As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers for the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting started 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) pleasure 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 more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 wager. Yachting was found to be popular with the wealthy and nobility, but after that time the trend did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, 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 went on, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other organisations, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated fashion on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to the throne in 1820, it came to be known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club 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 continuing site of British yacht racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great stakes were held, and the social life was superlative. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English had power. Sailing was for the most part for fun and reached its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and established a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the 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 aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the second half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was initially largely impacted by the win 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.) found its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with just a model used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the application of the research of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what science had earlier done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had to be individually built, there was a desire for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were made. Thus, a rating rule came into being, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the most rapidly growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to standard dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be done on an even basis with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was an activity largely for the royal and the affluent, money was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller boats came in the latter 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 trip 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 smaller boats. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and recreational boats became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a popular 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
Post the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to take the place of sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly used in personal vessels. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high element, and long-distance sailing became a favoured pastime of the wealthy. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then made way to yachts powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the latter half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. Conspicuous of 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, 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 for World War II.
As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger yachts started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. In the decade after, bigger power-yacht manufacture blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that time the largest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of bigger power boats lessened in 1932, and the trend thereafter was in preference of smaller, less expensive boats. Following World War II, many small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread popular competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and maintaining their own small pleasure craft. The popularity of yachts and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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