NEW LAUNCH FOR COACHES

The new coaching launch which was recently purchased by the Harvard Rowing Committee through graduate subscription8 has so far proved to be very satisfactory. The boat, which was built by the Bath Marine Construction Company through the agency of A. P. Homer, of Boston, is especially designed for crew coaching, and fills a need which the coach has felt for several years. It is a V-bottomed boat, 30 feet by 5 feet, 6 inches, equipped with a four-cylinder 18-25 H. P. Sterling Engine of the latest type, including among other accessories a Bosch magneto and a rear starter.

Contract Speed Exceeded.

The guaranteed speed is 16 miles an hour but his was exceeded in the official trial in the Basin last week, when the boat covered a measured mile at the rate of 18.6 miles per hour with four people aboard, and at the builder's trial at Bath, Maine, when the boat reached 20.6 miles per hour with two people aboard. Running at this speed the launch can be handled easily. The launch draws very little water, and the design is unique in that the boat does not leave a wake, sufficient to disturb an eight-oared crew, even when the launch is running at high speed. The bows flare out rather sharply over the surface of the water just above the waterline and give a quick rotary motion to the bow wash, casting the water under the boat, while the broad, almost flat-bottomed stern has the effect of smoothing the water out and leaves a broad shallow furrow in its wake. By combining, thus, speed and easy handling in a boat so constructed that it is able to ran close to shore or near to the crew which is being coached, the Rowing Committee has supplemented the services of the old coaching launches, "Veritas" and "John Harvard."

These older boats have been in service about 15 years and would be indispensable to the coaching staff. They are both about 60 feet long, however, and though the "John Harvard" is much more easily handled than the "Veritas", they both draw so much water that they cannot be run in close to shore, and create so much wash that they cannot be run up alongside a crew.

New Launch at New London.

The new launch has a cedar finish and overlapping planking. In the forward cockpit is a seat for two persons. In the compartment just behind this is the covered engine, with the operator's cockpit aft. When the crews go to New London on June 3 the new launch will be taken along with the older one which has always gone to the race before.