Yachting and Yacht Clubs
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 secondly by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English monarchy 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, ruled 1685–88), ordered for additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 bet. Yachting was found to be fashionable for 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 organization, with large naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club endured, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other societies, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some organized fashion 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 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 fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club had been formed 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 continuing setting of British racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for great bets were held, and the club life was splendid. Ultimately 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 went on when the English held control. Sailing was mostly for fun and rose to its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the later half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was initially heavily affected by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a association started 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. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in a contemporary sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the science of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what it had done earlier for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats were individually built, there arose a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule was written, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to the same specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be done on an even keel with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done largely for the nobility and the wealthy, money was no issue, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller boats happened 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) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the value of small yachts. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred 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
Post the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to replace sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in pleasure vessels. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance travel turned into a fond activity of the rich. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to those powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were solely power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular within 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 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 dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many large yachts were using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. During the decade that followed, big power-yacht creation grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that point the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of large power craft declined from 1932, and the trend thereafter was for smaller, less costly craft. After World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally beloved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and keeping their own small recreational boats. The amount of yachts and owners has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas by the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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