As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht was a pleasure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English throne 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 called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 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 punt. Yachting became classy among 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 instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other organisations, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated method on the Thames around 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 came to be known as 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 organisation had been started at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal funding made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continued location of British racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high stakes were held, and the social life was lovely. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to bigger 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 had control. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and rose to its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht organisation, 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 first sailing yachts were within the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the latter half of the 19th century. The design of sizeable yachts was originally largely put upon by the win of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a syndicate 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. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the research of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what it had done earlier for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats were individually built, there came a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were made. Therefore, a rating rule was created, which is found in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the fastest growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to standard requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing such boats can be had on an even basis with no handicapping required. A great example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was an activity primarily for the nobility and the affluent, cost was no object, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and preference of smaller boats came in the second 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the hardiness of small craft. Thereafter in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and recreational 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
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam started to emulate sail power in market vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in personal vessels. Large power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance sailing turned into a fond pastime of the affluent. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave way to those powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for a number of years. By the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the construction of bigger steam yachts. In particular within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of over 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 for World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many large boats started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed during World War I. In the decade after, bigger power-yacht creation blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that point the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of big power boats declined in 1932, and the fashion from then was in preference of smaller, less expensive boats. Following World War II, many small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and upkeeping their own small recreational boats. The amount of yachts and sailors increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations by the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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