Why You Should Hire an Architect

2010 September 8
by squadron

An architect is a highly trained professional who has experience in planning, designing and the construction of buildings and the management of construction jobs.

Also, one is not considered an architect until he or she has properly passed all the necessary education and accredited programs to procure a license in order to practice architecture. When practicing architecture, the architect can have free reign to design the building or group of buildings, as well as the space around it that still counts as part of the project. These ideas form the planning stage of the project and can take months to finalise.

The reason why architects are so important to the success of any building plan is simple: they can put your ideas into a feasible and concrete reality. If you have great ambitions for your home or place of business, then an architect can ensure that those visions will come true.

But aside from the actual design of the building, there are so many other complex factors (beyond the scope of inexperienced people) that need to be taken into account, and these are also covered in the responsibilities of the architect.

For example, there are some architectural firms that not only design the building for you, but they also prepare the bid documents for the costing of of the entire project, and are the ones that most commonly talk to the contractors, stakeholders and any third parties involved in the assignment.

When you hire an architect, you will not have to be confused by by all the small but important technical details. All you have to be concerned about is if whether or not the building is coming along according to the plans originally devised with the help of the architect.

The architect is also very helpful before construction begins. If you do not have an actual plan but do have an idea on what you want your structure to look like, then that is where the professional can help you on the endeavor.

All you have to do is to present them with some ideas and they can be the ones to take care of site analysis, the assistance you may need in zoning and planning, any environmental impact studies you may need, bidding and contract negotiation with the contractor and his men, and so much more.

The architect that you hire will be involved in all of the aspects of your project. Essentially, you are hiring an architect because you require a trained expert to take carriage of planning and designing the building or dwelling as well as provide the necessary feedback and support throughout the entire project.

Engaging an architect is like taking on a business partner for your project, one who is knowledgeable, knows the risk areas around the project and knows how to minimize those risks, has the necessary people skills to work with contractors in order to hire additional resources within budget.

A good architect will treat the project as though it is his or her own and will devise creative ideas and plans to the manager, and discuss in great detail the advantages, disadvantages, any problems of a particular strategy.

These are just some of the many important benefits and key reasons why you should engage an architect. There are so many more reasons that really prove that any project worth going through with has to be under the supervision of a highly qualified architect. In the end, it all boils down to the fact that you have a dream construction project, and your architect is the person to make all these dreams become reality.

Looking for Brisbane architects? For renovation architects Brisbane, contact Dion Seminara Architecture. They are leading home improvement architects. Brisbane office is located in Morningside.

Tents and Marquees

2010 September 2
by squadron

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are for when you want to make a spectacular outdoor scene. They are generally structures installed at a location for a period of time.

Why A Tent?
Commercial Tents are used as protection from the sun, rain or a gathering place. They can make a stunning and creative atmosphere for any event.

Tent Rentals
Tents can be rented or leased for a day, a weekend, weeks, months, etc. For one or two day events, the Tents are usually installed a few days before the event, depending on scheduling and weather, and remain until a few days after the event. Many rentals are quoted for the entire week, allowing for time to set up and design the interior and exterior. Some Tents are built for exceedingly long-term events and have been installed and remain installed for years.

What Kind of Tent Should I Rent?
Tent rental companies come in all sizes – from small-sized companies with just a few Tents to exceedingly large-sized companies – carrying dozens of several sizes and styles of Tents. Some general rental companies rent from tent rental companies to accommodate their client’s needs.

You may know you want to use a standard Tent for your event, or your event planner may already have in mind to use a Tent. You have options! There are lots of other fabulous
structures and Tent styles out there. Some are unique and make a statement of their own. Ask the rental company you’re working with for a list of the type styles they have on hand.

Usually, the different types of Tents available in most companies are (the names vary depending of the company):

Folding Tents Easy and fast to use and always in demand. Very popular, because usually is the less expensive tent. Fast, flexible, cost effective and long lasting.

They are used by:

  • Corporate brands across most industries
  • Government & Council buyers
  • SME business marketers
  • Franchisees
  • Agricultural exhibitors
  • Emergency services & community groups
  • Folding Tents create brand exposure opportunities.
  • You can reach your audience at the right time, in the right place with the right message.

Inflatable Tents An exciting and entertaining alternative Tent. Easy & fast to set up. Be sure they have removable printed roof because in that way you can share the investment with other licences.

What Size Tent Will I Need?

The size of Tent depends on a few factors:

1. The number of guests you expect
2. Layout or seating arrangements or the style of event:

* Reception with what type of tables?
* Speaker engagement with what type of seating?
* Will you need a dance floor?
* Will you need display areas for your products?

If you are interested in a Tent, you can expect to need about 2,000 – 2,500 square feet for 200-seated guests. That could mean a 40 x 60 size Tent (Always ask the Tent rental vendor directly and they’ll give you the best informationabout the size of Tent you’ll need).

Therefore, the key rule is; know what you are going to use your tent for. The choice of tents is incredible, almost on par with the choice of cars that you can buy.

So if you need a tent for the family BBQ, for example, your needs are fairly basic
and your budget may be low. Look for cheap tents that offers a waterproof Polyester roof and a good warranty for under $600.

If you need a tent for a school or sports club you will need a diverse range of sizes, and colours. Most plain colour Tents s range between $995- $2900. If you are keen to advertise yourself, you can have your names printed for around $150-$300. Printing logos usually cost a little more.

In the last 5 years, portable Tents have become important to businesses for their marketing. The key need for these buyers is a prominent and premium reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as boring as a website address or they can be a design masterpiece.

Remember, if it is for commercial purposes, the aim is to build recognition of your company with your printed Tent. Printed corporate Tents range in price from $1500- $4000. Good ones will really catch your eye.

Once you have decided on what sort of buyer you are and how you are going to use your Tents, a good Tents company will offer you a choice of frames, a warranty of between 3-5 years and help with formulating the printing-if you need it.

For more information about tents, contact Extreme Marquees. We have a range of cheap tents, for all sorts of home and business applications.

New Zealand’s Top Holiday Cities

2010 August 23

New Zealand has a magnificent array of beautiful landscapes. Like imposing mountain ranges, endless coastlines, bountiful rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These scenic wonders have all made New Zealand an attractive destination for all kinds of holidays.

Fantastic travel packages and holiday specials are available on quality accommodation in modern city hotels and luxurious wilderness lodges at discounted prices. Among the top holiday destinations in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a prominent online specialist travel operator and provides wonderful tourist services for New Zealand. Travel Online provides an instant quote and booking service for accommodation in cities right across the country.

Queenstown
The international resort town of Queenstown is situated on the shoreline of Wakatipu Lake. This beautiful region is among the most scenic locations on the globe. Throughout the year adventurous and exciting sports like jet boating, bungy jumping, and white water rafting take place. This town is the epicentre of the entire world’s bungy jumping activities too. With the advent of winter, the town gets transformed to an alpine wonderland with snowboarders and skiers from all corners of the world assembling at the annual Winter Festival.

There is constant demand for Queenstown Accommodation all round the year and Travel Online offers a select group of hotels best suited for New Zealand holidays. 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom apartments, with luxurious facilities, gyms, spas and fantastic views are available at various holiday retreats across the city. Bigger apartments with more bedrooms, tennis courts, private jetties and fitness centres are also available at a higher price. Luxury complexes with studio rooms in the vicinity of cafes, bars, and restaurants are also found in Travel Online’ Queenstown Accommodation selection.

Christchurch
When choosing a place to stay in Christchurch look for hotels that give views over the wonderful Victoria Square, across the mesmerizing Avon River or towards the historic Anglican Cathedral. Situated on New Zealand’s South Island, this cosmopolitan city is always abuzz with fantastic festivals, shopping spots, theaters and art galleries. Hotels overlooking Victoria Square provide visitors with an insight in to the city’s English history.

Individuals accommodated in the vicinity of the Christchurch Cathedral will find hotel rooms with a Manhattan-style feel. Tradition and elegance are everywhere in these hotels along with a keen eye on service excellence. Spacious bedrooms with full-fledged kitchen facilities are common, along with hi-tech conference facilities, resort-like leisure features like spas, saunas, gyms, and swimming pools. Many of these hotels provided by Travel Online are located in the vicinity of the Technology Park, the International Antarctic Centre, and the airport. Travelers who want to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan life will find suitable accommodation in the majesticcountryside surrounding the city.

Auckland
Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, is situated in between 2 harbors and has more boats per person than anywhere on the planet. Within minutes a person has the flexibility of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the sweet life in the casino, surfing at winding beaches or tasting the exotic wines at local vineyards. Hotels come in stylish and comfortable studios, and luxurious executive / marina suites. Travel Online caters to the tastes of corporate and business tourists and can beat any price seen on Auckland accommodation advertised. Auckland harbor is splendid, and is seen perfectly from atop Sky City and the surrounding accommodation.

Affordable and comfortable apartments are available for casual tourists, equipped with kitchens, laundries, and balconies to provide a fantastic holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland love visiting the Antarctic Encounter, which showcases the only penguins present in the sub-Antarctic region. More encounters include cage-bereft shark dives, scuba expeditions and snorkel safaris. New Zealand is waiting.

Travel Online has a wide range of Queenstown accommodation close to all the snow action and cosmopolitan Christchurch accommodation surrounded by all that theatre and art. For holidays in and around the water, Auckland accommodation is as good as anywhere in the world.

Repairing Flooded Carpet: A cheap job is a good job right? Wrong….

2010 August 18
by squadron

Don’t allow an unprofessional 24 hour carpet cleaner show up to repair your carpets with water damage. These are the cautions you have to be aware of:

Overcharging. An inexperienced water restoration carpet cleaner may fill the job up with extra extras. E.g. using dehumidification for drying the water damaged carpets is not needed.

Using the correct equipment. They might use equipment from hire places to dry the carpet. This is permissible, but an experienced water damage technician will have all their equipment so they provide a speedy response and hopefully a better value job.

Moisture metre. If they don’t have the correct moisture meter, they can’t tell if the carpet is fixed. This increases the problem of mould growth in the future. Removal of the mould would then be required in the future.

Specialised. There are a lot of “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do restoration jobs on the “side.” i.e. they do not take on this kind of task each day. Be careful of this. Drying carpet water damage is an art. Removing and repairing and reinstalling the carpet must be done by a professional, otherwise carpets can be damaged incontrovertibly.

You may be thinking, how do I choose a proper Flood Restoration professional? Below I have set out some signifiers to check for when you hunt around for a carpet flood damage business:

How large is their Yellow Pages ad slot: This can indicate how much business they get already. A full-size Yellow Pages advertisement can cost around $50 000. So if they have invested in a big ad, you can have some indication that they are professionals.

Where do they rank in Google? The higher their rank in Google, the more click-ins there have been for their business.

What Qualifications do they have? The foundational qualification they require is a IICRC qualification in Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies use them for water damage jobs? This is a better indicator. If insurance companies source them, the business is probably going to be good at their job. Insurance companies will use the companies that grant them the better value for the fee.

What kind of Equipment do they have? They should own a minimum of 100 Air movers. If they possess this many, this shows they have been running for a good while. We took 8 years to build up that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What type of commitment can you get for them through a phone call? See if you can pin them down to a set rate for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they can’t give you a package for only this, you know they are not interested in serving you, so move on.

Response Time – Our Water Damage business based in Brisbane works to a 59 minute response time for a water damage emergency. The restoration needs to be completed ASAP. Mould can appear after a 24 hour period.

If you stick to these tips you are sure to locate a Flood Damage Restoration company who knows how to do the job.

If you have carpet water damage Brisbane, call us for flooded wet carpet drying. Brisbane storm season is approaching and you may need storm damage carpet cleaning. Brisbane and surrounding areas serviced.

Eight Steps to Great Web Design

2010 August 7
by squadron

Take control of getting your site produced by a developer and comprehend the process it will save you money and aquire you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Understanding your business and how you are currently positioned in your market.
In order to formulate a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full knowledge of your business including your products, and/or services and more importantly their market position. You then have to consider how you want to explain your business and what it offers in 7 seconds or less. Sounds impossible? Well that is the average time that a user will consider the point “is this site I searched for?”.

2. Budget and estimation
Have a budget in mind and don’t be afraid to let the developers know what it is. In saying this: BE REALISTIC, $500 will never see a great web site created, nor will they be anything left in the bank to market it.

3. The creative process
Be armed with example sites and more importantly the elements of the site you like so they can get an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will construct a good profile and analyze not only what type of site to actualize for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for effective development. The more interaction and information you bestow them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by becoming what you want 1st time round. Check with the designers on how many rounds of changes come with the contract, most will allow for a total conceptual redesign only once and 2 rounds of changes after that.

4. Production and Content
After the home page design is made, the developers will more than likely take the general layout of this concept and then create the inner page template. It is this template that will be repeated for most of your pages for your site.
Present your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t get too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be preserved when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is suggested that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are essential later on in not only interacting with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; present a decent amount of content but formulate it in a way that a reader may acquire a summary of what you are trying to infer across in the 1st couple of paragraphs and an image or to. The rest of the paragraphs that get into finer details ARE FOR GOOGLE !

5. Development Programming and CMS
If your website contains Content Managed Areas (CMS) or has any other dynamic sections the developers will wrap your design around a content management program such as Joomla or Drupal or they may have a custom built system. Make sure that you get to see how the CMS system works on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. it is essential that you know that you can use and know the system when your site is complete.

6. Testing and training
We work closely with the developers to test your site especially if there are any CMS or special programs that have been made for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not work 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program operates and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, odds are it won’t make sense to your audience. Make sure you test your website on more than just your browser, try to test it on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. All of these browsers are avialable on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to bring your site onlive make sure you have finished the above testing step until you are happy that this website is the best representation of your business / product it can be. Remember even though you can change things after going live it is still a poor reflection on your business if there are spelling mistakes or broken images when you launch.

8. Marketing
There is little point in having a website if nobody visits it, make sure as part of you contract you have discussed search engine optimisation and or search engine marketing as part of your website build. This is the absolute most important factor of the whole process. If you are the only one looking at your site then you are in trouble.

Remember Search Engine Optimisation is about 30% Onsite (getting your site correct for Search Engine to index correctly) and 70% Promotion. Any developer who tells you otherwise hasn’t been in the industry too long.

For more information about web design Brisbane, contact Web Site Blue. Our web designers understand marketing as well as design.

Tips to Creating a New Business Logo

2010 August 6

A logo is a central step to creating a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face conveys the tone of your business, gestures the service and displays the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the creation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they need to put signage on their new building they cannot track the design studio down that created the original logo for them and so incur costs to have it redone. This is needless and may cause complications when trying to recreate the logo exactly as created originally.

We have created some basic tips you for to think about when creating a logo. Hopefully these will help you from experiencing any future obstacles.

Tip 1
First things first – you need to decide if you would like your logo to have an accompanying icon. It is suggested that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will assist in getting a clear message across to your target audience.

An icon can add an extra element to your branding in that you could use the icon on its own on collateral where perhaps you are sighting for a more illustrative finish without losing recognition.

A perfect example of this is the well-known and executed Nike logo.

Tip 2
Colour can be an extremely important decision as it not only could change the output costs but can also limit your output use. Think about the end result and what you will be assigning your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

Tip 3
Make sure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and insure that it includes all the files needed for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Assure you have a copy of your logo as a PDF – with the text converted to curves.

Tip 4
Using images in your logo is not very easy to regulate. For example it is troublesome to reverse into black and white. Images also have limitations when it comes to size – they can only be reproduced to a certain size before they start pixilation.

Tip 5
Using gradients in your logo is not recommended. This too can have limitations when it comes to output for ie: gradients are hard to reproduce when embroidering fabrics.

Tip 6
Make sure sure the font is legible. Some logos need to be reproduced on small pieces of collateral ie: post stamps. It is important that in this case the text is
readable

Tip 7
Make certain that you receive a copy of your logo in CMYK high resolution 300 dpi (for printing use) and RGB 72 dpi(for web use).

Tip 8
It is important to have a style guide of your logo. It will clearly show you how to use your logo so it looks exactly the same every time it is reproduced. This allows you to keep your corporate image consistent.

Tip 9
Make sure that you get a letter from the design studio declaring that you own the copyright to your logo.

If you follow these tips then not only will you receive a well-designed logo but you will also own the artwork. And when it comes to reproducing your collateral you will be doing it the most cost effective way.

For logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact graphic design Brisbane today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

2010 July 31
by squadron

How many times have you dispatched business cards to print and obtained yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been delighted to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then caught that the crucial tag line is missing or your logo has been squashed.

There is only one way to avoid this from happening and that is to create a style guide. Not only will a style guide assist you oversee the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you strengthen your brand recognition – which many argue is one of the strongest selling tools.

We have placed the below steps together for you as a starting point.

Step 1 : Mark the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to use in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?

Step 2 : Define what your output uses are. This is important because you will require different logos and file formats for example, black and white publication adverts in comparison to vehicle graphics.

Step 3 : Define the tone for the copy and content required. For example you may requirecopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to attribute to the business and team.

Step 4 : Make certain you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding sits on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reprinted.

Step 5 : Assure to insert any contributing logos or logos of business that are associated with you. It’s also important that you issue a copy of the layout to these companies to ensure they accept the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.

Step 6 : Insure that grammar, spelling and contact details are correct.

Step 7 : Make sure that when suppliers are using the Style Guide they understand~know~discern~apprehend} that a proof needs to be dispatched~sent~mailed~commissioned}to you to be confirmed as correct.

Make your Style Guide completed and as tight as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly suggest a training session – whereby your design studio comes in and trains your staff on how to use the Style Guide and most importantly your brand.

For graphic design Brisbane, logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today. We help your brand build business.

Projectors: LCD Verses DLP (The downfall of DLP technology)

2010 July 19

The most typical question heard when buying a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: do I buy an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, short for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, an acronym for ‘digital light processing’ are the two top projector imaging technologies. With so many brands and types available, it can be difficult for customers to pick between the two technologies. It comes down to the fact that LCD projectors give far superior image quality and colour accuracy. The following article explains why DLP projectors struggle with bringing up a comparable standard of image quality.

Visualise a set of blinds in your household covering your bedroom window. With the twist of a rod you can have the shutters open or closed, according to if you want to let light in or not. That is exactly how an LCD projector functions. Each pixel works like a single shutter on a set of blinds to either send light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is constructed of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as experts like to call them. Each pixel element operates to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from the point at which the projector turns on to when the content reaches your screen is absolutely important to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors project white light from the lamp by separating it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which send the coloured light to 3 separate LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels form the elements of the image by switching each pixel on and off. The pixels are then projected in a glass prism to send the projector image. Something important to remember about LCD projectors is that all three colours are directed onto your wall all at once. The way a DLP projector runs is very different and even the produced image comes out is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is processed through a rotating colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This approach to creating an image casts a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors as described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to form the image elements. The elements of the image are cast in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s eye will then combine each coloured element of the image into the whole image. With LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to offer high brightness and great colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at any given time, resulting in lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some designers have added a white segment in the colour wheel to improve overall brightness, but this further lessens colour accuracy.

I find in forums all the time that DLP provides a higher contrast ratio and therefore must be better quality. For those uncertain, the contrast ratio is a measure of a display system defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest white to that of the darkest black that the projector is capable of. DLP projectors do have high contrast specifications in comparison to the majority of LCD projectors. At one glance, this must be a plus, however, in reality, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room while the projector is being used. Do not be tricked by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you are trying to bring to life includes moving images, DLP projection technology can also create image imperfections, or ‘artifacts’. The most often seen artifact that a DLP projector displays with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is unavoidable in DLP systems because moving images change between the time red, blue and green colours are displayed. LCD projectors do not have this characteristic because all the colours are processed at once. DLP manufacturers have come up with 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to solve the colour break up error, but the expense of these projectors make them not practical for many businesses and consumers.

Another difference between LCD and DLP is how they make up for the refractive qualities of light. Remember back to high school science, and recall how the various colours of light refract differing amounts when projected through the same lens. The problem with DLP projectors is that they have the one same panel for the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are not the same and refract light in different ways. Generally with a DLP projector, some extra yellow colour will appear above and an extra blue will be projected below an image containing something as simple as a straight black line. In building LCD projectors can be set to remove these effects on the projected image, as each colour is refracted on its own LCD panels.

The sole real buy point (excluding price) with taking a DLP projector is its overall smaller size and weight. However, this is only relevant with regard to portability and needs to be traded off against the image benefits of LCD projectors. If the result of the picture quality is important to you, then the solution is simple. Choose an LCD projector! LCD projectors will always create bright, colourful images with fewer image errors. If you wish to know more about LCD technology in more detail, have a gander at this spectacular resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any persisting questions, get onto Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager of Projector Central, Australia’s leading online retailer for projectors. Based in Brisbane, Projector Central has served Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in Brisbane and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

2010 July 16

As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht was a pleasure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English royalty 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, ruled 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 bet. Yachting was found to be fashionable among the affluent and aristocracy, but after that time the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club went on, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other clubs, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some ordered manner 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 was called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing argument, 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 sponsorship made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the perpetual setting of British yacht racing. The association 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 tests for high bets were held, and the society life was lovely. Ultimately 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 continued when the English held control. Sailing was mostly for pleasure 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 sophistication for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht club, 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 first sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The design of sizeable yachts was initially greatly affected by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a group headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with merely a model being used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what it had already done for hulls.

Because nearly all sailboats had been individually custom-built, there came a desire for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule came into being, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and revised in 1919. Today, one of the rapidly growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be held on an even basis with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting belonged largely for the nobility and the wealthy, money was no issue, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller boats came in the second 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 hardiness of small yachts. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to emulate sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in leisure boats. Large power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance travel was a fond activity of the rich. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries carrying 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 solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of more sizeable steam yachts. Conspicuous among 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 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 was used in active service during World War II.

As more sizeable and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many large boats started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. In the decade after that, bigger power-yacht building grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that time the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of larger power yachts declined from 1932, and the fashion thereafter was toward smaller, less costly yachts. After World War II, a lot of small naval craft were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting has become a internationally loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally sailing and maintaining their own small recreational boats. The popularity of boats and owners has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

2010 July 8

Taxes are categorized by the effect they have on the distribution of income and wealth. A proportional tax is the kind of tax that imposes the same relative liability on all the taxpayers—i.e., when tax liability and income grow in the same levels. A progressive tax is recognisable by a higher than proportional rise in the tax burden in regard to the increase in income, and a regressive tax is recognised by a less than proportional rise in the comparable onus. Ergo, progressive taxes are regarded as fighting inequity in income distribution, while regressive taxes are believed to increase these inequalities.

The taxes that are usually considered progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are categorically progressive, however, might become less so in the upper-income group—particularly if a taxpayer is allowed to reduce his tax base by claiming deductions or by excluding particular income parts from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates that are applied to lower-income classes can also be more progressive if such personal exemptions are declared.

Income measured over the course of a given year might not definitely offer the most suitable measure of taxpaying ability. For example, transitory increases in income could be saved, and within temporary declines in income a taxpayer could select to finance consumption by decreasing savings. Thus, if taxation is compared along with “permanent income,” it should be less regressive (or more progressive) than when made comparable with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (excepting luxuries) are usually regressive, because the share of own income consumed or spent for a specific good lowers as the level of personal income grows. Poll taxes (aka head taxes), levied as a set amount per capita, patently are regressive.

It is not simple to dictate corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, principally because of a lack of certainty regarding the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of nominating who bears the tax burden is dependant fundamentally on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being debated.

In analysing the economic purposes of taxation, it is necessary to distinguish between various ideas of tax rates. The statutory rates will be nominated in law; commonly these are marginal rates, but for some cases they are mean rates. Marginal income tax rates note the fraction of incremental income taken by taxation when income rises by one dollar. Therefore, if tax liability increases by 45 cents when income grows by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax legislation often contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that rise as income rises. Careful analysis of marginal tax rates must take into account provisions apart from the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) declines by 20 cents for each one-dollar increase in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points greater than nominated in the statutory rates. Since marginal rates specify how after-tax income increases or decreases in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the relevant ones for considering incentive effects of taxation. It is even more difficult to know the marginal effective tax rate applicable to income from business and capital, as it may depend on such considerations as the structure of depreciation allowances, the deductibility of interest, and the provisions for inflation adjustment. A basic economic theorem holds that the marginal effective tax rate in income from capital is nil under a consumption-based tax.

Average income tax rates determine the part of total income that is taken in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is relevant for considering the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate rises with income. Average income tax rates generally grow with income, both because personal allowances are permitted for the taxpayer and dependents and also due to that marginal tax rates are graduated; on the other hand, preferential treatment of income received fundamentally by high-income households could dampen these effects, forcing regressivity, as displayed by average tax rates that decrease as income increases.

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