As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a leisure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts 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 return 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, ruled 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 was found to be fashionable for the affluent and royalty, but after that point the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and had large naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other groups, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to monarchy in 1820, it was known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club had been initiated 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 perpetual site of British yachting. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for great bids were held, and the society life was superlative. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English took power. Sailing was largely for leisure and found its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht group, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the latter half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was initially largely impacted by the success of America, which was created by George Steers for a syndicate led 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. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with only a model being used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what such science had previously done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats were individually manufactured, there arose a desire for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was created, which resulted in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the fastest flourishing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be held on an even basis with no handicapping at all. A prime example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was done largely for the nobility and the rich, cost was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller boats came in the later 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 value of smaller yachts. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a popular 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, at which point steam began to replace sail power in commercial boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed more and more in pleasure yachts. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high element, and long-distance sailing turned into a favourite occupation of the rich. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave rise to those powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were solely power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the design of bigger steam yachts. In particular 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, purchased 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 more sizeable and more reliable internal-combustion engines were produced, many large boats started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. During the decade after, large power-yacht creation blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the biggest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of bigger power yachts declined in 1932, and the fashion after that was in preference of smaller, less expensive yachts. Following World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally sailing and upkeeping their own small pleasure craft. The number of yachts and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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