Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a leisure craft used initially by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, arising as private challenges. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English throne 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 named 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 wager. Yachting rose as popular for the affluent and royalty, but after that time the trend did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and had large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other clubs, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to the throne in 1820, it was then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht organisation had been formed 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 continued site of British racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. All members were required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high bets were held, and the society life was superlative. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English held control. Sailing was mostly for pleasure and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and set a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was originally largely put upon by the win of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a group headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with merely a model used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats were individually built, there came a desire for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were made. Thus, a rating rule was written, which resulted in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting was done largely for the royal and the rich, expense was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller craft came in the second 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 trip 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 leisure yachts became more common, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, in which steam was set to replace sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in leisure boats. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance travel became a favoured activity of the well off. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave way to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for several years. By the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of 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 boom in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had 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 saw active service in World War II.
As bigger and better quality internal-combustion engines were developed, many large craft were using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, progressed from World War I. From the decade following, big power-yacht building blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that time the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of big power yachts lessened from 1932, and the trend after that was toward smaller, less pricey boats. Following World War II, many small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally owning and keeping their own small pleasure yachts. The amount of craft and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
Looking for boat transport Gold Coast ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.
