Tents and Marquees

2010 September 2
by squadron

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are for when you want to make a spectacular 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 astounding, 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 good warranty for under $600.

If you need a tent for a school or sports club you will need a range 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 cost a little more.

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 premium reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as boring as a website address or they can be a design masterpiece.

Remember, if it is for commercial purposes, the aim is to build awareness 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 brilliant array of beautiful landscapes. Like huge mountain ranges, sweeping coastlines, breathtaking rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These panoramic wonders have all made New Zealand an inspired destination for all kinds of holidays.

Amazing 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 destinations in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a outstanding online specialist travel operator and provides wonderful 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 scenic 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 cutting-edge facilities, gyms, spas and fantastic views are available at various holiday retreats across the city. Larger 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 wonderful Victoria Square, across the mesmerizing Avon River or towards the historic 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 staying 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. Spacious 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 radiantcountryside 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 flexibility of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the sweet life in the casino, surfing at endless 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 magnificent, 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 allow an unprofessional 24 hour carpet cleaner show up to repair your carpets damaged by water. These are the cautions you should be careful of:

Overcharging. An amateur water restoration restorer may pack the job up with extra steps. E.g. using dehumidification on the damaged carpets is not needed.

Having the correct equipment. They might use equipment from hire businesses to dry the carpet. This is all right, but a professional water damage professional will have all their equipment enabling a faster response and hopefully a better value job.

Proper moisture metre. If they don’t have the right moisture meter, they won’t be able to tell whether the carpet is fixed. This enhances the danger of future mould. Removal of the mould would then be required.

They are not Specialised. There are a whole lot of “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do water damage work on the “side.” i.e. they do not deal with this type of task each day. Be careful of this. Drying water damage to carpets is an art. Reinstalling carpets on the gripper strips is best to be taken on by a professional, otherwise they can be damaged beyond repair.

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

How big is their Yellow Pages ad slot: This can be an indication as to how much work they are doing already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad can cost more than $50 000. So if they have got a larger ad, you can at least have some expectation that they are professionals.

Where do they show up in Google? The higher they rate in Google, the more webpage views there has been for the business.

What Qualifications do they have? The fundamental qualification needed is a IICRC qualification of Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies use them for their carpet damage jobs? This is a very good indicator. If insurance companies use them, the business is probably going to be efficient at their job. Insurance companies will use the companies that give them the best value for money.

How much Equipment do they have? They should at least own 100 Air movers. If they own this many, this probably means that they have been running for a while. Our business took 8 years to own that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What sort of commitment can you get with them by calling? Ask if you can pin them down to a set rate for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they won’t give you a price for just this, you know they are not interested in serving you, so move on.

Response Time – Our Water Damage Brisbane-based business is committed to a 59 minute response time to water damage emergency. The business needs to be attended to ASAP. Mould can grow after a 24 hour period.

If you focus on these tips you are sure to locate a Flood Damage Restoration business who knows how to 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 regularly asked by clients 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 choice 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 malpractice suits. The nature of podiatry practice does not lend itself to accidentally harming one’s patients. Also, you never have to give your patients 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 dentist or medical practitioner, the remuneration is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most fulfilling facets of working as podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will see 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 less stressful when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will provide you a lot of opportunity to help eliminate the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatry provides a clinician the power to determine their own course of action for the benefit of their patients. This is unlike a career in nursing for instance where one acts under the direction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can hold themselves out to be a podiatrist are those with a podiatry qualification. The clear roles that this defines relieves the need to find your ‘niche’ after university – as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Got the urge to travel? There are many places around the world that do not produce their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to work around the the world, Australian podiatrists can work in any Commonwealth country and are especially in demand in Singapore, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other far flung fields.
  • Variety: In any given day, a podiatrist will see a large range of complaints. There might be an ingrown toenail or two, a painful corn, a sporting injury, some back pain and at least a couple of painful heels . The essence of being a good podiatrist is to bea good problem solver. Every patient is an individual with a unique condition requiring a well considered solution.

How do you qualify as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist means six 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 produced by a developer and know the process it will save you money and gain you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Knowing your business and how you are currently positioned in your market.
In order to establish a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full understanding of your business including your products, and/or services and more importantly their market position. You then have to examine 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 accomplish 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 analyze 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 effective development. The more interaction and information you bestow 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 replicated for most of your pages for your site.
Present your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t become 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 preferred that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are crucial later on in not only establishing with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; present a decent amount of content but provide it in a way that a reader may accomplish a summary of what you are trying to present 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 operate on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. it is essential that you know that you can utilize and understand 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 created for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not work 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program works 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 available to download on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to put your site onlive make sure you have completed the above testing step until you are happy 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 decisive step to building a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face expresses the tone of your business, gestures the service and screams 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 unnecessary and may cause difficulties when trying to recreate the logo exactly as determined 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 hinted that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will assist 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 excellent 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 hinder your output use. Consider the end result and what you will be commiting your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

Tip 3
Assure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and assure that it includes all the files required for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Make sure 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 manage. 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
Make certain 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
readable

Tip 7
Assure that you accept 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 get 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 sent 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 recognized that the crucial tag line is nowhere to be found or your logo has been squashed.

There is only one way to stop this from happening and that is to set up a style guide. Not only will a style guide assist you control the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you reinforce 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 : Mark the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to put to work 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 want 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 needcopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to specify to the business and team.

Step 4 : Make sure you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding lies on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reproduced.

Step 5 : Make certain to accommodate any contributing logos or logos of business that are linked with you. It’s also important that you deliver a copy of the layout to these companies to ensure they agree with 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 : Make certain 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 validated as correct.

Have your Style Guide finished and as established as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly advise a training session – whereby your design studio arrives and trains your staff on how to use 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 common question heard when looking for a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: will I get an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, standing for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, which stands for ‘digital light processing’ are the two commonplace projector imaging technologies. With so many brands and types available, it can be challenging for customers to choose between both technologies. The fact is that LCD projectors give far superior image quality and colour accuracy. The next paragraph tells you why DLP projectors struggle with creating a similar rate of image quality.

Imagine a set of blinds in your household for your bedroom window. By pulling on a rod you can turn the shutters open or closed, depending on whether you want to let light in or not. Such is exactly how an LCD projector behaves. Each pixel works like its own shutter on a set of blinds to either send light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is made up of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as experts like to call them. Each pixel element works to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from the time the projector switches on to when the picture reaches your screen is extremely important in regard to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors shine white light from the lamp by splitting it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which project the coloured light to 3 separate LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels cast the elements of the image by switching each pixel on and off. The pixels are then meshed in a glass prism to form the projector image. An important point to realise about LCD projectors is that all three colours are sent onto your screen at the same time. The way a DLP projector works is totally different and even the way an image shows up is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is processed through a spinning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This way of projecting an image requires a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to create the image elements. The elements of the image are sent in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s vision will then put together each coloured element of the image into the total image. With LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to create the top level of brightness and superb colour accuracy. In DLP, just one colour is available at any given time, and so resulting in lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some DLP manufacturers have included a white segment in the colour wheel to improve brightness generally, but this goes and lessens colour accuracy.

I see in forums all the time that DLP provides a higher contrast ratio and ergo 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 producing. DLP projectors do have high contrast specifications compared to a majority of LCD projectors. At first glance, this seems to be a benefit, however, in reality, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room in which the projector is being utilised. Do not be duped by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you want to see has moving images, DLP projection technology also creates image marks, or ‘artifacts’. The most commonplace artifact that a DLP projector creates with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is unavoidable in DLP systems because moving images change up between the time red, blue and green colours are shone. LCD projectors do not have this characteristic because every colour is sent simultaneously. DLP builders have developed 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to resolve the colour break up problem, but the expense of these projectors make them hardly practical for the majority of businesses and consumers.

Another point of difference between LCD and DLP is how they compensate for the refractive qualities of light. Remember back to high school science, and they taught you how the various colours of light refract different amounts when passing through the same lens. The disadvantage with DLP projectors is that they take the one same panel with the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously not the same and refract light at different levels. Most of the time with a DLP projector, some yellow colour will be projected above and an extra blue will come up below an image as simple as a straight black line. During manufacturing LCD projectors can be set to reduce these effects on the projected image, because each colour is refracted on isolated LCD panels.

The isolated real buy point (excluding price) with picking a DLP projector is its smaller total size and weight. However, this is only relevant with regard to mobility and needs to be traded off against the image plusses of LCD projectors. If the outcome of the picture quality is vital to you, then the decision is easy. Choose an LCD projector! LCD projectors will constantly make bright, colourful images with fewer image blips. If you want to ask more about LCD technology in more detail, have a look at this fabulous resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any persisting questions, visit Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager of Projector Central, Australia’s leading online shop for projectors. Based in Brisbane, Projector Central has been servicing Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in Brisbane and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

2010 July 16

As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht had been a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation 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 then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, ruled 1685–88), made other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 punt. Yachting was found to be classy for the affluent and royalty, but after that period the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held much naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when joining with other organisations, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated method on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to the throne in 1820, it was then known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht organisation 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 continued location of British racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for great bets were held, and the social life was splendid. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to bigger than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English took power. Sailing was mostly for pleasure and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts took the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The style of bigger yachts was first heavily impacted by the victory of America, which was created by George Steers for a group led 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. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with just a model being used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what science had already done for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there was a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and amended in 1919. In modern times, one of the rapidly blossoming areas in the field of 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 those boats can be had on an even playing field with no handicapping at all. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting belonged largely for the aristocracy and the affluent, money was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and desire of smaller craft 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 trip around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the hardiness of smaller yachts. Later in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favoured 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
Following 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 employed increasingly in leisure yachts. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high degree, and long-distance travel became a fond occupation of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave way to those powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard 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 with gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. In particular 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 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 gave active service for World War II.

As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger craft started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed in World War I. In the decade that followed, large power-yacht creation blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the largest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The construction of larger power yachts fell away in 1932, and the style thereafter was in preference of smaller, less pricey craft. From World War II, many small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting is a globally loved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and maintaining their own small pleasure boats. The popularity of yachts and sailors is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional places along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

2010 July 8

Taxes are categorized by the impact they have on the allocation of income and wealth. A proportional tax is a kind that puts the same relative onus on each taxpayer—i.e., where tax liability and income increase in the same levels. A progressive tax is characterizable by a larger than proportional increase in the tax onus in regard to the growth in income, and a regressive tax is recognisable by a less than proportional increase in the related liability. Therefore, progressive taxes are viewed as fighting inequity in income distribution, whereas regressive taxes are seen to have the result of increasing these inequalities.

The taxes that are often regarded as progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are categorically progressive, however, might become less so in the upper-income group—in particular if a taxpayer is allowed to lower his tax base by declaring deductions or by leaving out particular income parts from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates if applied to lower-income classes can also be more progressive if such exemptions of a personal nature are declared.

Income measured over the course of a given period might not necessarily provide the best measure of taxpaying requirement. For example, transitory rises in income may be saved, and during temporary declines in income a taxpayer may choose to provide for consumption by decreasing savings. Ergo, if taxation is made comparable along with “permanent income,” it would be less regressive (or more progressive) than if compared with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (with the exception of those on luxuries) tend to be regressive, because the portion of personal income consumed or spent for a specific good decreases as the level of personal income grows. Poll taxes (also termed head taxes), levied as a standard amount per capita, clearly are regressive.

It is complicated to dictate corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, because of the lack of certainty around the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of deciding who bears the tax burden rests for the most part on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being debated.

In regarding the economic purposes of taxation, it is necessary to distinguish between differing points of tax rates. The statutory rates include those nominated in legislation; generally speaking these are marginal rates, but for some cases they are average rates. Marginal income tax rates indicate the fraction of incremental income demanded by taxation when income rises by one dollar. Ergo, if tax burden increases by 45 cents when income rises by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax laws often contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that rise as income rises. Careful analysis of marginal tax rates need to regard provisions as well as the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) decreases by 20 cents for each one-dollar rise in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points more than nominated within the statutory rates. Since marginal rates display how after-tax income increases or decreases in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the relevant ones for regarding incentive effects of taxation. It is even more difficult to know the marginal effective tax rate applicable to income from business and capital, since it may rely on considerations such as the structure of depreciation allowances, the deductibility of interest, and the provisions for inflation adjustment. A basic economic theorem determines that the marginal effective tax rate in income from capital is nil under a consumption-based tax.

Average income tax rates indicate the fraction of total income that is required in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is relevant for assessing the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate grows with income. Average income tax rates commonly grow with income, both because personal allowances are granted for the taxpayer and dependents and due to that marginal tax rates are graduated; conversely, preferential treatment of income received predominantly by high-income households may swamp these effects, allowing regressivity, as signified by average tax rates that decline as income grows.

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