Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht had been a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, arising as private games. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English monarchy 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 named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), ordered for 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 rose as classy for the wealthy and royalty, but after that time the trend did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, with large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by conglomerating with other societies, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some ordered method on the Thames in 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 called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been initiated at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal sponsorship made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the continued setting of British yachting. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the rise of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high bets were held, and the social life was lovely. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had dominance. Sailing was mostly for fun and reached its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the latter half of the 19th century. The style of bigger yachts was initially greatly impacted by the success of America, which was created by George Steers for a club started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with only a model used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had earlier done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had to be individually built, there was a desire for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule was created, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. In the present day, one of the fastest 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 areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be held on an even basis with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was an activity mostly for the royal and the affluent, money was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller boats happened 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 trip around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the hardiness of less sizeable yachts. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure boats became more common, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to take the place of sail power in market vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in personal yachts. Large power yachts were furthered to a high element, and long-distance sailing became a preferred pastime of the affluent. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then made way to those powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. Like naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of large steam yachts. Notably of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with 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 was used in active service in World War II.
As bigger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many large craft started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed from World War I. In the decade after, large power-yacht building grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that period the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of bigger power yachts declined from 1932, and the style after that was in preference of smaller, less costly boats. After World War II, lots of small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a globally loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally manning and maintaining their own small recreational boats. The popularity of craft and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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