As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht had been a leisure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, arising as private games. English yachting began 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) 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, sovereign 1685–88), ordered for other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 wager. Yachting was found to be popular for the affluent and royalty, but after that time the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held large naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other groups, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some organized fashion on the Thames around 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 then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with 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 funding made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the perpetual setting of British yacht racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for high bets were held, and the social life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had dominance. Sailing was mostly for fun and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a benchmark of luxury and sophistication 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 founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed 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 sizeable yachts was initially heavily impacted by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a association 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. The first yachts were not designed and crafted in today’s sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such study had done earlier for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had been individually manufactured, there arose a requirement for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly flourishing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between these boats can be done on an even par with no handicapping required. A great example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting was an activity primarily for the aristocracy and the affluent, money was no issue, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller yachts occurred in the later half of the 19th century out of 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) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the seaworthiness of smaller craft. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, at which point steam started to take the place of sail power in market craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in pleasure vessels. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance cruising turned into a favourite pastime of the well off. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to those powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht fashion for many years. By the second half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the manufacture 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, 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 during World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many large craft were using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered for World War I. In the decade following, bigger power-yacht manufacture flourished, reaching 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 larger power yachts declined in 1932, and the style from then was for smaller, less costly craft. After World War II, lots of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally manning and maintaining their own small leisure boats. The number of craft and sailors is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations by the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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