Tents and Marquees

2010 September 2
by squadron

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are used when you want to make a remarkable 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 stunning
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 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 tight. 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 selection 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 quality reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as dull 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 radiant array of breathtaking landscapes. Like imposing mountain ranges, majestic coastlines, dense rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These picturesque 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 cities in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a distinguished online specialist travel operator and provides astounding 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 picturesque 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 modern 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 astounding Victoria Square, across the transfixing Avon River or towards the epochal Anglican Cathedral. Situated on New Zealand’s South Island, this cosmopolitan city is always abuzz with colourful 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. Huge 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 chance of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the sweet life in the casino, surfing at lots of 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 wonderful, 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 memorable holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland love visiting the Antarctic Encounter, which showcases the only penguins present in the sub-Antarctic region. More adventures 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 unprofessional 24 hour carpet cleaner try to repair your carpets with water damage. These are the cautions you should be wary of:

Overcharging. An amateur water restoration cleaner may load the job up with superfluous inclusions. E.g. using dehumidification for drying the damaged carpets is not needed.

Having the correct equipment. They sometimes use equipment from hire businesses to dry the carpet. This is all right, but a professional water damage restorer will possess 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 cannot tell when the carpet is dry. This furthers the danger of future mould growth. Removal of this would then be required in the future.

They are not Specialised. There are a lot of “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do water damage work on the “side.” i.e. they aren’t the ones who deal with this type of job often. Be wary of that. Fixing water damage to carpets is an art. Reinstalling carpets on the gripper strips has to be done by a professional, otherwise it can be damaged beyond repair.

You might be pondering, how do I locate a professional Flood Restoration professional? Below I have set out some signifiers to look for when hunting around for a carpet flood damage business:

How big is their Yellow Pages ad slot: This can be a sign of how much repair work they get already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad slot can cost about $50 000. When they have got a large ad, you have some assurance that they will deliver the goods.

Where do they come up in Google? The higher they are in Google, the more click-ins there are for the business.

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

Do Insurance companies use them for their own water damage jobs? This is a great indicator. If insurance companies use them, the business is very likely to be efficient at their skill. Insurance companies will tend to use the businesses that provide them the better value for money.

What kind of Equipment do they have? They should own about 100 Air movers. If they have this many, this indicates they have been up and running for some time. It took our business 8 years to build up that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What kind of commitment can you get from them by calling? Try to pin them down to a price for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they wouldn’t give you a rate for just this, you know they are not interested in serving you, so go with someone else.

Response Time – Our Water Damage business based in Brisbane is committed to a 59 minute response time for a water damage emergency. The job needs to be responded to ASAP. Mould can come within a 24 hour period.

If you focus on these tips you are sure to choose a Flood Damage Restoration technician who can do the job 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 frequently asked by patients if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to consider . There are many things to recommend a career in podiatry including:

  • You can be self employed: This is a prospect that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even General Practitioners . 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 customers 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 doctor or dentist , the remuneration is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most rewarding things about being a podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will consult on 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 more pleasant when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will provide you a lot of opportunity to help resolve the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatry provides a practitioner the power to determine their own course of action for the benefit of their patients. This is unlike a career in nursing for example where one acts under the instruction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can hold themselves out to be a podiatrist are those with a podiatry degree . The clear roles that this demarcates relieves the requirement to find your ‘niche’ after university – as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Do you like to travel? There are many places in the world that do not qualify their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to see the world, Australian podiatrists can work 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 may be an ingrown toenail or two, a debilitating corn, a sports 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. Each patient is an individual with a unique complaint requiring a well considered solution.

How do you become a qualified as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist which can be studied at available fromsix 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 charge of getting your site created by a developer and know 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 author 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 construct for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for fast development. The more interaction and information you accord them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by achieving 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 created, 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; provide a decent amount of content but formulate it in a way that a reader may attain a summary of what you are trying to get 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. You need to know that you can utilize 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 operate 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 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 crucial step to creating a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face represents the tone of your business, indicates 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 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 difficulties when trying to replecate the logo exactly as done 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 desired that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will help in portraying 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 Fedex logo.

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

Tip 3
Insure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and make sure 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 arrange. For example it is hard to 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
Assure 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
legible.

Tip 7
Confirm that you acquire 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 collect 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 mailed business cards to print and collected yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been frantic to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then spotted 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 use a style guide. Not only will a style guide aid you steer the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you sustain 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 : Define 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 : 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 wantcopy 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 : Confirm 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 : Ensure to insert any contributing logos or logos of business that are affiliated with you. It’s also important that you issue a copy of the layout to these companies to guarantee they approve the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.

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

Step 7 : Assure 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.

Get your Style Guide finished and as secure as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly advocate a training session – whereby your design studio comes in and trains your staff on how to utilize 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 that is asked when looking for a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: should I purchase an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, short for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, which stands for ‘digital light processing’ are the two top projector imaging technologies. With so many business brands and types available, it can be confusing for clients to pick between these technologies. The fact is that LCD projectors give superior image quality and colour accuracy. The article below will explain why DLP projectors struggle with projecting an equal rate of image quality.

Imagine a set of blinds in your household on your bedroom window. With the twist of a rod you can have the shutters open or closed, depending on if you want to let light in or not. And such is exactly how an LCD projector works. Each pixel functions like an individual shutter on a set of blinds to either shine light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is constructed of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as the 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 switches on to when the content reaches your screen is ultimately significant to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors project white light from the lamp by splitting it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which send the coloured light to 3 stand alone LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels cast the elements of the image by shining each pixel on and off. The pixels are then combined in a glass prism to send the projector image. Something to remember about LCD projectors is that all three colours are delivered onto your wall at the same time. The way a DLP projector operates is widely different and even the produced image appears is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is directed through a spinning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This method of making an image forms a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors mentioned above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to construct the image elements. The elements of the image are projected in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s vision will then pull together each coloured element of the image into the whole image. From LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to form the highest brightness and great colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at a time, and so causing lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some DLP manufacturers have included a white segment into the colour wheel to improve brightness generally, but this goes and detracts from colour accuracy.

I hear in forums all the time that DLP offers a higher contrast ratio and as such must be superior. For those who don’t know, 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 offer high contrast specifications as compared to many LCD projectors. At a glance, this seems to be a benefit, 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 hoodwinked by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you wish to view has moving images, DLP projection technology can also have image errors, or ‘artifacts’. The most typical artifact that a DLP projector displays with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is incontrovertible in DLP systems because moving images change between the time red, blue and green colours are displayed. LCD projectors do not have this disadvantage because all the colours are processed simultaneously. 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 impractical for most businesses and consumers.

Another difference between LCD and DLP is how they match the balance for the refractive qualities of light. Jump back to high school science, and remember when they taught you how different colours of light refract various amounts when shone through the same lens. The downside with DLP projectors is that they use the one same panel for the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are not the same and refract light at different levels. Often with a DLP projector, a spill of yellow colour will come up above and some extra blue will show below an image of something as simple as a lone black line. In building LCD projectors can be adapted to remove these effects on the projected image, as each colour is directed on isolated LCD panels.

The only real buy point (excluding price) with going with a DLP projector is its smaller overall size and weight. However, this is only relevant with regard to transporting the device and has to be traded off against the image advantages of LCD projectors. If resulting picture quality is important to you, then the choice is simple. Take an LCD projector! LCD projectors will constantly create bright, colourful images with fewer image imperfections. If you need to find out more about LCD technology in more detail, check out this fantastic resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any persisting questions, go to Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager of Projector Central, Australia’s number one online store 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 rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam 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, ruled 1685–88), ordered for additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 bet. Yachting was found to be fashionable with the wealthy and royalty, but after that period the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and held large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other clubs, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some stipulated manner 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 called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht group had been initiated 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 racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the rise of George IV. Each member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for high bids were held, and the club life was wonderful. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to bigger than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had control. Sailing was largely for leisure and rose to its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and established a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the later half of the 19th century. The design of large yachts was initially greatly put upon by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in the modern sense, with just 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 use of the research of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had previously done for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there was a desire for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. In the present day, one of the rapidly blossoming areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to single specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between these boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

For the time that yachting belonged largely for the nobility and the affluent, expense was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller yachts happened in the later half of the 19th century from the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A trip around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the seaworthiness of small craft. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, at which point steam was set to emulate sail power in public craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in personal boats. Bigger power yachts were progressed to a high degree, and long-distance cruising became a fond occupation of the rich. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of large steam yachts. Notably within 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 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 saw active service in World War II.

As more sizeable and more dependable internal-combustion engines were developed, many big yachts started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, advanced for World War I. During the decade after that, bigger power-yacht creation blossomed, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the largest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of big power yachts declined after 1932, and the style from then was in preference of smaller, less pricey craft. After World War II, many small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally popular activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and upkeeping their own small pleasure craft. The amount of yachts and owners increased steadily, not only in the traditional places by the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

2010 July 8

Taxes can be differentiated by the impact they have on the allocation of income and wealth. A proportional tax is the kind that puts the same relative liability on every taxpayer—i.e., when tax liability and income increase in the same scale. A progressive tax is characterizable by a larger than proportional increase in the tax burden relative to the growth in income, and a regressive tax is characterized by a less than proportional rise in the comparative burden. Therefore, progressive taxes are regarded as reducing inequalities in income distribution, but regressive taxes can result in increasing these inequalities.

The taxes that are often thought to be progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are initially progressive, however, might become less so for the upper-income group—in particular if a taxpayer is allowed to lessen his tax base by nominating deductions or by removing some particular income elements from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates if applied to lower-income categories will also be more progressive if exemptions of a personal nature are claimed.

Income measured over a given period does not definitely provide the most accurate measure of taxpaying requirements. For example, transitory rises in income may be saved, and in temporary declines in income a taxpayer could decide to pay for consumption by taking from savings. Therefore, if taxation is made comparable with “permanent income,” it will be less regressive (or more progressive) than when held in comparison with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (except luxuries) tend to be regressive, because the share of one’s income consumed or spent on specific goods declines as the rate of personal income is raised. Poll taxes (also called head taxes), nominated as a flat amount per capita, patently are regressive.

It is hard to term corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, because of the lack of certainty about the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of nominating who bears the tax burden rests crucially on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being decided.

In regarding the economic purposes of taxation, it is relevant to distinguish between varied concepts of tax rates. The statutory rates will include those specified in law; generally these are marginal rates, but for some cases they are mean rates. Marginal income tax rates signify the fraction of incremental income that is taken by taxation when income grows by one dollar. Thus, if tax onus rises by 45 cents when income increases by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax legislature often contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that rise as income increases. Structured analysis of marginal tax rates are required to 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 rise in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points higher 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 assessing incentive effects of taxation. It is even more difficult to nominate the marginal effective tax rate to apply to income from business and capital, since it may depend on factors including the structure of depreciation allowances, the deductibility of interest, and the provisions for inflation adjustment. A basic economic theorem shows that the marginal effective tax rate in income from capital is zero under a consumption-based tax.

Average income tax rates display the portion of total income that is taken in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is in consideration for judging the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate increases with income. Average income tax rates generally increase with income, both because personal allowances are permitted for the taxpayer and dependents and because marginal tax rates are graduated; conversely, preferential treatment of income received fundamentally by high-income households might dwarf these effects, allowing regressivity, as displayed by average tax rates that decline as income rises.

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