As the Dutch found dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a leisure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, arising as private challenges. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with 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, reigned 1685–88), made other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 bet. Yachting was found to be popular for the wealthy and aristocracy, 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 association, with large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other societies, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some organized manner on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to sovereignty in 1820, it came to be named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht organisation 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 perpetual site of British racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the rise of George IV. Every member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for high bets were held, and the society life was lovely. Ultimately 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 persisted when the English took control. Sailing was mostly for fun and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht group, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the latter half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was initially largely put upon by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its success at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the employment 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 custom-built, there came a need for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule was written, which ended up in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the most rapidly flourishing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be done on an even playing field with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting belonged mostly for the nobility and the rich, expense was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller yachts happened in the second 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 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 value of less sizeable yachts. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a popular 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
Post the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to emulate sail power in market craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in pleasure craft. Large power yachts were furthered to a high degree, and long-distance sailing became a favoured activity of the well off. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then made way to boats powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for several years. By the latter 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 boom in the manufacture of large steam yachts. Conspicuous of 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 over 150. The Mayflower, bought by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and saw active service in World War II.
As bigger and better quality internal-combustion engines were developed, many big yachts began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered in World War I. In the decade after, large power-yacht creation blossomed, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the best auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of big power yachts declined in 1932, and the style from then was in preference of smaller, less expensive craft. After World War II, many small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and upkeeping their own small recreational craft. The number of yachts and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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