Tents and Marquees

2010 September 2
by squadron

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are for when you want to make a daring 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 fantastic
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 varying 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 fun 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 amazing, 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 rudimentry
and your budget may be low. Look for cheap tents that offers a waterproof Polyester roof and a solid 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 be a little more expensive.

In the last 5 years, portable Tents have become important to businesses for their marketing. The essential 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 extravaganza.

Remember, if it is for commercial purposes, the aim is to build awareness 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 designing 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 wonderful array of astounding landscapes. Like enormous mountain ranges, sweeping coastlines, abundant rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These panoramic wonders have all made New Zealand an inspired destination for all kinds of holidays.

Awesome 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 stimulating 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 cutting-edge 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 beautiful Victoria Square, across the mesmerizing Avon River or towards the epochal Anglican Cathedral. Situated on New Zealand’s South Island, this cosmopolitan city is always abuzz with great festivals, shopping spots, theaters and art galleries. Hotels overlooking Victoria Square provide visitors with an insight in to the city’s English history.

Individuals staying 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 stunningcountryside surrounding the city.

Auckland
Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, is located 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 endless beaches or tasting the exotic wines at local vineyards. Hotels come in stylish and comfortable studios, and spacious 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 brilliant, 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 let an inexperienced 24 hour carpet cleaner try to repair your carpets damaged by water. These are the worries you have to be watchful of:

Overcharging. An unprofessional water restoration technician may fill the job up with superfluous extras. E.g. using dehumidification for drying the flooded carpets isn’t always necessary.

Having the correct equipment. They sometimes use equipment from hire businesses for drying the carpet. This is acceptable, but an established water damage restorer will have all their equipment to provide a speedy response and hopefully a better value job.

Proper moisture metre. If they don’t have the correct moisture meter, they will not be able to know if the carpet is repaired. This increases the problem of mould in future. Mould removal may be required in the future.

Specialisation. There are a lot of “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do repair jobs on the “side.” i.e. they do not complete this kind of repair each day. Be wary of it. Drying a carpet is an art. Taking carpet off the gripper strips then reinstalling them should be completed by a professional, otherwise it can be damaged incontrovertibly.

You might be wondering, how do I locate a proper Flood Restoration techinician? Below I have selected some signifiers to check for when you call around for a carpet flood damage business:

How big is their Yellow Pages ad slot: This can indicate how much work they are getting already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad can cost upwards of $50 000. When they have paid for a big ad, you can have some indication that they are established.

Where do they show up in Google? The higher they rate in Google, the more webpage views there has been for the business.

What Qualifications do they have? The minimum qualification needed is a IICRC qualification of Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies source them for their carpet water damage jobs? This is a better indicator. If insurance companies source them, the business is bound to be efficient at their job. Insurance companies often use the companies that grant them the top value for the money.

What Equipment do they have? They should at least own 100 Air movers. If they have this many, this is a good indicator that they have been in the game for some time. We took 8 years to acquire that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What level of commitment can you get from them over the phone? Try to pin them down to a fee for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they won’t give you a price for this in the least, you know they are not willing to assist you, so go with someone else.

Response Time – Our Water Damage Brisbane business operates to a 59 minute response time to a water damage emergency. The repair needs to be attended to ASAP. Mould can develop within a 24 hour period.

If you follow these tips you are sure to locate a Flood Damage Restoration company who can get the job done right.

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.

Podiatry as a Career in Australia

2010 August 13

As a practicing podiatrist in Brisbane, Australia, I am regularly asked by clients if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to enter. There are many things to recommend a career in podiatry including:

  • You can be self employed: This is a choice that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even GPs . Big Business controls a lot of health practices. Consider how often you see an independent optometrist these days – can they compete on price with the multinational chains?
  • Legal Issues: In Australia (unlike the USA where things are very different), podiatrists very, very rarely face litigation . The nature of podiatry practice does not lend itself to accidentally harming one’s patients. Also, you never have to give your patients the bad news that their condition will be terminal.
  • Working Hours: Emergency call outs are very unlikely. This is great news for those among us who like their sleep uninterrupted.
  • Financial Reward: Whilst it is true that podiatry doesn’t pay as well as being a dentist or doctor , the pay is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most fulfilling things about working as podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will see a plethora of bite-sized jobs each day, many with a cure you can provide immediately. From someone that has worked with unanimously grumpy customers in a past career, believe me when I tell you, it makes the day much less stressful when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will provide you a lot of opportunity to help relieve the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatry provides a clinician the power to determine their own course of action for the benefit of their patients. This is unlike a career in nursing for instance where one acts under the instruction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can claim to be a podiatrist are those with a podiatry qualification. The clear roles that this demarcates relieves the need to find your ‘niche’ after university – as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Like to travel? There are many places in the world that do not train their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to work your way around the world, Australian podiatrists can be registered in any Commonwealth country and are particularly in demand in Singapore, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other far flung fields.
  • Variety: In any given day, a podiatrist will see a great range of complaints. There might be an ingrown toenail or two, a debilitating corn, a sporting injury, some sacroiliac pain and at least a couple of painful arches . The primary skill required in being a good podiatrist is to be an effective problem solver. Every patient is an individual with a unique complaint requiring a well considered solution.

How do you become a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist requires six Australian Universities:

  • Curtin University
  • La Trobe University
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of South Australia
  • University of Western Sydney.

Last year, the entry score for the QUT was OP 8.

Stephanie Cosgrove graduated as a podiatrist from QUT in 1990 and with a Master’s degree in Applied Science (Podiatry) in 1996. Since 1991, she has worked in private practice as a Podiatrist Brisbane. She received three university prizes during her studies, including the award for excellence in design and manufacture of orthotics. Brisbane has been the site of her private practice since 1991 which has grown to four locations and eleven staff. If you want to Walk Without Pain consider a visit to Brisbane’s most innovative podiatry practice today. Call for an appointment now on 1300 A1 Feet.

Eight Steps to Great Web Design

2010 August 7
by squadron

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

1. Knowing your business and how you are currently established in your market.
In order to establish a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full comprehension 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 loaded with example sites and more importantly the elements of the site you like so they can achieve an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will build a good profile and realise not only what type of site to build 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 confer them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by getting 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 acquire the general layout of this concept and then create the inner page template. It is this template that will be duplicated for most of your pages for your site.
Submit your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t become too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be kept when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is inferred that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are very important later on in not only establishing with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; formulate a decent amount of content but provide it in a way that a reader may achieve a summary of what you are trying to present 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 operate on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. it is essential that you know that you can utilize and understand 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 operate 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program works 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 available to download on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to put your site live make sure you have finished the above testing step until you are content 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 imperative step to creating a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face expresses the tone of your business, gestures the service and screams the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the formation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they require 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 recreated. This is redundant and may cause obstacles 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 difficulties.

Tip 1
First things first – you need to decide if you would like your logo to have an accompanying icon. It is advised that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will help 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 good example of this is the well-known and executed Nike logo.

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

Tip 3
Assure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and confirm that it includes all the files required for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Make certain 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 accomplish. For example it is difficult 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
Confirm that you get 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 Bydaughters today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

2010 July 31
by squadron

How many times have you mailed business cards to print and collected yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been excited to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then observed that the crucial tag line is not present or your logo has been wrecked.

There is only one way to stop this from happening and that is to set up a style guide. Not only will a style guide aid you direct the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you reinforce 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 put to work in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?

Step 2 : Mark 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 needcopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

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

Step 4 : Insure you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding lies on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reproduced.

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

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

Step 7 : Confirm 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 approved as correct.

Get your Style Guide completed and as established 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 common question that is asked when acquiring a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: would I get an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, standing for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, standing for ‘digital light processing’ are the two top projector imaging technologies. With so many company brands and different models available, it can be confusing for consumers to choose between these technologies. Ultimately LCD projectors give superior image quality and colour accuracy. The following article tells you why DLP projectors struggle with projecting the same grade of image quality.

Imagine a set of blinds in your home on 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. This is exactly how an LCD projector operates. Each pixel works like an individual 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 works to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from when the projector switches on to when the content reaches your screen is vitally important with regard to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors direct white light from the lamp by cutting it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which send the coloured light to 3 individual LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels form the elements of the image by processing each pixel on and off. The pixels are then combined in a glass prism to form the projector image. Something to remember about LCD projectors is that all three colours are sent onto your screen all at once. The way a DLP projector operates is vastly different and even the produced image comes out is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is processed through a turning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This approach to making an image forms a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to construct the image elements. The elements of the image are displayed in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s vision will then put together each coloured element of the image into the single total image. Using LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to create high brightness and great colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at once, and so resulting in lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some DLP manufacturers have added a white segment in the colour wheel to improve general brightness, but this further damages colour accuracy.

I hear in forums all the time that DLP offers a higher contrast ratio and thus must be superior 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 able to produce. DLP projectors do possess high contrast specifications when compared to a majority of LCD projectors. At one glance, this can seem to be a plus, however, in real life, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room where the projector is utilised. Do not be duped by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you wish to project requires moving images, DLP projection technology can also create image marks, or ‘artifacts’. The most typical artifact that a DLP projector forms with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is inherent in DLP systems because moving images change position between the time red, blue and green colours are pulled up. LCD projectors do not have this characteristic because all colours are delivered at once. DLP designers have developed 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to resolve the colour break up artifacts, but the price of these projectors make them hardly practical for many businesses and consumers.

Another variance between LCD and DLP is how they balance for the refractive qualities of light. Take yourself back to high school science, and recall when they taught you how the various colours of light refract varied amounts when projected through the same lens. The problem with DLP projectors is that they use the one same panel with the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously not the same and refract light in different ways. Generally with a DLP projector, an extra yellow colour will come up above and a superfluous blue will appear below an image containing something as simple as a single black line. During manufacturing LCD projectors can be fixed to reduce these effects on the projected image, because each colour is refracted on isolated LCD panels.

The sole true advantage (excluding price) with taking a DLP projector is its overall smaller size and weight. However, this is only relevant for mobility and cannot be traded off against the image benefits of LCD projectors. If the result of the picture quality is vital to you, then the solution is no-brainer. Choose an LCD projector! LCD projectors will definitely produce bright, colourful images with fewer image blips. If you desire to ask more about LCD technology in more detail, have a look at this fabulous resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any more questions, go to Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager with Projector Central, Australia’s leading online provider for projectors. Brisbane-based, Projector Central has serviced Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in the Gold Coast and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

2010 July 16

As the Dutch found dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht was a pleasure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private games. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return 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 called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), built additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 punt. Yachting became popular with the wealthy and royalty, but after that time the habit did not last.

The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and held large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club endured, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when merging with other organisations, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some ordered fashion on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to the throne in 1820, it came to be named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht society 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 location of British yacht racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great bets were held, and the society life was wonderful. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to bigger than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English took dominance. Sailing was largely for fun and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht group, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed 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 took the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the second half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was originally largely affected by the victory of America, which was drawn 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 win at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and crafted in a contemporary sense, with just a model being used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the use of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.

Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually built, there was a desire for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Hence, a rating rule was written, which ended up in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and amended in 1919. Today, one of the rapidly flourishing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to standard dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be done on an even basis with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting belonged largely for the nobility and the affluent, cost was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller yachts happened in the second half of the 19th century in the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A journey 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 less sizeable boats. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Post 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 pleasure craft. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance cruising became a fond pastime of the well off. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht standard for several years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned 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 saw active service for World War II.

As larger and better quality internal-combustion engines were developed, many large yachts began using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered for World War I. From the decade after, big power-yacht creation blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that point the largest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The building of larger power boats lessened in 1932, and the fashion from then was for smaller, less costly craft. Following World War II, many small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting has become a globally popular activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually sailing and upkeeping their own small pleasure yachts. The popularity of craft and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations by the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

2010 July 8

Taxes can be distinguished by the impact they have on the distribution of income and wealth. A proportional tax is a tax that imposes the same relative burden on each taxpayer—i.e., when tax liability and income increase in relative levels. A progressive tax is recognisable by a more than proportional increase in the tax liability relative to the growth in income, and a regressive tax is characterizable by a less than proportional increase in the comparable liability. Ergo, progressive taxes are viewed as removing the lack of equality in income distribution, but regressive taxes are seen to result in increasing these inequalities.

The taxes that are normally considered progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are nominally progressive, however, could become less so for the upper-income demographic—especially if a taxpayer is able to lessen his tax base by claiming deductions or by leaving out particular income elements from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates which are applied to lower-income groups would also be more progressive if such personal exemptions are made.

Income measured over the period of a given year might not necessarily offer the most appropriate measure of taxpaying ability. For example, transitory rises in income can be saved, and within temporary declines in income a taxpayer may choose to provide for consumption by reducing savings. So, if taxation is regarded along with “permanent income,” it will be less regressive (or more progressive) than when compared with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (save those on luxuries) are generally regressive, because the portion of own income consumed or spent for a specific good lessens as the rate of personal income increases. Poll taxes (also called head taxes), calculated as a standard amount per capita, obviously are regressive.

It is not easy to classify corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, principally because of uncertainty regarding the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of determining who bears the tax burden rests crucially on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being determined.

In regarding the economic purposes of taxation, it is necessary to distinguish between several concepts of tax rates. The statutory rates are those dictated in law; commonly these are marginal rates, but occasionally they are median rates. Marginal income tax rates indicate the fraction of incremental income that is demanded by taxation when income is increased by one dollar. Therefore, if tax liability rises by 45 cents when income increases by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax legislation commonly contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that increase as income grows. Heavy analysis of marginal tax rates should take into account provisions as well as the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) falls by 20 cents for each one-dollar growth in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points greater than specified in the statutory rates. Since marginal rates indicate how after-tax income is changed in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the relevant ones for regarding incentive effects of taxation. It is even more complicated to know the marginal effective tax rate to apply to income from business and capital, since it may rely on factors such 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 nothing 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 appraising the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate rises with income. Average income tax rates usually increase with income, both because personal allowances are allowed for the taxpayer and dependents and also because marginal tax rates are graduated; on the flip side, preferential treatment of income received for the most part by high-income households can dwarf these effects, allowing regressivity, as indicated by average tax rates that lessen as income increases.

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