of Dunraven Castle, Brigend, Glamorganshire, Ireland. Her sailing-master was Capt. William Cranfield.

 

Valkyrie II : DATA TABLE
Designer George Lennox Watson
Builder D. & W. Henderson & Co
Owner Windham-Thomas Wyndham-Quin, Comte de Dunraven and Mountreal
Club Royal Yacht Squadron
Cup Edition 8 (1893)
Skipper William Cranfield
Afterguard Captain Lemon Cranfield, Captain Martin F. Lyon, H. Maitland Kersey, George L. Watson, Lady Rachel Wyndham-Quin, Lady Eileen Wyndham-Quin.
Launching April 29th ,1893
Type Keel cutter
Hull material Composite
Mast material Wood
L.O.A. 35,84 m
L.W.L. 26,06 m
Beam 6,80 m
Draft 5,03 m
Mainmast 26,31 m
Mainboom 28,22 m
Bowsprit 10,82
Maintopmast 15,72
Maingaff 16,94
Displacement 140 tons
Sail area 100,21 m2
Rating 93.11 / 93.57
End of life July 5, 1894: struck and sunk by Satanita

 

LINES OF VALKYRIE II - From her designer's original drawings

 

Plan created with DELFTSHIP
Lines of Valkyrie II created with DELFTSHIP

 

Front view of Valkyrie II created with DELFTSHIP

Download the MODEL FOR DELFTSHIP : Hull only

Download the MODEL FOR DELFTSHIP : Full model

Back view of Valkyrie II created with DELFTSHIP