As the Dutch found dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a leisure craft used initially by royalty and later by the burghers for the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, coming out of private challenges. 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 sent him 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, reigned 1685–88), ordered for other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as popular among the rich and aristocracy, but after that point the trend did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and had large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other societies, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was 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 rose to sovereignty in 1820, it was then known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been started 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 perpetual setting of British yachting. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also 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 society life was lovely. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats grew 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 continued when the English held control. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and created a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht group, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts were within the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was initially largely put upon by the victory of America, which was designed by George Steers for a group headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with merely a model used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such science had previously done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there was a desire for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was created, which ended up in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the most rapidly flourishing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to the same requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be done on an even par with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting was done mostly for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no problem, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller boats came in the latter half of the 19th century from 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 proved the seaworthiness of smaller yachts. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats became more common, down to the dinghy, a favourite 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
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 increasingly favoured in leisure craft. Large power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance sailing was a favoured pastime of the rich. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then made way to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. Like naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part 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 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 sailed by a crew of more than 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 was used in active service for World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many bigger craft started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, progressed in World War I. During the decade after, big power-yacht building blossomed, hitting a climax 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 building of large power boats fell away after 1932, and the trend from then was toward smaller, less costly boats. Following World War II, a lot of small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting had become a globally beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and maintaining their own small recreational boats. The popularity of craft and sailors increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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