As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a pleasure craft used first by royalty and then by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he then named 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 the same way back, on a £100 bet. Yachting became popular among the wealthy and royalty, but after that time the trend did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when merging with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some organized manner on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to sovereignty in 1820, it was known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht group 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 perpetual site of British racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. Every member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for high bets were held, and the social life was lovely. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English gained dominance. Sailing was largely for fun and reached its high point 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 continuing American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts were within the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the latter half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was first greatly affected by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a club led 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. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with only a model being used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the study of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such science had previously done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats were individually manufactured, there was a requirement for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were built. Thus, a rating rule was decreed, which resulted in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and revised in 1919. In modern times, 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 manufactured to the same specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing those boats can be done on an even playing field with no handicapping required. A great example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting belonged primarily for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller yachts happened 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the value of smaller craft. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and leisure craft became more common, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, at which point steam was set to replace sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in pleasure yachts. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high element, and long-distance sailing was a favourite pastime of the well off. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to yachts powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of large steam yachts. Notably of 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 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 saw active service for World War II.
As more sizeable and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many big yachts were using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. During the decade that followed, bigger power-yacht manufacture grew, 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 large power craft fell away in 1932, and the fashion after that was for smaller, less pricey craft. Following World War II, lots of small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and keeping their own small recreational boats. The number of boats and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations by the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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