As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht was a pleasure craft used first by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. 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 named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), ordered for other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting became classy among the rich and aristocracy, but after that point the fashion did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and had great naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other groups, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some ordered fashion on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to the throne in 1820, it came to be 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 society had been formed 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 setting of British yachting. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for high stakes were held, and the club life was superlative. Eventually 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 control. Sailing was largely for leisure and rose to its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and set a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the latter half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was originally largely impacted by the victory of America, which was created by George Steers for a association led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with only a model being used. 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 it had earlier done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats were individually built, there arose a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was created, which is found 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 built to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing such boats can be held on an even playing field with no handicapping at all. A great example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was done primarily for the royal and the affluent, expense was no object, and the size of boats developed, 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 trip around the world (1895–98) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the hardiness of smaller yachts. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became more common, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, in which steam started to replace sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in personal craft. Large power yachts were progressed to a high element, and long-distance cruising turned into a favoured activity of the well off. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht archetype for several years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were exclusively power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the construction of bigger 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 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 was used in active service during World War II.
As larger and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many large yachts were using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered during World War I. From the decade following that, large power-yacht manufacture blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that period the biggest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of larger power boats lessened after 1932, and the trend after that was for smaller, less expensive craft. After World War II, lots of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting had become a widespread beloved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and maintaining their own small recreational boats. The amount of yachts and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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