As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, coming out of private matches. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), made more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting was found to be fashionable among the affluent and royalty, but after that period the habit did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and had great naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club went on, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other organisations, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some organized manner on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to the throne in 1820, it was named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing fight, 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 continuing site of British yacht racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for large bets were held, and the club life was superlative. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English gained dominance. Sailing was largely for fun and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and created a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht society, 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
Early sailing yachts took the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was originally largely affected by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a club started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had done earlier for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there was a need for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, 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 the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be held on an even playing field with no handicapping required. A great example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was an activity primarily for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion 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 journey around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the value of smaller boats. Thereafter in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats became commonplace, 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
Post the decade 1840–50, during 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 boats. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance sailing became a fond activity of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave way to those powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries carrying 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 exclusively 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. In particular 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 for World War II.
As larger and better quality internal-combustion engines were created, many large craft started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed in World War I. From the decade following that, large power-yacht building grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of large power craft declined from 1932, and the style thereafter was for smaller, less expensive yachts. After World War II, lots of small naval boats were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a globally popular activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally sailing and upkeeping their own small recreational yachts. The number of craft and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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