As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a pleasure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, coming out of private matches. English yachting began 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 sent him a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), built more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as classy with the affluent and nobility, but after that point the fashion did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club went on, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some organized method on the Thames in 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 was then 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 group had been started at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal funding made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continued site of British yachting. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the accession of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large bids were held, and the club life was lovely. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English held power. Sailing was for the most part for pleasure and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and set a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated 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 the latter half of the 19th century. The design of large yachts was first heavily affected by the victory of America, which was created by George Steers for a group headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and built in today’s sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what science had already done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there arose a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly flourishing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to the same specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be had on an even keel with no handicapping at all. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting was an activity mostly for the nobility and the wealthy, money was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller craft came in the later 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) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the value of smaller yachts. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats 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 take the place of sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed more and more in leisure vessels. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance cruising was a preferred occupation of the rich. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then made way to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht fashion for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
During 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, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of more than 150. The Mayflower, commissioned 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 developed, many bigger craft started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered for World War I. In the decade that followed, bigger power-yacht building blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the largest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of large power yachts fell away from 1932, and the trend from then was for smaller, less pricey yachts. After World War II, a lot of small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting has become a internationally popular competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and upkeeping their own small pleasure craft. The popularity of yachts and sailors is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas on the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
Looking for boat transport Brisbane ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.