Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a pleasure craft used initially 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, coming out of private matches. English yachting began 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) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), built additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 bet. Yachting was found to be fashionable among the affluent and nobility, but after that point the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when merging with other clubs, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some organized method on the Thames around 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 known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association 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 club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the accession of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for great stakes were held, and the society life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English gained power. Sailing was largely for fun and reached its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated 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 followed the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the later half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was first heavily affected by the victory of America, which was created by George Steers for a club headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its victory at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with just a model being used. Not until the later 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 structure of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats had to be individually built, there was a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which resulted in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the fastest flourishing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to the same requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing such boats can be done on an even basis 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 rich, money was no issue, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and preference of smaller craft happened 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 seaworthiness of small boats. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to replace sail power in public craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were used increasingly in leisure yachts. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance sailing was a favourite activity of the affluent. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave rise to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the manufacture of large steam yachts. Notably of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed 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 saw active service during World War II.
As larger and better quality internal-combustion engines were developed, many bigger craft started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered for World War I. From the decade following, bigger power-yacht manufacture blossomed, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of big power boats declined from 1932, and the fashion thereafter was for smaller, less expensive boats. After World War II, lots of small naval boats were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and keeping their own small leisure boats. The amount of craft and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places on the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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