As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a leisure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent him a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), made more 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 among the wealthy and aristocracy, but after that period the trend did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with much naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to the throne in 1820, it was named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht society had been started at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal sponsorship made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continued location of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large bets were held, and the social life was wonderful. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had control. Sailing was for the most part for pleasure and rose to its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was originally largely impacted by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a association led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in today’s sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what it had done earlier for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats were individually custom-built, there was a requirement for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule was decreed, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the fastest growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to standard specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing those boats can be held on an even keel with no handicapping necessary. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class adopted for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting belonged mostly for the royal and the affluent, money was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and desire of smaller boats occurred in the later 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 journey around the world (1895–98) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the value of less sizeable boats. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats became more common, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, at which point steam started to replace sail power in market craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed increasingly in personal yachts. Large power yachts were progressed to a high element, and long-distance sailing turned into a favourite activity of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then made way to those powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were exclusively 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. In particular within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of over 150. The Mayflower, purchased by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and was used in active service in World War II.
As more sizeable and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger boats were using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. During the decade after, big power-yacht manufacture grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that time the largest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of big power craft fell away after 1932, and the style thereafter was for smaller, less pricey yachts. Following World War II, a lot of small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting had become a widespread beloved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally manning and keeping their own small recreational boats. The number of craft and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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