As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English royalty 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 then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), made other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 bet. Yachting became popular for the rich and royalty, but after that time the trend did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with great naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other groups, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some ordered fashion on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to sovereignty in 1820, it was named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing fight, 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 organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great bets were held, and the club life was wonderful. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to more 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 control. Sailing was for the most part for pleasure and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and established a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was originally heavily put upon by the victory of America, which was designed by George Steers for a association led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with only a model used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the application of the science of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what science had already done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had been individually manufactured, there came a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule came into being, which is found in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and revised in 1919. In the present day, 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 specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing those boats can be held on an even playing field with no handicapping necessary. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done mostly for the royal and the wealthy, cost was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller boats came in the latter 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the seaworthiness of less sizeable yachts. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became commonplace, 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
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to replace sail power in market vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in pleasure boats. Large power yachts were furthered to a high degree, and long-distance cruising turned into a favourite activity of the affluent. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then made way to those powered by the wholly 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 archetype for several years. By the latter half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were solely power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of large steam yachts. Notably within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of at least 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 gave active service during World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many big boats started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, progressed in World War I. From the decade after, big power-yacht building grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that period the largest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of larger power boats fell away after 1932, and the fashion after that was in preference of smaller, less costly boats. Following World War II, a lot of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a widespread beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and keeping their own small leisure yachts. The amount of craft and owners has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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