Racundra is nine metres over all⁠—something under thirty feet long. She is three and a half metres in beam⁠—nearly twelve feet. She draws three feet six inches without her centreboard, and seven feet six inches when the centreboard is lowered. Her enormous beam is balanced by her shallowness, and though for a yacht it seems excessive, thoroughly justified itself in her comfort and stiffness. She has a staysail, mainsail and mizzen, and for special occasions a storm staysail, a balloon staysail, a small squaresail (much too small), a trysail and a mizzen staysail. She could easily carry a very much greater area of canvas, but, for convenience in single-handed sailing, she has no bowsprit, and the end of the mizzen boom can be reached from the deck.

She is very heavily built and carries no inside ballast. Her centreboard is of oak. She has a three-and-a-half ton iron keel, so broad that she will rest comfortably upon it when taking the mud, and deep enough to enable us to do without the centreboard altogether except when squeezing her up against the wind. Give her a point or two free and a good wind and her drift, though more than that of a deep-keel yacht, is much less than that of the coasting schooners common in the Baltic. With the centreboard down she is extremely handy, and proved herself so by coming successfully through the narrow Nukke Channel with the wind in her face, a feat which the local vessels do not attempt.

But the chief glory of Racundra is her cabin. The local yachtsmen, accustomed to the slim figures of racing boats, jeered at Racundra’s beam and weight, but one and all, when they came aboard her, ducked through the companionway and stood up again inside that spacious cabin, agreed that there was something to be said for such a boat. And as for their wives, they said frankly that such a cabin made a boat worth having, and their own boats, which had seemed comfortable enough hitherto, turned into mere uncomfortable rabbit-hutches. Racundra’s cabin is a place where a man can live and work as comfortably and twice as pleasantly as in any room ashore. I lived in it for two months on end, and, if this were a temperate climate, and the harbour were not a solid block of ice in winter, so that all yachts are hauled out and kept in a shed for half the year, I should be living in it still. Not only can one stand up in Racundra’s cabin, but one can walk about there, and that without interfering with anyone who may be sitting at the writing-table, which is a yard square. In the middle of the cabin is a folding table, four feet by three, supported by the centreboard-case; and so broad is the floor that you can sit at that table and never find the case in the way of your toes. The bunks are wider than is usual, yet behind and above each bunk are two deep cupboards, with between them a deep open space divided by a shelf, used on the port side for books and on the starboard side for crockery. Under the bunks is storage for bottles. Under the flooring on the wide flat keel is storage for condensed milk and tinned food. Behind the bunks, between them and the planking, below the cupboards and bookshelves, is further storage room.

Racundra was designed as a boat in which it should be possible to work, and, as a floating study or office, I think it would be difficult to improve upon her. The writing-table is forward of the port bunk, and a Lettish workman made me an admirable little three-legged stool, which, when the ship is under way, stows under the table. Above and behind the ample field of the table is a deep cupboard and a bookcase, of a height to take the Nautical Almanac, the Admiralty Pilots, Dixon Kemp and Norie’s inevitable Epitome and Tables. Another long shelf is to be put up along the bulkhead that divides the cabin from the forecastle. Under the shelf for nautical books is a shallow drawer where I keep a set of pocket tools, nails, screws and such things. Under the writing-table is a big chart drawer, where I keep the charts immediately in use, writing and drawing materials, parallel rulers, protractors, surveying compass, stopwatch and other small gear. By the side of this is a long narrow drawer, used for odds and ends, and underneath that is a special cupboard made to take my portable typewriter.

On the starboard side, opposite the table, is space for a stove, which, however, on this cruise we used for stowing spare mattresses. Behind it are deep cupboards with low coamings to prevent things slipping. Here were empty portmanteaux, seaboots, and a watertight box for photographic material. The door into the forecastle is on this side, so that it is possible to go through even when someone is sitting at the writing-table. In the forecastle is one full-length comfortable bunk on the port side. On the starboard side there are big cupboards instead of a second bunk. These were used for ship’s stores, such as blocks and carpenter’s tools, shackles and the rest. A seat is fixed close by the mainmast, to a big central cupboard which is the full height of the forecastle from deck to floor, and was used for oilskins and clothes. In the forecastle we stowed warps, spare anchor, tins of kerosene, one of the water-barrels and the sails. This left small room for the Ancient Mariner, but, as he said, “There was room to lie and sleep, and room to sit and smoke, and what does any man want with more?” The main cabin is the general living room.

As you come out of the cabin into the companionway, you find on either hand a cupboard from deck to floor. On the starboard side is a simple and efficient closet, and aft of that, under the deck, a big space used for all the engineering tools, lubricating oils and greases. On the port side is the galley, with room for three Primus stoves (I am fitting a Clyde cooker). One of the stoves is in heavy iron gimbals for use when under way. Behind this is a shelf and rack for cooking-things, and aft, under the deck, a second water-barrel. The engine, a heavy oil, hot-bulb Swedish engine, burning kerosene (we have no benzine in the ship), is under the self-draining steering-well. It is completely covered when not in use by a wooden case, contrived to provide steps up to the deck. The case takes to pieces, but can be fixed with absolute rigidity, so that people who have visited Racundra have asked on going away, what was the purpose of the reversing lever (at the side of the companionway, within reach of the steering-well), never having suspected that we had an engine on board. For all the good we got of it during this first cruise we might just as well have had no engine, but next year I hope to take the engine seriously and learn the Open Sesame that will set it miraculously to work. The oil reservoir is in the extreme stern, and is filled from the deck. The companionway can be completely covered in by a folding and sliding lid, over which we shall have a canvas cover. The raised trunking of the cabin is carried completely round companion, mizzenmast and steering-well, so that there is plenty of room inside this coaming for a man to lie full length. In summer this would be a most desirable place to sleep, and even on this autumn cruise, during our days of fine weather, we put one of the spare mattresses there, and anyone who was not busy with something else reclined there, smoked, dozed, read or bothered the steersman with irrelevant conversation. The steering-well itself gives room for two people. In front of it, immediately aft of the mizzenmast, is the binnacle, and under the deck, between companionway and steering-well, is a cupboard for riding light, binoculars, foghorn, etc. The main sheet, mizzen sheet, backstays and staysail sheets are all cleated within easy reach of the steersman, who can do everything but reef without leaving his place. Owing to the height of the narrow mainsail, inevitable in a ketch, the gaff tends to swing too far forward, so I have a vang, which also serves as a downhaul fastened to the peak, and cleated, when in use, close by the mizzenmast.