Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a pleasure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent him a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure 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), made other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as popular for the affluent and nobility, but after that period the habit 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 group, and held much naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other groups, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some stipulated method on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to the throne in 1820, it was then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been formed 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 setting of British yachting. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the ascension of George IV. Every member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for great bids were held, and the social life was splendid. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English held dominance. Sailing was largely for pleasure and rose to its epitome 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 the area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts followed 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 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 success at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and crafted in today’s sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had done earlier for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats were individually built, there was a requirement for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were made. Thus, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, accepted 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 created to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be had on an even playing field with no handicapping required. A great example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done mostly for the royal and the affluent, cost was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller craft 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 hardiness of smaller yachts. Thereafter in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats 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
After the decade 1840–50, in which steam was set to emulate sail power in public vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed more and more in leisure vessels. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high element, and long-distance travel turned into a preferred activity of the affluent. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to those powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht fashion for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were exclusively power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of more sizeable steam yachts. Notably among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, bought by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and gave active service in World War II.
As more sizeable and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many bigger boats began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered for World War I. During the decade after, bigger power-yacht manufacture grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of bigger power craft lessened after 1932, and the style thereafter was in preference of smaller, less pricey boats. After World War II, many small naval vessels were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and maintaining their own small leisure yachts. The amount of craft and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places on the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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