As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht had been a leisure craft used first by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with 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 wager. Yachting was found to be classy among the rich and aristocracy, but after that time the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had great naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other groups, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated method 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 was then known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht group had been started at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal patronage made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continuing setting of British racing. The association 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 high bids were held, and the club life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English took power. Sailing was mostly for fun and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and created a minimum 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 instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the latter half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was first greatly impacted by the win of America, which was created by George Steers for a group led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had previously done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there was a desire for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the most rapidly growing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be held on an even par with no handicapping required. A great example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting was an activity largely for the royal and the affluent, expense was no issue, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller craft occurred in the latter half of the 19th century from the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A voyage around the world (1895–98) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the seaworthiness of small craft. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to replace sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in leisure boats. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance sailing turned into a fond activity of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then made way to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for several years. By the second half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the design of bigger steam yachts. In particular among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of more than 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 during World War II.
As bigger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many large yachts were using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed during World War I. In the decade following that, big power-yacht building grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the best auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of large power boats declined in 1932, and the fashion from then was in preference of smaller, less costly craft. After World War II, a lot of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting has become a globally beloved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and maintaining their own small pleasure craft. The number of boats and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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