As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early 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, coming out of private games. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam gave 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), made additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 wager. Yachting was found to be popular with the wealthy and royalty, but after that period the fashion 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 association, and held much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when joining with other groups, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some organized fashion on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to sovereignty in 1820, it came to be known as 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 club had been formed 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 continuing setting of British yacht racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large bets were held, and the club life was wonderful. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English had power. Sailing was mostly for pleasure and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and set a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard 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 the later half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was first greatly impacted by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a association started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its win at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats were individually custom-built, there was a requirement for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule came into being, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and revised in 1919. In the present day, one of the fastest flourishing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing such boats can be done on an even basis with no handicapping required. A great example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was an activity largely for the nobility and the rich, money was no object, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller yachts occurred 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) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the hardiness of smaller craft. Thereafter in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure boats became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were sailed 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 public craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in personal vessels. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance travel became a favoured pastime of the rich. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to yachts powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of large steam yachts. Conspicuous within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, purchased by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and was used in active service during World War II.
As larger and better quality internal-combustion engines were created, many big craft began using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. In the decade following that, big power-yacht creation grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of big power craft lessened after 1932, and the fashion after that was in preference of smaller, less expensive boats. After World War II, many small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually owning and maintaining their own small leisure yachts. The popularity of boats and yachtsmen increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas on the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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