As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers for the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting started 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 presented him with a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), ordered for more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting became classy with the affluent and aristocracy, but after that time the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with great naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other groups, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some organized method on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to sovereignty in 1820, it was then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht society had been initiated 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 perpetual location of British yachting. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the accession of George IV. All members were required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large bets were held, and the club life was lovely. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English held dominance. Sailing was mostly for fun and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and created a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The design of large yachts was first largely affected by the success 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 success at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with only a model used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had earlier done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats were individually built, there came a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule was created, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and revised in 1919. Today, one of the fastest flourishing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to standard requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be done on an even par 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.
For the time that yachting was an activity largely for the royal and the rich, money was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller yachts occurred in the later half of the 19th century in 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) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the seaworthiness of less sizeable craft. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and leisure boats became more common, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to emulate sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in personal yachts. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance travel was a preferred occupation of the wealthy. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave rise to those powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. In particular of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of over 150. The Mayflower, commissioned by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and gave active service during World War II.
As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many bigger boats were using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. From the decade after that, bigger power-yacht building grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that period the largest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of larger power boats declined in 1932, and the style after that was in preference of smaller, less pricey boats. After World War II, many small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread popular competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and keeping their own small pleasure boats. The number of yachts and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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