Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a leisure craft used first by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private challenges. English yachting originated 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 called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), built more 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 became popular with the affluent and royalty, but after that point the trend did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other organisations, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some organized manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to sovereignty in 1820, it was known as 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 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 continued location of British yachting. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high stakes were held, and the club life was wonderful. It came to be that the 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 continued when the English held control. Sailing was mostly for leisure and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while on board 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 through to the latter half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was initially greatly put upon by the success of America, which was drawn 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 success at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in today’s sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what science had done earlier for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats had been individually custom-built, there was a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Thus, a rating rule came into being, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and amended in 1919. In modern times, one of the rapidly growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done mostly for the nobility and the wealthy, expense was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller yachts happened 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the hardiness of small boats. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure boats became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favoured 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
Post the decade 1840–50, in which steam began to replace sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed increasingly in personal vessels. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance cruising became a favourite occupation of the affluent. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then made way to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for several years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were exclusively power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of at least 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 bigger and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many big craft began using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, advanced in World War I. In the decade after that, bigger power-yacht building blossomed, reaching a climax 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 bigger power craft declined after 1932, and the trend thereafter was in preference of smaller, less pricey craft. From World War II, lots of small naval boats were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and upkeeping their own small recreational boats. The popularity of boats and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional places by the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
Looking for yacht transport Sunshine Coast ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.
