As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht had been a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam gave him a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), made other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as popular for the rich and royalty, but after that point the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had much naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some stipulated fashion on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to monarchy in 1820, it came to be named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club had been initiated at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal funding made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continuing setting of British yachting. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. Every member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for large bids were held, and the social life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English took power. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and rose to its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and set a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts followed the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The style of bigger yachts was first greatly put upon by the win of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a group led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its success at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with merely a model being used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had done earlier for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had been individually built, there was a requirement for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were made. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which resulted in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to the same requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be had on an even keel with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting belonged mostly for the aristocracy and the affluent, money was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller craft occurred in the latter half of the 19th century out of the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A trip around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the value of smaller yachts. Thereafter in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became more common, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, when steam began to replace sail power in public craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in personal boats. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance travel was a preferred activity of the rich. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave rise to boats powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. Notably of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, bought by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and gave active service in World War II.
As bigger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many bigger craft began using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. From the decade after that, big power-yacht building blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that point the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of larger power boats lessened after 1932, and the style from then was in preference of smaller, less costly yachts. Following World War II, many small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting has become a internationally loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and keeping their own small leisure craft. The amount of boats and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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