As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a leisure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers in the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. 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 gave him 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, ruled 1685–88), built additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 wager. Yachting became classy with the wealthy and aristocracy, but after that time the trend did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had great naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club went on, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other clubs, 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 ascended to monarchy in 1820, it came to be named 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 society 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 perpetual location of British racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great bids were held, and the social life was splendid. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had power. Sailing was mostly for leisure and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts took the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The style of bigger yachts was first heavily affected by the victory of America, which was designed by George Steers for a club led 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. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in the modern sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had done earlier for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually built, there came a requirement for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which resulted in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to standard specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing those boats can be held on an even par with no handicapping necessary. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was an activity primarily for the royal and the wealthy, money was no problem, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller craft happened in the later half of the 19th century in 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) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the value of small craft. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became more common, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to emulate sail power in market craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in personal vessels. Large power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance cruising was a preferred pastime of the rich. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht fashion for several years. By the latter half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of bigger steam yachts. Conspicuous 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 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 saw active service during World War II.
As bigger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many large boats began using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, progressed during World War I. During the decade after that, big power-yacht creation grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the biggest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of big power yachts fell away from 1932, and the fashion after that was in preference of smaller, less costly boats. Following World War II, a lot of small naval craft were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a globally loved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally owning and upkeeping their own small recreational craft. The number of boats and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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