As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht had been a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English monarchy 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 named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, ruled 1685–88), built more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 bet. Yachting rose as fashionable among the wealthy and royalty, but after that point the fashion did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and held large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other societies, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some ordered 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 came to sovereignty in 1820, it came to be called 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 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 location of British yachting. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. Every member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great bids were held, and the society life was lovely. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English had dominance. Sailing was for the most part for fun and reached its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in that area 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 followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the second half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was originally heavily impacted by the win of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a association started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its success at Cowes in 1851. Earlier 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 called 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 already done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had been individually built, there arose a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule was created, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In the present day, one of the fastest blossoming areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to standard specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be had on an even keel with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done largely for the aristocracy and the wealthy, money was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller boats occurred 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the value of less sizeable craft. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part 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, craft of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to replace sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed more and more in personal craft. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance travel turned into a fond pastime of the rich. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to those powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of more than 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 gave active service during World War II.
As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were produced, many large boats started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. In the decade following that, big power-yacht creation flourished, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that point the best auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of large power yachts lessened after 1932, and the trend thereafter was toward smaller, less pricey craft. Following World War II, lots of small naval craft were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally popular activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally owning and upkeeping their own small pleasure craft. The popularity of craft and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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