As the Dutch found dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht was a leisure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, coming out of private challenges. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English throne 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 called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), ordered for more 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 rose as classy with 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 in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had much naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by joining with other organisations, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some organized method on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to monarchy in 1820, it came to be called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing dispute, 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 setting of British racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high stakes were held, and the club life was superlative. Eventually 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 took control. Sailing was largely for pleasure and rose to its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht club, 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 Early sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the latter half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was originally greatly put upon by the win of America, which was created by George Steers for a association started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its victory 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 second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the science of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what science had done earlier for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had been individually custom-built, there arose a need for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule was decreed, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the fastest growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to the same specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be had on an even keel with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done primarily for the nobility and the wealthy, expense was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller boats happened in the later half of the 19th century out of 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 value of small yachts. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and leisure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a popular training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, when steam started to take the place of sail power in public vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were used increasingly in pleasure vessels. Bigger power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance travel became a fond occupation of the rich. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to boats powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for several years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of large steam yachts. Notably among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of at least 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 during World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many large yachts were using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, advanced for World War I. From the decade following that, big power-yacht building grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that time the best auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of big power yachts lessened after 1932, and the trend thereafter was for smaller, less costly boats. 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 globally beloved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and upkeeping their own small leisure craft. The number of yachts and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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