Rainbow II

Rainbow II
Rig Class.Schooner
Year built:1898
General characteristics
Ton:316 tons TM
LOA:132.7 feet between perpendiculars
Beam:23.9 feet
Draught:14.1 feet

Rainbow II was designed by G L Watson and built at Glasgow in 1898 by D & W Henderson for C L Orr-Ewing MP.  The photograph on the right shows her racing close hauled at Cowes in a fine full-sail breeze in the August of her first season.

However, she was not designed as a racing yacht - she was simply a yacht.  Her Linear Rating of 114.53 didn't make it easy for her to win prizes after the time correction had been applied.  She has a very large sail area of 13,500 sq ft and on her good days gave ample demonstration of the speed she could make.  In the Queen's Cup - with little close-winded racing as it happened - she covered 50 miles in 3 hours 52 minutes and 46 seconds.

Later, her rating under the new International Rule was established at 30.59 metres.

In 1904 she passed into the hands of Verein Seefahrt Hamburg and was renamed Hamburg.  As such, she was the German entry in the 1905 Kaiser's Cup Transatlantic Race.

Owners

Namefromto
C L Orr-Ewing Esq, MP 1898 1902

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