The fascination of sin

From Iain McAllister, Peggy Bawn Press:
As Adrian Morgan suggests (Scuttlebutt 3792), bring it on! Charles Paine Burgess, son of America’s Cup defender designer, Edward Burgess, brother of the J-Class Ranger’s designer, Starling Burgess – and himself an aeronautics engineer, rig designer and naval architect – wrote in 1935:

“In the charter of the New York Yacht Club there is a statement that one of the purposes of the Club is to promote the science of naval architecture. The implication is that developments in yacht design are considered applicable to other branches of naval architecture. It is true that part of my father’s work was the improvement of the Gloucester fishing schooners by applying to them the science he had developed largely through the design of racing yachts.

“On the other hand, the modern America’s Cup racer bears no slightest resemblance to any useful craft in the world, and she does not even contribute to the development of yachting as a true sport apart from the satisfaction of an illogical national vanity. But having damned them, I must confess to an absorbing interest in the problems set by these extraordinary craft. They have the fascination of sin.”